Knight of Coins Sola-Busca
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[edit] Description
A young man riding a rampant horse. He man wears a shield at his left side. A large disc is below the horse.
[edit] Identification of the Subject
The Greek-Roman god Serapis is called Serapino by Fazio degli Uberti. Identifying Sarafino with Serapino / Serapis would fit well with Apollo (Knight of Batons) and Hammon (Knight of Swords). Moreover, Serapis seems to be connected to Natanabo in some versions of the Alexander Romance.
[edit] Image references
Serapis was a sun god, possibly derived from god Api. In Roman statues he is often represented in ways similar to Jove.
[edit] Textual references
[edit] Giovanni Boccaccio "Genealogie Deorum Gentilium"
Nam alii volunt eum apud Egyptios mortuum et sepultum; de quo in libro De civitate dei sic ait Augustinus: Rex argivorum Apis navibus transvectus in Egyptum, cum ibi mortuus fuisset, factus est Serapis omnium maximus Egyptiorum deus.
Other people way he (Api) died and was buried in Egypt. About this, so speaks Augustinus in his book The City of God (De Civitate Dei): Apis, king of the Argives, sailed by ship to Egypt. After he died there, he was made Serapis, the greatest of all the gods of the Egyptians.
[edit] Fazio degli Uberti "Dittamondo"
Book 5, Chapter I
Seguita il Toro: tien la testa e ’l crino
rivolto a dietro e credesi quel bove,
ch’uscia del Nil sacrato, e Serapino. 60
Piace ad alcun che sia quello in cui Giove
si trasformò, quando Europa tolse
in Libia e per lo mar la trasse altrove.
Similemente fu alcun, che volse
che Io fosse, che Giuno trasforma 65
in vacca, onde Argo la morte ne colse.
Follow the Taurus: with his head and hair
turned backward and thought to be that bull
that used to emerge from sacred Nile, and Serapino.
Some think it was the one in which Jove
transformed himself, when he abducted Europa
in Lybia and to her away on the sea.
Similarly the were some that wanted
i to be Io, that Juno transformed
in a cow, and Argus received death for this.
