Editing Isis (section)

====Temples and festivals====
[[File:David Roberts Temple Island Philae.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|right|alt=Painting of an island seen from across a river channel. On the island stand a series of stone buildings, gateways, and colonnades.|[[Philae]] as seen from [[Bigeh|Bigeh Island]], painted by [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]] in 1838]]
Down to the end of the New Kingdom, Isis's cult was closely tied to those of male deities such as Osiris, Min, or Amun. She was commonly worshipped alongside them as their mother or consort, and she was especially widely worshipped as the mother of various local forms of Horus.<ref>{{harvnb|Münster|1968|pp=189–190}}</ref> Nevertheless, she had independent priesthoods at some sites<ref>{{harvnb|Lesko|1999|p=169}}</ref> and at least one temple of her own, at Osiris's cult center of [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], during the late New Kingdom.<ref>{{harvnb|Münster|1968|pp=165–166}}</ref>

The earliest known major temples to Isis were the Iseion at [[Behbeit el-Hagar]] in northern Egypt and Philae in the far south. Both began construction during the Thirtieth Dynasty and were completed or enlarged by Ptolemaic kings.<ref>{{harvnb|Wilkinson|2003|p=149}}</ref> Thanks to Isis's widespread fame, Philae drew pilgrims from across the Mediterranean.<ref>{{harvnb|Dijkstra|2008|pp=186–187}}</ref> Many other temples of Isis sprang up in Ptolemaic times, ranging from [[Alexandria]] and [[Canopus, Egypt|Canopus]] on the Mediterranean coast to [[Triakontaschoinos|Egypt's frontier with Nubia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Dunand|Zivie-Coche|2004|pp=236–237, 242}}</ref> A series of temples of Isis stood in that region, stretching from Philae south to [[Maharraqa]], and were sites of worship for both Egyptians and various Nubian peoples.<ref>{{harvnb|Dijkstra|2008|pp=133, 137, 206–208}}</ref> The Nubians of Kush built their own temples to Isis at sites as far south as [[Wad ban Naqa]],<ref>{{harvnb|Yellin|2012a|p=245}}</ref> including one in their capital, [[Meroe]].<ref>{{harvnb|Yellin|2012b|pp=133}}</ref>

The most frequent temple rite for any deity was the daily offering ritual, in which priests clothed the deity's [[cult image]] and offered it food.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunand|Zivie-Coche|2004|pp=89–91}}</ref> In Roman times, temples to Isis in Egypt could be built either in Egyptian style, in which the cult image was in a secluded sanctuary accessible only to priests, and in a Greco-Roman style in which devotees were allowed to see the cult image.<ref name="Dunand & Zivie-Coche 300">{{harvnb|Dunand|Zivie-Coche|2004|pp=300–301}}</ref> Greek and Egyptian culture were highly intermingled by this time, and there may have been no ethnic separation between Isis's worshippers.<ref>{{harvnb|Naerebout|2007|pp=541, 547}}</ref> The same people may have prayed to Isis outside Egyptian-style temples and in front of her statue inside Greek-style temples.<ref name="Dunand & Zivie-Coche 300"/>

Temples celebrated many festivals in the course of the year, some nationwide and some very local.<ref>{{harvnb|Dunand|Zivie-Coche|2004|p=93}}</ref> An elaborate series of rites were performed all across Egypt for Osiris during the month of [[Khoiak]],<ref>{{harvnb|Assmann|2005|p=363}}</ref> and Isis and Nephthys were prominent in these rites at least as early as the New Kingdom.<ref name="Lesko 172">{{harvnb|Lesko|1999|pp=172–174}}</ref> In Ptolemaic times, two women acted out the roles of Isis and Nephthys during Khoiak, singing or chanting in mourning for their dead brother. Their chants are preserved in the [[Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys]] and [[Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys]].<ref name="Lesko 172"/><ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2009|pp=96–98, 103}}</ref>

Festivals dedicated to Isis eventually developed. In Roman times, Egyptians across the country celebrated her birthday, the Amesysia, by carrying the local cult statue of Isis through their fields, probably celebrating her powers of fertility.<ref>{{harvnb|Frankfurter|1998|pp=56, 61, 103–104}}</ref> The priests at Philae held a festival every ten days when the cult statue of Isis visited the neighboring island of [[Bigeh]], which was said to be Osiris's place of burial, and the priests performed funerary rites for him. The cult statue also visited the neighboring temples to the south, even during the last centuries of activity at Philae when those temples were run by Nubian peoples outside Roman rule.<ref>{{harvnb|Dijkstra|2008|pp=202–210}}</ref>

[[Christianity]] became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, including Egypt, during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. [[Decline of ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian temple cults died out]], gradually and at various times, from a combination of lack of funds and Christian hostility.<ref>{{harvnb|Frankfurter|1998|pp=18–20, 26–27}}</ref> Isis's temple at Philae, supported by its Nubian worshippers, still had an organized priesthood and regular festivals until at least the mid-fifth century CE, making it the last fully functioning temple in Egypt.<ref name="Dijkstra 342">{{harvnb|Dijkstra|2008|pp=342–347}}</ref>{{refn|group="Note"|Scholars have traditionally believed, based on the writings of [[Procopius]], that Philae was closed in about AD 535 by a military expedition under [[Justinian I]]. Jitse Dijkstra has argued that Procopius's account of the temple closure is inaccurate and that regular religious activity there ceased shortly after the last date inscribed at the temple, in 456 or 457 CE.<ref name="Dijkstra 342"/> Eugene Cruz-Uribe suggests instead that during the fifth and sixth centuries the temple lay empty most of the time, but Nubians living nearby continued to hold periodic festivals there until well into the sixth century.<ref>{{harvnb|Cruz-Uribe|2010|pp=504–506}}</ref>}}