In addition to her traditional roles as wife,
mother, healer, and protector of the dead, Isis
was worshipped as the goddess of good for-
tune, the sea, and travel. Sailors revered her:
A festival held every spring became associ-
ated with Isis and was later known across the
Roman world as Navigium Isidis. Many cit-
ies that depended on maritime trade, such as
Pompeii, looked to Isis to defend them from
the caprices of Neptune. One of the best pre-
served temples of Isis can be found in Pom-
peii. Built in the first century a.d., its frescoes
depict Isis as Roman worshippers would have
imagined her: in a Hellenized form, rather
than Egyptian.Mysteries of Worship
By the first century b.c., Isis worship had be-
come established as a “mystery religion.”
Rooted in Greek culture, mystery faiths cen-
tered on a figure of a god or goddess—such
as Demeter or Dionysus—and involved con-fidential rituals and rites. Participation in
these sects was highly secretive, and few de-
tails of their ceremonies survive. In the writ-
ings of Plutarch, a few details can be found.
Initiates donned colorful robes and shaved
off their hair. During their initiations and
other rituals, they carried the sistrum, a large
rattle associated with the goddess. Historians
remain unsure of certain details, such as how
the religion was organized and if there was
any hierarchy at all.
Roman rulers were not as fond of Isis as Al-
exander the Great’s generals had been centu-
ries before. Rome tried to suppress the popu-
lar cult several times. In the first century b.c.,
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt had closely linked
herself with the goddess Isis, claiming to be
her manifestation on Earth. When she and
Mark Antony challenged the authority of Oc-
tavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus),
the cult of Isis became a symbol of foreign
corruption. After Cleopatra’s death in 30 b.c.,
Ptolemaic rule of Egypt came to an end, Ro-
man control of Egypt began, and the worship
of Isis in Rome was suppressed.
Later emperors ordered her temples to be
destroyed, but worship of Isis was reinstated
in Rome in the first century a.d. The great
double temple of Isis and Serapis near the
Campus Martius in Rome became an impor-
tant religious center. The cult of Isis grew
and reached its peak in the Roman Empire
during the second century a.d. Worship of
the goddess spread throughout the Roman
world, reaching as far north as Britain and as
far east as Asia.
The growth of a new faith, Christianity, led
to a steady decline in the popularity of Isis.
In the mid-sixth century, Emperor Justinian
closed her temple at Philae in southern Egypt
and expelled her priests, extinguishing the
official flame of Isis that had burned steadily
in Egypt for 2,000 years.
JAIME ALVAR IS PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY AT
THE CARLOS III UNI2VERSITY, MADRID, SPAIN.BRONZE CANDELABRA, LIKE THIS REPRODUCTION (LEFT), WERE
DISCOVERED IN THE TEMPLE OF ISIS, POMPEII, AND USED IN CULTIC WORSHIP.
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, NAPLES
SCALA, FLORENCEISIS, SEATED, WELCOMES IO, LOVER OF
ZEUS, TO EGYPT IN A FIRST-CENTURY A.D.
FRESCO FROM THE TEMPLE OF ISIS,
POMPEII. NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM, NAPLES
BOOKS
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and
Traditions of Ancient Egypt
Geraldine Pinch
Oxford University Press, 2004.
Mystery Cults of the Ancient World
Hugh Bowden
Princeton University Press, 2010.Learn more40 MARCH/APRIL 2020FOGLIA/SCALA, FLORENCE