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The Goddess’s New Clothes. Conceptualising an ‘Eastern’ Goddess for a ‘Western’ Audience

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The Dynamics of Transculturality

Abstract

This paper deals with the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis, which spread through all the provinces of the Roman Empire and has left us with a rich compound of archaeological remains. In this contribution I want to ask how a religious idea could be transferred by means of material culture and especially by means of iconography. With the help of some illustrative examples that represent some of the major problems in the methodology, different ways of ‘translating’ foreign concepts into an intelligible visual system for the recipients shall be revealed. The transfer of this religious entity was only possible if people had a certain image of the goddess and her cult in their minds, one that they could identify with, but that was still innovative and interesting enough to stimulate sufficient fascination to adapt the cult. Therefore, its pictorial conception, consisting of cult statues, mythological scenes, and other depictions of the deities, was of vital importance. How can we evaluate changes and developments within the iconography or determine the ancient viewer’s understanding of them? How are original Egyptian iconographic and stylistic elements dealt with? Very often such elements are put into a new context, combined with Hellenistic or Roman motifs and the overall visual tradition of these dominating cultures. While the references to the Eastern origins are visually obvious, we have to question their deeper meaning and its possible changes on their way into the West.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the daily ritual for the cult statues see Alexandre Moret, Le Rituel du Culte divin journalier en Égypte (Paris: Leroux, 1902); Holger Hussy, Die Epiphanie und Erneuerung der Macht Gottes: Szenen des täglichen Kultbildrituals in den ägyptischen Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Epoche, Studien zu den Ritualszenen altägyptischer Tempel 5 (Dettelbach: Röll, 2007); Waltraud Guglielmi and Knut Buroh, “Die Eingangssprüche des Täglichen Tempelrituals nach Papyrus Berlin 3055 (I, 1–VI, 3),” in Essays on Ancient Egypt in Honour of Herman te Velde, ed. Jacobus van Dijk, Egyptological Memoirs 1 (Groningen: STYX Publ., 1997); Nadja S. Braun, Pharao und Priester–sakrale Affirmation durch Kultvollzug. Das tägliche Kultbildritual im Neuen Reich und in der Dritten Zwischenzeit, Philippika 23 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008).

  2. 2.

    See, for example, the contributions in Joannis Mylonopoulos, ed., Divine images and human imaginations in ancient Greece and Rome, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 170 (Leiden: Brill, 2010).

  3. 3.

    For the Prehistoric and Protohistoric depictions of divine powers see Erik Hornung, Der Eine und die Vielen, 6th ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005), 101–111.

  4. 4.

    It is rather difficult to give secure dates for these developments; according to Hornung, Der Eine, 107, this process probably took place in Egypt between 3000 and 2800 BC, and for other cultures it is even more problematic to find definite evidence.

  5. 5.

    However, in Egypt the ancient fetishes and zoomorphic deities were not abandoned, but existed alongside these more complex images.

  6. 6.

    On the communication of concepts and ideas through common symbols, rituals etc. see the Introduction to this volume, 5–8.

  7. 7.

    For the meaning, usage, and problems of terms like ‘transfer’ etc. see the Introduction to this volume, 14–16.

  8. 8.

    For the significance and functionality of the ‘language of images’ in the Roman world see Tonio Hölscher, The Language of Images in Roman Art, trans. Anthony Snodgrass and Anne-Marie Künzl-Snodgrass (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

  9. 9.

    The connection and comparability of language and iconography has already been used by Hölscher, Language of Images, as the book title demonstrates.

  10. 10.

    For the change of transported objects, images, and concepts, cf the Introduction to this volume, 16–18, and the contributions by Joachim Friedrich Quack, Nicoletta Fazio, and Mareike Ohlberg.

  11. 11.

    Among others, see Wilhelm Hornbostel, Sarapis: Studien zur Überlieferungsgeschichte, den Erscheinungsformen und Wandlungen der Gestalt eines Gottes, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 32 (Leiden: Brill, 1973); Philippe Borgeaud and Youri Volokhine, “La formation de la légende de Sarapis: une approche transculturelle,” Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 2 (2000): 62–72; Stefan Schmidt, “Serapis–Ein neuer Gott für die Griechen in Ägypten,” in Ägypten Griechenland Rom. Abwehr und Berührung, ed. Peter Beck, Peter C. Bol and Maraike Bückling (Frankfurt: Liebighaus, 2005), especially for the iconography; Christian A. Caroli, Ptolemaios I. Soter: Herrscher zweier Kulturen, Historia Orientis & Africae 1 (Constance: Badawi Artes Afro Arabica, 2007), 310–353; Stefan Pfeiffer, “The God Serapis, his Cult and the Beginnings of the Ruler Cult in Ptolemaic Egypt,” in Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World, ed. Paul McKechnie and Philippe Guillaume, Mnemosyne Supplements 300 (Leiden: Brill, 2008); Marianne Bergmann, “Sarapis im 3. Jh. v. Chr.,” in Alexandreia und das ptolemäische Ägypten: Kulturbegegnungen in hellenistischer Zeit, ed. Gregor Weber (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010); Bjørn Paarmann, “The Ptolemaic Sarapis-cult and its founding myths,” in Aneignung und Abgrenzung. Wechselnde Perspektiven auf die Antithese von ‘Ost’ und ‘West’ in der griechischen Antike, ed. Nicolas Zenzen, T. Hölscher and Kai Trampedach, Oikumene 10 (Heidelberg: Verlag Antike, 2013); Joachim F. Quack, “Sarapis: Ein Gott zwischen ägyptischer und griechischer Religion. Bemerkungen aus der Sicht eines Ägyptologen,” in Aneignung und Abgrenzung. Wechselnde Perspektiven auf die Antithese von ‘Ost’ und ‘West’ in der griechischen Antike, ed. Nicolas Zenzen, T. Hölscher and Kai Trampedach, Oikumene 10 (Heidelberg: Verlag Antike, 2013).

  12. 12.

    For example, Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 28. See Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, trans. and ed. John G. Griffiths (Cardiff: Univ. of Wales Press, 1970); Tacitus, Historiae IV, 83–84.

  13. 13.

    The historical reality of this reported transport is highly doubted by most authors, e.g. by Hornbostel, Sarapis, 127–130; Borgeaud and Volokhine, “Formation de la légende,” 41–42; Schmidt, “Serapis,” 294; Caroli, Ptolemaios I., 313–314. Another theory is that ‘Sinope’ was a misunderstanding by the antique authors, derived from the Memphitic locality Einopion where the sanctuary of Osiris-Apis was situated, cf. Werner Huß, Der makedonische König und die ägyptischen Priester: Studien zur Geschichte des ptolemaiischen Ägypten (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1994), 61; Michel Malaise, Pour une terminologie et une analyse des cultes isiaques (Brussels: Classe des Lettres, Acad. Royale de Belgique, 2005), 131. On the general phenomenon of ‘traveling’ cultic images when a new cult is installed somewhere, see also Ernst Schmidt, Kultübertragungen, Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, vol. 8, no. 2 (Gießen: Töpelmann, 1909) and the contribution by Quack, “Importing and Exporting Gods,” in this volume.

  14. 14.

    See, for example, Michel Malaise, “Problèmes soulevés par l’iconographie de Sérapis,” Latomus 34 (1975): 383–391; Vincent Tran Tam Tinh, “Etat des études iconographiques relatives à Isis, Sérapis et Sunnaoi Theoi,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II, 17, 3, ed. Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase, (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1984), 1713–1722; Schmidt, “Serapis,” 295–302; Malaise, Terminologie, 132–136.

  15. 15.

    Only in some rare cases, especially from Hellenistic times, is Sarapis depicted with the Egyptian Atef-Crown of Osiris , see Malaise, Terminologie, 134–136; Gisèle Clerc and Jean Leclant, “Sarapis,” in Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), vol. 7, no. 1, ed. Hans C. Ackermann, (Düsseldorf: Artemis, 1994), nos. 141a, 150h, 211, whereas the ‘canonical’ type shows him with a Greek basket called kalathos (or modius in Latin) on his head.

  16. 16.

    Like, for example, Egyptian kingship, afterlife beliefs, and the yearly cycle of Nile inundation and the resulting fertility of the land. For an understanding of the Osiris myth as a national and, later, transcultural integration concept, see Joachim F. Quack, “Resting in pieces and integrating the Oikoumene. On the mental expansion of the religious landscape by means of the body parts of Osiris,” in Religious Flows in the Ancient World–The Diffusion of the Cults of Isis, Mithras and Iuppiter Dolichenus within the Imperium Romanum, ed. J. F. Quack et al., Oriental Religions in Antiquity (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming).

  17. 17.

    Compare the contribution by Quack, “Importing and Exporting Gods,” in this volume, and Svenja Nagel, “The Cult of Isis and Sarapis in North Africa. Local Shifts of an Egyptian Cult under the Influence of Different Cultural Traditions,” in Egyptian Gods in the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean. Image and Reality between Local and Global, ed. Laurent Bricault and Miguel J. Versluys, Supplemento a Mythos 3 (Caltanissetta: Sciascia, 2012).

  18. 18.

    For an overview of the traditional Egyptian iconography of Isis see Regine Schulz, “Warum Isis? Gedanken zum universellen Charakter einer ägyptischen Göttin im Römischen Reich,” in Ägypten und der östliche Mittelmeerraum im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr., ed. Manfred Görg and Günther Hölbl, Ägypten und Altes Testament 44 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000), 258–261; Nina M. Wahlberg, “Goddess Cults in Egypt between 1070 BC and 332 BC” (PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2002), 17–23, especially for the Late Period.

  19. 19.

    Osiris and Apis were also venerated together with Isis in the Roman world, but on a much smaller scale than her and Sarapis.

  20. 20.

    At least there are no written sources that record any such event.

  21. 21.

    Systematic studies of the complete Graeco-Roman Isis iconography are still lacking. Even Eingartner’s thorough investigation concerns only the two main (Roman) statuary types; Johannes Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen in der Kunst der römischen Kaiserzeit, Supplements to Mnemosyne 115 (Leiden: Brill, 1991); compare also the review by Michel Malaise, “À propos de l’iconographie ‘canonique’ d’Isis et des femmes vouées à son culte,” Kernos 5 (1992): 335-336. For a general overview of various types, see Tran Tam Tinh, “Etat des études,” 1722–1730; Tran Tam Tinh, “Isis,” in LIMC, vol. 5, no. 1, ed. Hans C. Ackermann (Düsseldorf: Artemis, 1990); Schulz, “Warum Isis?,” 271–274. On assimilated types and locally varying forms, see Jean Leclant, “Isis, déesse universelle et divinité locale dans le monde gréco-romaine,” in Iconographie classique et identités régionales, ed. Lilly Kahil, Christian Augé and Pascale Linant de Bellefonds, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique: Supplément 14 (Athens: École Française d'Athènes, 1986).

  22. 22.

    Compare Tran Tam Tinh, “Etat des études,” 1725; Leclant, “Déesse universelle,” 341; Malaise, “Iconographie ‘canonique’.”

  23. 23.

    For example, Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 30–32, postulates the middle of the second century BC, possibly in Athens, with later development into the type of the Capitolinian Isis in late Hellenistic or early Imperial times; Sabine Albersmeier, “Griechisch-römische Bildnisse der Isis,” in Ägypten Griechenland Rom, ed. Beck et al., 310–311, suggests that it was created in Ptolemaic times in Egypt.

  24. 24.

    For example, Tran Tam Tinh, “Isis,” 792; Tran TamTinh, “Etat des études,” 1725.

  25. 25.

    Isis also seems to hold these two attributes when she appears to the protagonist Lucius in Apuleius’ Isis-book: Apul., Metamorphoses XI, 4 (see Apuleius, The Isis-book: Metamorphoses, Book XI, trans. and ed. John G. Griffiths, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 39 (Leiden: Brill, 1975)).

  26. 26.

    See, for example, a statue in Rome, Mus. Naz. Rom. (Museo delle Terme), Inv. 125412; Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, cat. 33.

  27. 27.

    Designation given to Isis’ headdress by Plutarch, De Iside 19, although it is not really obvious which headdress he is exactly referring to. Generally, it is assumed that he means the headdress that was typical in his time. See for this crown Michel Malaise, “Le basileion, une couronne d’Isis. Origine et signification,” in El Kab and Beyond. Studies in honour of Luc Limme, ed. Wouter Claes et al., Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 191 (Leuven: Peeters, 2009).

  28. 28.

    See on this discussion Heinrich Schäfer, “Das Gewand der Isis. Ein Beitrag zur Kunst-, Kultur- und Religionsgeschichte des Hellenismus,” in Festschrift zu C. F. Lehmann-Haupts sechzigstem Geburtstag, ed. Kurt Regling and Hermann Reich (Vienna: Braumüller, 1921); Hans W. Müller, “Isis mit dem Horuskinde: Ein Beitrag zur Ikonographie der stillenden Gottesmutter im hellenistischen und römischen Ägypten,” Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 14 (1963): 13–15; Robert S. Bianchi, “Not the Isis Knot,” Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 2 (1980): 9–31; Georges Nachtergael, “La chevelure d’Isis,” L’Antiquité Classique 50 (1981): 588–591; Elizabeth J. Walters, Attic Grave Reliefs that Represent Women in the Dress of Isis, Hesperia: Suppl. 22 (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1988), 5–32; Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 53–55; Michel Malaise, “Notes sur le noeud isiaque,” Göttinger Miszellen 143 (1994): 105–108; Christian G. Schwentzel, “Les boucles d’Isis. ΙΣΙΔΟΣ ΠΛΟΚΑΜΟΙ,” in De Memphis à Rome, ed. Laurent Bricault, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 140 (Leiden: Brill, 2000); Sally A. Ashton, Ptolemaic Royal Sculpture from Egypt: The Interaction between Greek and Egyptian Traditions, British Archaeological Reports: International series 923 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001), 45–53; Sabine Albersmeier, Untersuchungen zu den Frauenstatuen des ptolemäischen Ägypten, Aegyptiaca Treverensia 10 (Mainz: von Zabern 2002), 67–75 (for the hairstyle) and 85–105 (for the dress); Albersmeier, “Das Isisgewand der Ptolemäerinnen. Herkunft, Form und Funktion,” in Fremdheit–Eigenheit. Ägypten, Griechenland und Rom. Austausch und Verständnis, ed. Peter C. Bol, Gabriele Kaminski and Caterina Maderna, Städel-Jahrbuch N. F. 19 (Stuttgart: Scheufele, 2004); Albersmeier, “Die Statuen der Ptolemäerinnen,” in Ägypten Griechenland Rom, ed. Beck et al.; Albersmeier, “Bildnisse der Isis”.

  29. 29.

    Müller, “Isis mit dem Horuskinde,” 13; Bianchi, “Not the Isis Knot,” 10–12; Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 91.

  30. 30.

    For different forms in early Ptolemaic depictions see Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 92–94.

  31. 31.

    Dates given for kings, queens, and emperors always refer to their regnal years here.

  32. 32.

    Stela BM EA 1054; Beck et al., eds., Ägypten Griechenland Rom, cat. 151 (S. Albersmeier); Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 99.

  33. 33.

    Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 53–55; cf. also Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 67–74.

  34. 34.

    Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 71.

  35. 35.

    Laurent Bricault, ed., Sylloge Nummorum Religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae (SNRIS), Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 38 (Paris: De Boccard, 2008), 85, AlexandriaErrP1-2 (photos published on CD); Albersmeier, “Statuen der Ptolemäerinnen,” 254; Schwentzel, “Boucles d’Isis,” 23.

  36. 36.

    Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 67.

  37. 37.

    Cf. Schwentzel, “Boucles d’Isis,” 27.

  38. 38.

    Cf. Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 68–74.

  39. 39.

    For example, a terracotta bust of Isis from Pompeii, see Tran Tam Tinh, Essai sur le culte d’Isis à Pompéi (Paris: Boccard, 1964), plate 20.1.

  40. 40.

    Outside Egypt, see for example Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 10–11 and 28–29; cat. 3: late Hellenistic round altar from Samos; cat. 7: high Hellenistic votive relief from Rhodos; cat. 8: statuette of a mourning(?) Isis in Turin; cat. 98: grave relief from Smyrna showing the deceased woman with knotted dress, Isiac curls and sistrum and situla, beginning of the second century BC. In Egypt itself these features are often depicted in Graeco-Roman terracotta figurines of the goddess (and her female servants), but the chronology of this particular category of art is highly problematic, see Françoise Dunand, Religion populaire en Égypte Romaine: Les terres cuites isiaques du Musée du Caire, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 76 (Leiden: Brill, 1979), 29–31, especially for chronology; Jutta Fischer, Griechisch-römische Terrakotten aus Ägypten: Die Sammlungen Sieglin und Schreiber, Dresden, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Tübinger Studien zur Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 14 (Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1994), 89–90, cat. 863, 866, 886, dates at least some of the terracottas with knotted dress and corkscrew-curls to the Hellenistic Period. Ashton, Ptolemaic Royal Sculpture, 45 and 52–53, unconvincingly states the opinion that there is no connection at all between the iconography of the queens and that of the goddess before the Roman Imperial Period, and tries to construct a different interpretation of obvious earlier examples showing Isis with knotted dress and corkscrew-curls.

  41. 41.

    Cf. Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 99–103, contra, Bianchi, “Not the Isis Knot,” 18–23. Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 30–32, believes in a formation of this type in the middle of the second century BC in Athens.

  42. 42.

    On this relationship in general, see Svenja Nagel, “Isis und die Herrscher. Eine ägyptische Göttin als (Über-) Trägerin von Macht und Herrschaft für Pharaonen, Ptolemäer und Kaiser,” in Macht und Ohnmacht. Religiöse, soziale und ökonomische Spannungsfelder in frühen Gesellschaften, ed. Diamantis Panagiotopoulos and Maren Schentuleit, Philippika (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, forthcoming).

  43. 43.

    See also Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 103.

  44. 44.

    On Greek korai, see Katerina Karakasi, Archaic Korai (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003); Gisela M. A. Richter, Korai, Archaic Greek Maidens. A Study of the Development of the Kore Type in Greek Sculpture (London: Phaidon Pr., 1968), with multiple illustrations.

  45. 45.

    This opinion is supported by Schwentzel, “Boucles d’Isis,” 29–30; Bernard V. Bothmer, “Hellenistic Elements in Egyptian Sculpture of the Ptolemaic Period,” in Alexandria and Alexandrianism, ed. Kenneth Hamma (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum Publication, 1996), 225; Robert S. Bianchi, “Images of Isis and her Cultic Shrines Reconsidered: Towards an Egyptian Understanding of the Interpretatio Graeca,” in Nile into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman World, ed. Laurent Bricault, Miguel J. Versluys and Paul G. P. Meyboom, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 159 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 485–487.

  46. 46.

    See Nagel, “Isis und die Herrscher.”

  47. 47.

    Ptolemaic rulers, Greek adherents of the cult in Athens (Eingartner, Isis und ihre Dienerinnen, 30–32) or elsewhere, or maybe only the new supporters in Imperial Rome (cf. Ashton, Ptolemaic Royal Sculpture, 45 and 52–53).

  48. 48.

    Plutarch, Antonius 54, 9; Servius, Aeneis VIII, 696.

  49. 49.

    A similar transformation could have happened with the posture, which probably originally resembled the stiff Egyptian one of the Ptolemaic sculptures with supporting back pillar.

  50. 50.

    On the use of the term ‘assimilation’ for this phenomenon see Malaise, Terminologie, 181–186; see also ibid., 193–199, for the discussion of the term ‘syncretism’ and other concepts that are sometimes used to describe the phenomenon of connecting Isis with goddesses from the Graeco-Roman pantheon (iconographically and otherwise). On this subject, see also Svenja Nagel, “Kult und Ritual der Isis zwischen Ägypten und Rom. Ein transkulturelles Phänomen,” in Rituale als Ausdruck von Kulturkontakt. “Synkretismus” zwischen Negation und Neudefinition, ed. Claus Ambos et al., Studies in Oriental Religions 67 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013); Françoise Dunand, “Syncrétisme ou coexistence: images du religieux dans l’Égypte tardive,” in Les syncrétismes religieux dans le monde méditerranéen antique, ed. Corinne Bonnet and André Motte (Brussels: Brepols, 1999).

  51. 51.

    See Tran Tam Tinh, Essai, 9–10.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 75.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 70–71.

  54. 54.

    Stefano de Caro, ed., Alla ricerca di Iside: Analisi, studi, e restauri dell’Iseo pompeiano nel Museo di Napoli (Rome: Arti S.p.A., 1992), plate 10, 1.63. For the type with the cobra, see Fig. 4.

  55. 55.

    The relief is part of the relief decoration of an actual silver situla from the Isis temple of Pompeii, see Reinhold Merkelbach, Isis Regina–Zeus Sarapis: Die ägyptische Religion nach den Quellen dargestellt, 2nd. ed. (Munich: Saur, 2001), figs. 29–32.

  56. 56.

    See Tran Tam Tinh, Essai, 78; Michel Malaise, Les conditions de pénétration et de diffusion des cultes égyptiens en Italie, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 22 (Leiden: Brill, 1972), 179.

  57. 57.

    See Tran Tam Tinh, “Isis,” 784–786.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 792 and 794; Tran Tam Tinh, “Etat des études,” 1725.

  59. 59.

    For Isis-Tyche of Alexandria see Peter M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 240–243; Françoise Dunand, Le culte d’Isis et les Ptolémées, vol. 1 of Le culte d’Isis dans le Bassin Oriental de la Méditerranée, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 26 (Leiden: Brill, 1973), 92–94.

  60. 60.

    Edelgard Brunelle, “Die Bildnisse der Ptolemäerinnen” (PhD diss., University of Frankfurt am Main, 1976), 51–57; Albersmeier, Frauenstatuen, 34–38.

  61. 61.

    For the different possibilities, consult Tran Tam Tinh, “Isis,” 779–790.

  62. 62.

    Sometimes the ‘Own’ in the ‘Other’ can even be found very easily without great adaptations: in Gaul the Egyptian type of Isis lactans (Isis nursing her child Horus/Harpocrates) could be easily associated with the indigenous Matres, which were depicted in a similar way. See Gisèle Clerc, “Personnalité et iconographie d’Isis en Gaule d’après les témoignages de la déesse retrouvés en France,” in La vallée du Nil et la Mediterranée: Voies de communication et vecteurs culturels, Actes du Colloque, ed. Sydney H. Aufrère, Orientalia Monspeliensia 12, (Montpellier: Univ. Paul Valéry, 2001), 104–105.

  63. 63.

    See for this statue Tran Tam Tinh, Essai, 156, plate 13; Peter Hoffmann, Der Isis-Tempel in Pompeji, Charybdis 7 (Münster: Lit, 1993), 128–129; Beck et al., eds., Ägypten Griechenland Rom, cat. 328 (J. F. Quack).

  64. 64.

    For this point, see also Maria R. Swetnam-Burland, “Egyptian objects, Roman contexts: a taste for Aegyptiaca in Italy,” in Bricault et al., eds, Nile into Tiber, 117–118.

  65. 65.

    Tran Tam Tinh, “Etat des études,” 1724; Tran Tam Tihn, “Isis,” no. 63. The depiction of the goddess is reminiscent of archaic Eastern-Greek cult statues; compare with, for example, the traditional statuary type of the Artemis of Ephesos, which was also often copied in the Roman world, see Robert Fleischer, Artemis von Ephesos und verwandte Kultstatuen aus Anatolien und Syrien, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 35 (Leiden: Brill, 1973). For the discussion on the unique statue from Cyrene, see Ettore Ghislanzoni, “Il santuario delle divinità alessandrine,” Notiziario Archeologico del Ministero delle Colonie 4 (1927): 173–187; Franz Cumont, “Nouvelles découvertes à Cyrène: le temple d’Isis,” Journal des savants, N. S. 25 (1927): 319–321; Enrico Paribeni, Catalogo delle Sculture di Cirene: Statue e rilievi di carattere religioso, Monografie di Archeologia Libica 5 (Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1959), 142–143, no. 411; Serena Ensoli Vittozzi, “Indagini sul culto di Iside a Cirene,” in L’Africa Romana IX, ed. Attilio Mastino, Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di Storia dell'Università di Sassari 20 (Sassari: Gallizzi, 1992), 201–207.

  66. 66.

    The dress of the Cyrene statue, especially the reticulate pattern of the skirt is probably also inspired by Egyptian models. See Nagel, “The Cult of Isis and Sarapis in North Africa.”

  67. 67.

    On the election and meaning of style-patterns in Roman art, see Hölscher, Language of Images, esp. 65 and 103 on archaizing types.

  68. 68.

    See, for example, Rudolf Anthes, “Affinity and Difference between Egyptian and Greek Sculpture and Thought in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries B.C.,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge 107, no. 1 (1963): 60–81; Gisela M. A. Richter, “Kouroi and Korai,” Das Altertum 17 (1971): 11–24.

  69. 69.

    On this point, see Anne Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome, Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 20 (Leiden: Brill, 1972); Miguel J. Versluys, Aegyptiaca Romana: Nilotic Scenes and the Roman Views of Egypt, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 144 (Leiden: Brill, 2002); Maria R. Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt in the Roman Imagination: A Study of Aegyptiaca from Pompeii” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2002); Swetnam-Burland, “Egyptian objects.”

  70. 70.

    See note 69.

  71. 71.

    Sanctuary in Pompeii: see De Caro, ed., Alla ricerca di Iside; Hoffmann, Isis-Tempel; Swetnam-Burland, “Egypt in the Roman Imagination”; Kathrin Kleibl, Iseion: Raumgestaltung und Kultpraxis in den Heiligtümern gräco-ägyptischer Götter im Mittelmeerraum (Worms: Werner, 2009), 277–286, cat. 29. For the Iseum Campense in Rome, see Katja Lembke, Das Iseum Campense in Rom: Studie über den Isiskult unter Domitian, Archäologie und Geschichte 3 (Heidelberg: Verl. Archäologie und Geschichte, 1994); Miguel J. Versluys, “The Sanctuary of Isis on the Campus Martius in Rome,” Bulletin antieke beschaving: Annual Papers on Classical Archaeology 72 (1997): 159–169; Carla Alfano, “L’Iseo Campense in Roma. Relazione preliminare sui nuovi ritrovamenti,” in L’Egitto in Italia: Dall‘antichità al medioevo, Atti del III Congresso Internazionale Italo-Egiziano, ed. Nicola Bonacasa (Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 1998); Frederick E. Brenk, “The Isis Campensis of Katja Lembke,” in Imago Antiquitatis: Religions et iconographie dans le monde romain, Mélanges offerts à R. Turcan, ed. Nicole Blanc and André Buisson (Paris: De Boccard, 1999); Brenk, “Osirian Reflections. Second Thoughts on the Iseum Campense at Rome,” in Hommages à Carl Deroux IV, ed. Pol Defosse, Collection Latomus 277 (Brussels: Éd. Latomus, 2003); Joachim Friedrich Quack, “Zum ägyptischen Kult im Iseum Campense in Rom,” in Rituale in der Vorgeschichte, Antike und Gegenwart. Studien zur Vorderasiatischen, Prähistorischen und Klassischen Archäologie, Ägyptologie, Alten Geschichte, Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, ed. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick et al. (Rahden, Westfalen: Leidorf, 2003); Kleibl, Iseion, 260–264, cat. 23. For the sanctuary in Benevent see Hans W. Müller, Der Isiskult im antiken Benevent und Katalog der Skulpturen aus den ägyptischen Heiligtümern im Museo del Sannio, Münchner ägyptologische Studien 16 (Berlin: Hessling, 1969).

  72. 72.

    For a detailed account, see Nagel, “Isis und die Herrscher”; see also Miguel J. Versluys, “Egypt as part of the Roman koine: a study in mnemohistory,” in Religious Flows, ed. J. F. Quack et al.; Lembke, Iseum Campense, 90–94.

  73. 73.

    For the theological concept of Osiris-Antinoos we have the evidence of the obelisk that was made especially for him and contained Egyptian texts and relief scenes (now on the Monte Pincio in Rome), see Alfred Grimm, Dieter Kessler, and Hugo Meyer, Der Obelisk des Antinoos: Eine kommentierte Edition (Munich: Fink, 1994); Jean-Claude Grenier, L’Osiris Antinoos, Cahiers de l'Égypte Nilotique et Méditérranéenne 1 (Montpellier: Université Paul Valery (Montpellier III), 2008); Malaise, Terminologie, 110–117.

  74. 74.

    For the decorative program, see Jean-Claude Grenier, “La décoration statuaire du ‘Serapeum’ du ‘Canope’ de la Villa Adriana,” Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome: Antiquité 101 (1989): 925–1019; Jacques Charles-Gaffiot and H. Lavagne, eds., Hadrien: Trésors d’une villa impériale, (Milano: Electa, 1999). However, the religious significance of this complex is still disputed.

  75. 75.

    See Maria Münster, Untersuchungen zur Göttin Isis vom Alten Reich bis zum Ende des Neuen Reiches, Münchner ägyptologische Studien 11 (Berlin: Hessling, 1968), 106–110 and 202. A special form of Isis, which was quite popular in the Graeco-Roman Period, especially in Alexandria and Lower Egypt, connects her with the cobra-goddess Thermoutis/Renenwetet, see e. g. Françoise Dunand, “Les réprésentations de l’Agathodémon à propos de quelques bas-reliefs du Musée d’Alexandrie,” Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale 67 (1969); Jan Broekhuis, De godin Renenwetet (Assen: van Gorcum, 1971); Gisèle Deschênes, “Isis-Thermouthis: exemple d’un biculturalisme,” in Mélanges d'études anciennes offerts à Maurice Lebel, ed. Jean-Benoit Caron (Québec: Éd. du Sphinx, 1980); Malaise, Terminologie, 168–176.

  76. 76.

    The same motif can be found on a bronze statuette of Amun from the first to second century AD from Tanta, see La gloire d’Alexandrie, Une exposition des Musées de la Ville de Paris, 7 mai au 26 juillet 1998, Musée du Petit Palais, 168 (Paris: Paris-Musées, Association Française d'Action Artistique, 1998), cat. 115. This is certainly influenced by the late Isis iconography (against Bianchi, “Images of Isis,” who seems to view the Amun statuette as a traditional precursor). The idea of Isis holding a cobra in her hand might actually have been inspired by the Egyptian representations of Horus on the magical Horus-stelae, where he is shown holding snakes in both hands, see Grenier, “Décoration statuaire,” 952–954; for these monuments, see Heike Sternberg-El Hotabi, Untersuchungen zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Horusstelen: Ein Beitrag zur Religionsgeschichte Ägyptens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr., Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 62 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999). This theory is supported by the fact that, like Horus on the Egyptian stelae, the Roman Isis with cobra is in some cases also stepping on a crocodile; for this last feature and its interpretation, see Bianchi, “Images of Isis,” 495–505. Furthermore, in earlier Egypt (from the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2100–1800 BC) onwards), other Egyptian deities and demons with apotropaic function were shown with snakes in their hands, see e.g. Hartwig Altenmüller, “Die Apotropaia und die Götter Mittelägyptens: eine typologische und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung der sog. ‘Zaubermesser’ des Mittleren Reiches,” (PhD diss., Munich University, 1964), 1: 37–38 and 44; Karol Myśliwiec, Die heiligen Tiere des Atum vol. 1 of Studien zum Gott Atum, Hildesheimer ägyptologische Beiträge 5 (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1978), 126–130, figs. 74–76; Harco Willems, The Coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418): A Case Study of Egyptian Funerary Culture of the Early Middle Kingdom, Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta 70 (Leuven: Peeters, 1996), 127–131.

  77. 77.

    On sistra in Egypt see Christiane Ziegler, “Sistrum,” in Lexikon der Ägyptologie V, ed. Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1984); Rafael Pérez Arroyo, Egypt: Music in the Age of the Pyramids (Madrid: Ed. Centro de Estudios Egipcios, 2003), 222–228.

  78. 78.

    Münster, Isis, 117. Other, minor deities like Ihy or Meret, however, are often shown playing sistra themselves, since acting as musician for another goddess (esp. Hathor) is one of their main functions.

  79. 79.

    This is also evident in the Greek aretalogical tradition, see Jan Bergman, Isis-Seele und Osiris-Ei: Zwei ägyptologische Studien zu Diodorus Siculus I, 27, 4–5, Acta universitatis upsaliensis: Historia religionum 4 (Uppsala: Berlingska Boktryckeriet, 1970), 11–14. In the Isis-aretalogy of Andros, line 3, the city of Bubastis, which was a center of the Bastet and Isis cult, is even called σειστροφόρος (sistrum-bearing). On the close theological connections between Isis, Bastet and the sistrum, see Münster, Isis, 115–118; Bergman, Isis-Seele, 15–69.

  80. 80.

    Virgil’s description of Cleopatra giving the command to attack with a sistrum during the battle of Actium is a misinterpretation (perhaps even an intentional one) that turns the instrument’s actual (pacifying) function into its direct opposite: Virgil, Aeneid VIII, 696.

  81. 81.

    For the use of the sistrum within the Isis cult see Nicole Genaille, “Le sistre Strozzi (à propos des objets cultuels isiaques en Italie),” Bulletin de la Société Française d’Egyptologie (1976–1977): 77–78; Genaille, “Sistrum, diffusion gréco-romaine,” in Lexikon der Ägyptologie V; Genaille, “Instruments du culte isiaque figurés sur trois monuments funéraires de Rome,” in Études isiaques, ed. Cathérine Berger-El Naggar, Gisèle Clerc and Nicolas Grimal, ed., vol.3, of Hommages à Jean Leclant, Bibliothèque d'étude 106 (Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1994).

  82. 82.

    The name is Latin and means ‘pail.’

  83. 83.

    On situlae, see Herrmann Junker, Das Götterdekret über das Abaton, (Vienna: Hölder, 1913), 9–17; Miriam Lichtheim, “Oriental Museum Notes: Situla No. 11395 and Some Remarks on Egyptian Situlae,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 6 (1947): 169–179; Jan Quaegebeur and Claire Evrard-Derricks, “La situle décorée de Nesnakhetiou au Musée Royal de Mariemont,” Chronique d’Egypte 54 (1979): 26–56; Jens Kamlah, “Zwei nordpalästinische ‘Heiligtümer’ der persischen Zeit und ihre epigraphischen Funde,” Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 115 (1999): 174–181; Martin Bommas, “Situlae and the Offering of Water in the Divine Funerary Cult,” in L’acqua nell’Antico Egitto, ed. Alessia Amenta, Maria M. Luiselli and Maria N. Sordi (Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2005). A thesis about Egyptian milk offerings, in which situlae are also being discussed extensively, is currently in preparation by Silke Caßor-Pfeiffer at the University of Tübingen.

  84. 84.

    Apuleius, Metamorphoses XI, 10. In fact, Egyptian situlae were already a well-known and often imported object in various Mediterranean regions before Hellenistic times, where they were used in funerary and other cultic contexts, cf. Kamlah, “Zwei nordpalästinische ‘Heiligtümer’,” 176–182.

  85. 85.

    See Malaise, “Basileion.”

  86. 86.

    For the significance of the double-feather-crown, see Dagmar Budde, “‘Die den Himmel durchsticht und sich mit den Sternen vereint’: Zur Bedeutung und Funktion der Doppelfederkrone in der Götterikonographie,” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 30 (2002): 57–102. On the Egyptian combination of feather-crown and Hathoric headdress, see Michel Malaise, “Histoire et signification de la coiffure hathorique à plumes,” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 4 (1976): 215–236.

  87. 87.

    Compare, for instance, the crown forms of Isis and Hathor in Philae: Eleni Vassilika, Ptolemaic Philae, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 34 (Leuven: Peeters, 1989), 119–120, variants FMIS 1-20, FMD 1-6 and FMF.

  88. 88.

    The connection of a (recognizable) throne to Isis still would have been pretty obvious in Roman times because she was often called regina (Queen) and her strong link with rule and kingship was also well known, see Nagel, “Isis und die Herrscher.”

  89. 89.

    Apuleius, Metamorphoses XI, 3. See the commentary by Griffiths, Isis-book, 125–126.

  90. 90.

    Plutarch, De Iside, 52; on the connection between Isis, Osiris and the moon see ibid., 43; Ovid, Metamorphoses IX, 688–689; Diodorus 1, 11, 4; see the commentary by Griffiths, Plutarchus, De Iside, 500–501.

  91. 91.

    Diana Delia, “Isis, or the Moon,” in Egyptian Religion, the Last Thousand Years, Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, pt. 1, Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta ed. Willy Clarysse, Antoon Schoors and Harco Willems, 84 (Leuven: Peeters, 1998); and Alexandra von Lieven, Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne, The Carlsberg Papyri 8 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2007), 193–195.

  92. 92.

    For Isis and Demeter, see Vincent A. Tobin, “Isis and Demeter: Symbols of Divine Motherhood,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28 (1991): 187–200; Panayotis Pachis, “‘Manufacturing Religion’ in the Hellenistic Age: The Case of Isis-Demeter Cult,” in Hellenisation, Empire and Globalisation: Lessons from Antiquity, ed. Luther H. Martin and Panayotis Pachis (Thessaloniki: Ekdoseis Vanias, 2004).

  93. 93.

    Some interesting ideas on the origin and transformation of other images and iconographical elements, and different readings of them can be found in Claude Bérard, “Modes de formation et modes de lecture des images divines: Aphrodite et Isis à la voile,” in ΕΙΔΩΛΟΠΟΙΙΑ, Archeologica 61 (Rome: Bretschneider, 1985); Robert Turcan, “Trois ‘rébus’ de l’iconographie romaine ou les pièges de l’analogie,” in ΕΙΔΩΛΟΠΟΙΙΑ, 61–76; Dunand, “Syncrétrisme ou coexistence”; Laurent Bricault, “Du nom des images d’Isis polymorphe,” in Religions orientales–Culti misterici: Neue Perspektiven, ed. Corinne Bonnet, Jörg Rüpke and Paolo Scarpi, Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge 16 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2006); Bianchi, “Images of Isis”.

  94. 94.

    For this iconographical transformation, see Antje Krug, “Isis–Aphrodite–Astarte,” in Fremdheit–Eigenheit, 180–190.

  95. 95.

    According to Heliodor, Aethiopica, IX, 9, profane people––that is, the adherents who are not initiated––gain only general and superficial insights into the myths, whereas initiates of a higher degree receive a more thorough education.

  96. 96.

    For the cultural and social background of Isis devotees in Italy, see the detailed study by Malaise, Conditions, 25–159. A relatively high rate of Oriental and especially Egyptian people is attested, especially in Rome and its harbors (ibid., 74–75). Apart from that, the Isis cult permeated all social strata but was especially favored by the middle and lower classes, i.e. by merchants, freedmen, and slaves (ibid., 110, 471). However, we have to keep in mind that only those persons known by detailed inscriptions can be used for statistics, which does of course distort the results.

  97. 97.

    See Dirk Steuernagel, Kult und Alltag in römischen Hafenstädten, Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge 11 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004), 212.

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Nagel, S. (2015). The Goddess’s New Clothes. Conceptualising an ‘Eastern’ Goddess for a ‘Western’ Audience. In: Flüchter, A., Schöttli, J. (eds) The Dynamics of Transculturality. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09740-4_9

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