The Cult Of Isis

[Ursus]

Genesis in the Land of the Pharaohs

Isis ("Aset" in the native language) had her start as a comparatively minor deity of Egypt. She was a protector of the throne of Egypt, perhaps in some ways the personification of Royal Power. But she had been subordinate in the official Egyptian pantheon to deities more intimately connected with the great king, like Ra and Horus....

 

This is a fantastic post, and it deserves its own page on the main site

 

The whole article can now be read on the very new Cult of Isis page

[Zeke]

I have a question...Serapis, is that Osiris?

Or is he a seprate deity.

 

Zeke

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

No, they were two different deities. Osiris was the older deity and among the original Egyptian gods. Serapis was a invented deity created from a blend of several Egyptian deities and Hellenistic ideas. The word Serapis came from the combined words Osiris and the bull Apis(in a linguistical sense). I might be wrong about the origin of words.

[Ursus]

Wesir = the original Kemetic (Egyptian) name for the Brother-Husband of Aset (Greek:Isis)

 

Osiris = the Greek translation of Wesir

 

Serapis = Ptolemy's new god, a blending of Osiris with another Egyptian god Apis, along with some Hellenic gods like Hades or Dionysus. On one level this was a cynical ploy to create a new deity that both Greeks and Egyptians could worship. However, there was much in Egyptian theology to suggest such hybrid gods could be taken seriously with a straight face. Ra, for instance, had been blended with many gods over the course of the centuries by the Egyptian priests.

[Virgil61]

I finally got around to reading this. Interesting read especially relative to its links to and competition with Christianity, thanks.

 

Today, Isiac religion is undergoing something of a revival. Among New Age crowds, Isis is a popular symbol among those seeking an alternative to

[M. Porcius Cato]

According to the Christians, which cults were considered more sexually 'degenerate' than the Isis cult? Also, Ursus, what are your sources on the ancient Isis cult if I want to learn more?

[Ursus]

Well, the Dionysian cults were noted for excesses of all kinds. Even other pagans maligned them (such as the Roman Senate of the Middle Republic).

 

 

Futher reading materials are:

 

The Gods of Ancient Rome. Robert Turcan.

The Cults of the Roman Empire. Robert Turcan.

A Dictionary of Roman Gods and Goddesses. Adkins and Adkins.

"Isis." The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Hornblower and Spawforth.

Hellenistic Religions. Martin Luther.

[Skarr]

One thing to be noted about Egypt is that Egyptian women enjoyed a higher degree of freedom than the Greek women who were settled in Alexandria after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander. Even traditional male professions such as the practice of medecine was open to Egyptian women and there were not only women physicians but also scholars of repute, as many of them worked in the great library of Alexandria. Women also owned property and slaves of their own and could move about freely around the city. I think the Romans saw the cult of Isis as a dangerous replacement to their own religions and felt threatened, as Ursus points out, since it strengthened the power of women, something the Romans always feared.

 

It is easy to see why Christianity was readily embraced by the Romans as the unifying religion across the Empire as it was a completely male dominated religion and these cults (Isis, Magna Mater, etc.) were either forced to go underground or be acceptable only a suitably "virtuous" form, like the worship of Mary and the infant Jesus.

 

In any case, all of these are theories and no one really knows how these cults spread or what exactly their influence was in those times.

[Viggen]

Exellent post Ursus! (and currently featuring the headline news on the main page)

 

It deserves its own page and we just did that now...

 

The Cult of Isis

 

regards,viggen

[phil25]

Perhaps on a slight tangent to the main thrust of the thread, but I'd be interested in the views of others on this:

 

It seems to me that from C1st AD onwards (perhaps before but I am unaware of any evidence) the so-called "mystery" religeons of the east seem to have gained in popularity among Romans. Christianity was, of course, the final victor - or at least was the one eventually chosen to be used as the veneer for a re-directed/refurbished paganism, but the Elusianian mysteries, Sol Invictus, Mithraism and the Cult of Isis all had their devotees.

 

The main thing in common between all these is a faith that was personal, redeeming and which appears to have involved some idea of resurrection (the corn that has to die to be reborn at Elusis; Isis/Osiris; symbolic rebirth was a right of passage/initiation in Mithraism...).

 

I'd be interested to know what others think on the reasons for this. Was paganism failing, or was there some new spirit abroad? was it that the mystery cults were stronger than the old pagan ones; or was there a knew need aboraod in society that these imported cults could answer, but the old temples could not? If so, what was the force behind this?

 

Secondly, it is clear that Christianity took on aspects of it's rivals - the Madonna and Child is clearly Isis and Horus (such an image is not in the gospels or the epistles); Christmas Day- 25 December has links to the bithdate of Sol and Mithras; Mary as mother could well be Bona Dea; the pope took the title Pontifex Maximus - a title carried by Caesar as head of the Roman religeon.

 

So was it Christianity that triumphed (I write as a practising Christian in case there is a feeling I am knocking something)? Or do we have, in orthodox catholic Christianity today, some survival at least of ancient cults, including that of Isis?

 

Phil

[Ursus]

I think we have touched on this before in a variety of posts.

 

Ever since Alexander shattered the Greek city-state in favor of the universal empire, the trend was to replace local, communal deities with universal soteriological cults. The astrology and magic of West Asia, the belief in resurrection and savior gods from Egypt, the Pantheism and Idealism of Greek philosophy - all merged into one religious goo. Hellenistic religion was born.

 

From the Roman perspective, this started slowly penetrating into Roman society in the middle-late Republic from Hellenistic sailors and emigrants. It reached a critical mass after West Asia and North Africa (i.e the Hellenistic kingdoms) were formally integrated into the Empire shortly before the beginning of the Common Era.

 

In a world where one's home was increasingly the known civilized world rather than a little self-contained town, a local god thought living in his quaint home-town temple might not be able to help you if you were thousands of miles from home on war or business. But a truly universal god who lived in the heavens did not share local prejudice and could help you anywhere you were. Furthermore, if this god or goddess was armed with powerful magick and had the ability to cheat death and fate, he or she might be a powerful friend to have on your side.

 

Christianity grew in this framework, and was able to realize the logic of the new reality better than most of its competitors. Partly through outright assimilation, as you eluded to.

[Ursus]

Didn't one of the new comers have an interest in the cult of Isis? Maybe they can add to this.

 

*bump*

[Jasminia]

Great article! I just came across it via this post today. What I offer below is basically pieces of my various paper drafts and notes. Forgive the lack of citations, but I have provided a partial bibliography beneath.

 

Isis was first mentioned in the Pyramid texts, in which a very early and strong association between rulership occurs.

[Pertinax]

A useful and provocative post.

Does it mean that the transfiguration of Isis into the cult of the Virgin (Star of the Sea) was a matter of the passage of time ( amongst mariners and fishermen), given a desire for a Holy Mother? or is Magna Mater in this equation?

If the Lady Isis is profoundly cthonic, perhaps we can make some assumptions as regards the Mithraic cults ie: that the transmission of her worship by the soldiery is a logical concomitent of the Mithraic cult?

[Jasminia]

As far as I've discovered, though Isis was the goddess with "a thousand names", no epithet with a "virginity" aspect was ever noted before the similarities were noted between her and the Virgin Mary. Some have suggested that Isis was a virgin because of the myth describing when she discovered and magically assembled Osiris' body parts, scattered by Seth. Isis failed to find Osiris' phallus, so she magically created one in order to conceive Horus. The question of virginity taken by a magic penis remains to be argued.

 

Isis Pelagia (Isis of the Sea) was only one of her many epithets. Her association with waters began with her husband, Osiris, who enjoyed wider worship earlier than Isis. He was "the god who ruled over the cycles of fertility and growth"; in the months before the Nile's inundation "Osiris was effectively dead as a fertilizing power ... and Isis mourns for her lost husband" (Naydler 70-71) It is then the tears of Isis that cause the Nile to rise, revivifying and repotentizing the Nile, the land, and Osiris. Osiris, however, is still "dead" and becomes the god of the underworld (Osiris is depicted in Egyptian art as blue or green, which symbolized a deceased person). Their son, Horus (Harpocrates in Latin), takes the divine throne, and is the "protector of life, the guarantor or order and harmony on earth." (71) What emerges in this trinity is that Isis straddles the bridge between life an death, facilitates passage from one realm to another, heals the sick, brings bounty to the living, and is mother to the high ruler.

 

In Greco-Roman times, Isis became associated with the Mediterranean as well. She is associated with Sirius, the Dog-Star, which nagivators used.

 

All that said, I would argue that it is Osiris, not Isis, that is chthonic.

 

I think that Magna Mater may be as much of a factor in this equation as can or any other deity fit with similar qualities (life-giving, nurturing, etc.). Magna Mater is really just a Romanized form of the Phrygian Cybele and the Greek Rhea. In the same way that Magna Mater has changed, so have other gods with migrational skills. But if you're thinking about the neolithic "mother goddess", well, that's out of my histrocial period

 

I'm not sure what I think about a Roman desire for a "Holy Mother." Rather, I think of it as their perceived need for a "personal savior". Women may have been particularly attracted to Isis because they could fully participate in the religion and attain the highest offices.

 

Religious ideas and practices change through time and locale, especially when attempting to migrate into a "foreign" environment. Religions have to translate "religious elements from a language and culture of origin into a new language and culture and also adapting the religion to the new environment." (Bowen 150) By maintaining a set of core beliefs, while modifying peripheral beliefs or behaviors (mainly by syncretism), they were able to make the new religion less foreign while maintaining its exotic appeal.

 

I know very little about Mithraism, so I can't comment on any lines that can be drawn between the two. But the spread of the cult through the armies needs to be carefully considered. Isis' worship was disseminated through the military, trade, friends, families, slaves, and probably any type of social group you can think of. The military was critical in terms of sheer geography, but aside from that, I think they were neither a less nor a more effective means of transmission.

 

 

Sources:

 

Bowen, John R. Religions in Practice: An Approach to the Anthropology of Religion. Boston: Pearson Education, 2005.

 

Naydler, Jeremy. Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Rochester: Inner Traditions Int'l, 1996.

Edited August 2, 2006 by Jasminia