Temple of Isis (Pompeii)
[1] Its role as a Hellenized Egyptian temple in a Roman colony was fully confirmed with an inscription detailed by Francisco la Vega on July 20, 1765.
[3] The preserved Pompeian temple is actually the second structure; the original building built during the reign of Augustus was damaged in an earlier earthquake, in 62 AD.
[4] It is reported that there were no volunteers to undertake this process, and that the cult only grew in popularity from this point, so much so that the Temple of Isis was one of the only buildings to be fully rebuilt after the earthquake.
[1] Although the Iseum was wedged into a small and narrow space, it received significant foot traffic from theater-goers at the Large Theater, businessmen in the Triangular Forum, and others along the Stabian Gate.
[1] Initiates of the Isis mystery cult[5] worshipped a compassionate goddess who promised eventual salvation and a perpetual relationship throughout life and after death.
[1] The cult of Isis is thought to have arrived in Pompeii around 100 BCE; the existing temple was built following the destruction of its predecessor in the earthquake of 62 CE.
[9] Three years after the Battle of Actium, in 28 BCE, Octavian encouraged the worship of Isis and the rebuilding of her associated temples, but strictly outside the borders of the pomerium.
Isis is most associated with fertility and motherhood, and was looked to as the ideal image of a queen, wife, and mother but is also known for powers in healing and magic.
The mixture of Eastern stylistic influences with Hellenistic paid tribute to Isis' Egyptian roots, while still keeping the imagery domestic.
[14] Egyptian features of this temple include: purgatorium, a roofless enclosure in the southeast corner of the courtyard that demarcates a subterranean room with a basin for Nile waters.
[8] It also features a large room - called an Ekklesiasterion - at the back of the sanctuary, which functioned as a gathering area for the members of the cult to participate in rituals.
[16] This may represent a spring sailing season celebration, navigium Isidis, since Isis restores her husband-brother to life by towing a boat filled with sacred waters.
The speed of this particular rebuilding is consistent with suggestions that Isis held an important role in Pompeiian daily life, both religiously and politically.
During the extraction of this material, Weber's workers dug haphazardly around the site looking for valuable sculptural finds, back-filling immediately afterwards to prevent collapse.
Although Weber, determined to produce accurate maps of the orientation of the villages and individual buildings, believed the newly discovered areas should be left exposed for public exhibition.
[28] In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Temple of Isis in Pompeii served also as the subject of written depictions and illustrations, many of which romanticized and exoticized the Egyptian cult center.
[22] One particular book written by Giambattista Piranesi in 1804, Antiquités de Pompeìa, includes illustrations of Egyptian symbols which are not historically accurate to what has been excavated at Pompeii and depictions of the Temple of Isis at a much larger than factual scale.
[22] Its intense shadowing and looming clouds only contribute to the Egyptomanian tendency to mystify and marginalize Egypt as it compares to post-Enlightenment European notions of religion.
Photographs of the temple's ruins, taken by archeologists and compiled in the "Pompeii in Pictures" webpage demonstrate the disparity in size between these illustrations and the physical space itself.
