OUT OF ROME
The Isis religion continued to travel in the next centuries. From Rome it spread to the rest of the empire, from north to south, east to west.59 It is characteristic for all the provinces that the evidence of her cult is found in the commercial centres of the regions, suggesting that the propagators were travellers, for example soldiers, slaves and merchants.
The most widely used epithets for Isis in the new areas were still augusta, regina and domina, which shows that the carriers of the cult mainly came from the Roman or Italian area. The specific civic character of her worship in many of these northern regions60 - as seen in the considerably lower level of documentation for a hierarchically constructed priesthood and cultic organizations (koina), the lack of evidence of large festivals and, in general, a fixed ritual calendar - is a sign of the spreading of the cult primarily through private devotees, not as a part of a missionary scheme crafted by Isis priests. The unofficial character of her cult is also seen in the minimized connection with the imperial cult, and indeed its complete absence from several sites. The conspicuously small number of Isiac inscriptions along Hadrian’s wall in Britain suggests that in this area - on the border between civilization and barbarism - the soldiers needed a deity who was more useful in warfare. Isis did claim in the aretalogies that she was a war goddess, but this was obviously not seen as one of her strong points; here, Mithras served the purpose better. Otherwise, Isis was well represented in all the Roman regions, although not as much as in the urhs itself. In areas where her cult had spread from Rome, the Egyptianizing tendency is clearly observable, albeit not apparent in the organization of her cult. Even though the Aegyptica - the Egyptianizing elements - were not necessarily related to Isis (or religion in general), they apparently still caused an increased worship of Isis. The Egyptianizing wave was thus not as strong in the “old” areas such as Greece and Asia Minor, where Isis gradually lost some of her popularity from thegeneral for discussions of some of Isis’s most important traits in Hellenistic sources).
8. Aretalogy of Maroneia v. 29. Cf. also Diodorus Siculus 1.14.1-4.
9. Cf. Tran Tam Tinh (1973) for Isis lactans and Roussel (1916: no. 179); the novels by Xenophon of Ephesos and Achilleus Tatios touch upon her assimilation with Artemis, and the second hymn to Isis by Mesomedes relates her role as birth helper.
10. Siris 128. Cf. also 16, and Roussel (1916: nos. 69, 151, 161, 162).
11. Roussel (1916: nos. 82, 194).
12. See, e.g., Siris 34 and Roussel (1916: no. 194): a dedication to Isis-soteira-Astarte-Aphrodite-euploia- epekoos (the last epithet means “the one who listens”). Two similar popular epithets for Isis in this role were Isis euploia (“happy voyage”) and Isis pharia. It has been argued that Isis’s popularity as Isis Aphrodite pelagia was the result of active political propaganda spurred by Ptolemaios II and his deified wife Arsinoe II, who was thought to incarnate Isis and Aphrodite, and who had an official role as protector of the fleet: Bricault (2007: 247).
13. Roussel (1916: no. 194); Siris 34, 259, 274.
14. Roussel (1916: nos. 3-5, 50a, 138-40).
15. See Vidman (1970: 168ff.) for the degree of Hellenization. Furthermore, sources indicate that at least some of the liturgical language was Greek, e.g., Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.17, and footnote 62 below.
16. Documented as such at the end of the second century BCE, but possibly a mystery religion before this time. Mystery religions were religions that offered personal and secret initiation rituals to their adherents.
17. Plutarch De Iside [On Isis and Osiris] 28; Tacitus Histories 4.83.2f.
18. Whether or not Egyptian mysteries can be compared to the Greek mysteries is still debated. The most important arguments pro et contra can be found in Bergman (1968: 230 n2a) and Bommas (2005: 5-11).
19. Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 27, and the aretalogies of Maroneia and Kyme.
20. Metamorphoses 11.6 (trans. Griffiths 1975). This novel is our best source of knowledge on the mysteries of Isis.
21. Corsten (1993): Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien (IK) 40, 1028.
22. Thus, in the second hymn of Isodoros (vs. 7-8): “All who are bound in mortal illnesses in the grip of death, if they (but) pray to you, quickly attain your (renewal of) life” (trans. Gasparro 2007: 56, n44). Several votives mention Isis as a healer without adding the epithet soteira. Cf. also Diodorus Siculus 1.25.4. In her capacity of healer, she was identified with Hygieia (and simply called the Egyptian Hygieia) and worshipped with Asclepius in Epidauros (Siris 124), but the basis of this capacity is truly Egyptian.
23. Anthologia Palatina [Palatine Anthology] 6.231; cf. Roussel (1916: no. 49) and Siris 574, where Isis is apparently given credit for a tax reduction. For social and cognitive aspects of being initiated into various mysteries, see Burkert (1987); Martin (1987, 2003, 2005).
24. Tyche expressed one aspect of the concept of destiny, while heimarmene expressed another. The difference between tyche and heimarmene can be roughly explained as the difference between random (blind), good or bad luck (personified in Tyche/Fortuna) and predestined, unchangeable destiny, often closely related to he anangke (necessity), although often they cannot be separated.
25. In Egypt of the early first millennium BCE, a number of different gods were thought to have some influence on the span of human lives, and in Ptolemaic times, Isis seems to have been prominent in this group, though particularly for the benefit of the Pharaoh; see the hymns of Isodoros and from Philae, and Dunand (2000: 85).
26. Andros, v. 144f.; Kyme, v. 55f.; Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.6.
27. In an early inscription from Delos (Roussel 1916: 50a), Isis is identified with Kybele and called pantokrator.
From late Hellenistic times, Isis could claim this ability in her own name, e.g. Siris 42. The iconographic representations of Isis with a sceptre (also a sign of a divinity of power, cf. Zeus and Hera) occur from the second half of the second century BCE.28. Cf. statue of Isis urania: LIMC, Isis, no. 73; Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.3-5; Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 77. The demiurgical (i.e. world-creating) activities find rare parallels in pre-Ptolemaic Egyptian material, though not in relation to Isis, but note her ancient Egyptian role as “mistress of heaven” (the Egyptians not having had an equivalent to our “queen”). In Roman times, even Isis’s garments were not simply clothes but reflected her universal powers; cf. the Naasenes who claimed that Isis’s robes corresponded to the seven ethereal spheres with which nature was clad (Hippolytus Philosophoumena 5.7).
29. Greek: Siris 325 and 505. Latin: Siris 639, 656, 692, 698, 721 and 749. Cf. no. 502 (una quae es omnia dea Isis), and Vita Aesopi [Life of Aesop] 5.3. Polyonymos (“the one with many names”) is found earlier (cf. aretalogy of Maroneia) and can be regarded as a step towards henotheism. Cf. Bricault (1996) for her many epithets.
30. Both terms signal the worship of one god while still acknowledging the existence of other deities (in contrast to monotheism). See, e.g., the stoic hymn to Zeus by Kleanthes, Apuleius’s praise of the creator of the world in Apologia (64), and Siris 389 (found in a Mithraeum!) which declares Serapis, Helios and Zeus to be one and the same god.
31. Initially from the low or middle classes like slaves, freedmen, soldiers and merchants, later - from the end of the first century - gradually also from the higher classes (higher municipal officials and members of the Imperial family) and eventually - from Caligula - by the Emperor himself. In total, the adherents were equally divided between Romans and Orientals/Greeks, the number of slaves being higher in the areas with a large non-Roman population.
Women were not the main carriers of the cult but constituted between 17% and 38%, with the largest proportion found in Athens and Rome. See Malaise (1984: 1629ff.) for analyses of the social and ethnic statistics.32. The worst persecutions took place in the 50s and 40s of the first century BCE and were undoubtedly intensified by the growing Roman political tensions with, and antipathy towards, Egypt.
33. Ars Amatoria [The Art of Love] 1.77 f., 3.633-7 (the sistrum was accused of inducing lust); cf. also Propertius 2.33.6ff. In other texts, however, Ovid prays for Isis’s help when Corinna is sick [Amores 2, 13, 7-28). Note that Isis was often identified with Io in the works of Latin authors, hence her frequent designation as a heifer.
34. Martial 2.14.7-8; 11.47.3-4; Ovid Amores 2.2.25f., 3.393; Juvenal Satires 6.488f., 534f., 9.20-25; Josephus Antiquitates Judaicae [Jewish Antiquities] 18.3.4.
35. Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 2; Lactantius Divinae Institutiones [Divine Institutions] 1.15; Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.19; Firmicus Maternus De errore profanarum religionum [On the Error of Profane Religions] 7.
36. Siris 62, 433, 450a, 451, 536, 539, 586, 789. Cf. Clemens of Alexandria Protrepticus 2.39.4; Tertullian Ad Uxorem [To his Wife] 1.6 (Isis is the African Ceres).
37. A ritual rattle instrument characteristic of the Isiac cult, also in Egypt, though originally belonging to Hathor.
38. Tibullus 1.3.23-6; Ovid Amores 3.9.33f.
39. Tertullian De leiunio [On Fasting] 2; Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 221.26; Chaeremon, fragments: van der Horst (1984: 101).
40. To give one’s voice as a votive in return for Isis’s help (Tibullus 1.3.29-32).
41. Siris 411, 511, 538. The possibility of sleeping in her temples was also connected with healing as well as with so-called incubation rites, i.e. oracles transmitted in dreams.
42. Juvenal Satires 12.28 and his scholiast. See also Hyginus Fabulae [Fab/es] 277 and Cassiodorus Variae [Various Letters] 5.17.4 for other literary mentions of this role.
In Ovid Metamorphoses 9.666-713, we see a continued role as birth helper.43. This festival is most vividly described by Lucius in Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.16. A similar festival was first celebrated in Egyptian Kanopos in 304 BCE. The festival in the Greek world may perhaps already be alluded to in an epigram from Thessaloniki from 120 BCE, 1G X 2, 1, no. 108, cf. Merkelbach (1973).
44. Domina, Regina, Augusta: e.g. Siris 120-21, 510, 564-6, 573-4, 588, 603-8, 652-5, 754. Victrix, Invicta, Triumphalis: Siris 402, 413, 474, 479, 609, 718-19.
45. Only after Tiberius did the emperors generally tolerate her cult, while a specific favour is first found among the Flavian emperors (69-96 CE). The fact that Egyptian traders had been present on the peninsula much earlier than 31 BCE, particularly in southern Italy, probably affected the cult to a larger degree than the inclusion of Egypt in the empire.
46. The original Egyptian word represented by the Greek Sothis means something like “ready”, but the Greeks knew the star as Sirius and called it “the dog-star” but also used their transcription (Sothis is the Greek version of Egyptian spd.f) to refer to the star. Similar was the case of Roman statues of Isis- Thermouthis (Greek for Renenutet) ending in a snake’s tail (in Egypt she could be presented as a completely non-anthropomorphic cobra or as having the body of a woman and the head of a cobra).
47. Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.20. Cf. also Josephus Jewish Antiquities 18.3.4f. and Porphyry On Abstinence 4.6-9. Furthermore, Apuleius’s report suggests a (partial) return to the Egyptian tradition of the cult statue being concealed from the public, unlike the Greek tradition of free access to which the