82. Sufficient proof is contained in the bas-reliefs cited above (n. 20),
where apotheosized death assumes the shape of {238} Serapis. Compare
Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2098: [Greek: Eupsuchi meta tou Oseiridos]. This
material conception of immortality could be easily reconciled with the old
Italian ideas, which had persisted in a dormant state in the minds of the
people, see Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, III^6, p. 758.
83. Reitzenstein, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, 406 ff. These are
perhaps the most striking pages written on the meaning of the ceremony; it
is an [Greek: apathanatismos]. Cf. also Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische
Wundererzählungen_, p. 116.
84. Apul., _Metam._, 23.--De Jong, the latest commentator on this passage,
seems inclined to take it as a mere ecstatic vision, but the vision was
certainly caused by a dramatic scene in the course of which hell and heaven
were shown in the dark.--The Egyptians represented them even on the stage;
see Suetonius, _Calig._, 8: "Parabatur et in mortem spectaculum quo
argumenta inferorum per Aegyptios et Aethiopas explicarentur."