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Lot Essay
The Egyptian goddess Isis came to be immensely popular throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world. Her cult was first established outside of Egypt during the 4th century B.C. in Piraeus, the port of Athens, as well as in Puteoli in Campania. The increase in commerce in the Mediterranean during the late Hellenistic period let to the spread of the popularity of Isis, with a cult established in Delos and a Temple to Isis (Iseum) in Pompeii by the 2nd century B.C. The first years of Augustus' reign only strengthened the trade network to Rome from the provinces of Africa and Asia, which ushered Isis into the Roman empire.
Numerous images of the goddess survive, often shown with easily recognizable attributes such as an Egyptian crown, a sistrum and situla and the fringed mantle with the characteristic "Isis" knot between the breasts. By the Hadrianic period, there was an insatiable taste in Rome for luxurious colored stones (see p. 17 in M. Anderson and L. Nista, eds., Radiance in Stone, Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano) as evidenced by the emperor’s luxurious villa at Tivoli. The preference for colored stone in Roman art back harkens back to the Republic, when the Romans conquered the Hellenistic kingdoms to the East, including Egypt in 31 B.C. after the battle of Actium.
Numerous images of the goddess survive, often shown with easily recognizable attributes such as an Egyptian crown, a sistrum and situla and the fringed mantle with the characteristic "Isis" knot between the breasts. By the Hadrianic period, there was an insatiable taste in Rome for luxurious colored stones (see p. 17 in M. Anderson and L. Nista, eds., Radiance in Stone, Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano) as evidenced by the emperor’s luxurious villa at Tivoli. The preference for colored stone in Roman art back harkens back to the Republic, when the Romans conquered the Hellenistic kingdoms to the East, including Egypt in 31 B.C. after the battle of Actium.