A picture of a mummified Bull, from the Smithosian Museum.

Apis is from Egyptian Mythology and is considered to be a reincarnation of Ptah. He is depicted as a big black bull with white markings on his hips and a white triangle on his forehead. It is said that after lightning struck Isis, Apis was conceived. Egyptian Pharaohs respected the bull and were inspired by the Apis’s strength and fertility in life. They brought in a live bull, thought to be Apis, into a temple in Memphis where it was worshipped and treated like a king. When it finally died, it was embalmed, mummified, and given an extravagent funeral and proper burial.