Editing Isis (section)

==In the Greco-Roman world==

===Spread===
[[File:Temple of Isis, Delos 02.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A hillside littered with broken columns. An intact set of columns, supporting a pediment, still stand.|The remains of the temple of Isis on [[Delos]]]]
[[File:Tempio di Iside 12.JPG|thumb|right|The [[Temple of Isis (Pompeii)|Temple of Isis]] in [[Pompeii]]]]
[[File:Cossura Isis bronze coin.jpg|thumb|[[Cossura]] bronze coin showing a portrait of Isis with [[Punic language|Punic]] legend]]

Cults based in a particular city or nation were the norm across the ancient world until the mid- to late first millennium BCE, when increased contact between different cultures allowed some cults to spread more widely. Greeks were aware of Egyptian deities, including Isis, at least as early as the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Period]] ({{circa|700}}–480 BCE), and her first known temple in Greece was built during or before the fourth century BCE by Egyptians living in [[Athens]]. The [[wars of Alexander the Great|conquests of Alexander the Great]] late in that century created Hellenistic kingdoms around the Mediterranean and Near East, including Ptolemaic Egypt, and put Greek and non-Greek religions in much closer contact. The resulting [[trans-cultural diffusion|diffusion of cultures]] allowed many religious traditions to spread across the Hellenistic world in the last three centuries BCE. The new mobile cults adapted greatly to appeal to people from a variety of cultures. The cults of Isis and Serapis were among those that expanded in this way.{{sfn|Woolf|2014|pp=73–79}}

Spread by merchants and other Mediterranean travelers, the cults of Isis and Serapis were established in Greek port cities at the end of the fourth century BCE and expanded throughout Greece and Asia Minor during the third and second centuries. The Greek island of [[Delos]] was an early cult center for both deities, and its status as a trading center made it a springboard for the Egyptian cults to diffuse into Italy.{{sfn|Bommas|2012|pp=428–429}} Isis and Serapis were also worshipped at scattered sites in the [[Seleucid Empire]], the Hellenistic kingdom in the Middle East, as far east as [[Iran]], though they disappeared from the region as the Seleucids lost their eastern territory to the [[Parthian Empire]].{{sfn|Ma|2014|pp=133–134}}

Greeks regarded Egyptian religion as exotic and sometimes bizarre, yet full of ancient wisdom.{{sfn|Hornung|2001|pp=19–25}} Like other cults from the eastern regions of the Mediterranean, the cult of Isis attracted Greeks and Romans by playing upon its exotic origins,{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|pp=140–141}} but the form it took after reaching Greece was heavily Hellenized.{{sfn|Bommas|2012|pp=431–432}}

Isis's cult reached Italy and the Roman sphere of influence at some point in the second century BCE.{{sfn|Versluys|2004|pp=443–447}} It was one of many cults that were introduced to Rome as the [[Roman Republic]]'s territory expanded in the last centuries BCE. Authorities in the Republic tried to define which cults were acceptable and which were not, as a way of defining [[Romanitas|Roman cultural identity]] amid the cultural changes brought on by Rome's expansion.{{sfn|Orlin|2010|pp=3–7}} In Isis's case, shrines and altars to her were set up on the [[Capitoline Hill]], at the heart of the city, by private persons in the early first century BCE.{{sfn|Versluys|2004|pp=443–447}} The independence of her cult from the control of Roman authorities made it potentially unsettling to them.{{sfn|Beard|North|Price|1998|p=161}} In the 50s and 40s BCE, when the [[crisis of the Roman Republic]] made many Romans fear that [[pax deorum|peace among the gods]] was being disrupted, the [[Roman Senate]] destroyed these shrines,{{sfn|Takács|1995|pp=64–67}}{{sfn|Orlin|2010|pp=204–207}} although it did not ban Isis from the city outright.{{sfn|Versluys|2004|pp=443–447}}

Egyptian cults faced further hostility during the [[Final War of the Roman Republic]] (32–30 BCE), when Rome, led by [[Octavian]], the future [[Roman emperor|emperor]] Augustus, fought [[Reign of Cleopatra VII|Egypt under Cleopatra VII]].{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=124–125}} After Octavian's victory, he banned shrines to Isis and Serapis within the ''[[pomerium]]'', the city's innermost, sacred boundary, but allowed them in parts of the city outside the ''pomerium'', thus marking Egyptian deities as non-Roman but acceptable to Rome.{{sfn|Orlin|2010|p=211}} Despite being temporarily expelled from Rome during the reign of [[Tiberius]] (14–37 CE),{{refn|group="Note"|Tiberius's expulsion of the Egyptian cults was part of a broader reaction against religious practices that were regarded as a threat to order and tradition, including Judaism and [[Hellenistic astrology|astrology]]. [[Josephus]], a Roman-Jewish historian who gives the most detailed account of the expulsion, says the Egyptian cults were targeted because of a scandal in which a man posed as Anubis, with the help of Isis's priests, in order to seduce a Roman noblewoman. Sarolta Takács casts doubt on Josephus's account, arguing that it is fictionalized in order to convey a moral point.{{sfn|Takács|1995|pp=83–86}}}} the Egyptian cults gradually became an accepted part of the Roman religious landscape. The [[Flavian emperors]] in the late first century CE treated Serapis and Isis as patrons of their rule in much the same manner as traditional Roman deities such as [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and [[Minerva]].{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=138–139, 159–162}} Even as it was being integrated into Roman culture, Isis's worship developed new features that emphasized its Egyptian background.{{sfn|Wild|1981|pp=149–151}}{{sfn|Bommas|2012|p=431}}

The cults also expanded into Rome's western [[Roman province|provinces]], beginning along the Mediterranean coast in early imperial times. At their peak in the late second and early third centuries CE, Isis and Serapis were worshipped in most towns across the western empire, though without much presence in the countryside.{{sfn|Bricault|2000|p=206}} Their temples were found from [[Petra]] and [[Palmyra]], in the [[Arabia Petraea|Arabian]] and [[Syria (Roman province)|Syrian]] provinces, to [[Italica]] in [[Hispania|Spain]] and [[Londinium]] in [[Roman Britain|Britain]].{{sfn|Bricault|2001|pp=174–179}} By this time they were on a comparable footing with native Roman deities.{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=177, 180–182}}

===Roles===
[[File:Marble statue of Isis, the goddess holds a situla and sistrum, ritual implements used in her worship, from 117 until 138 AD, found at Hadrian's Villa (Pantanello), Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums (12945630725).jpg|thumb|alt=Marble staue of a woman holding a rattle in one hand and a pitcher in the other.|Roman statue of Isis, first or second century CE. She holds a [[sistrum]] and a pitcher of water, although these attributes were added in a seventeenth-century renovation.{{sfn|Tiradritti|2005|pp=21, 212}}]]
Isis's cult, like others in the Greco-Roman world, had no firm [[dogma]], and its beliefs and practices may have stayed only loosely similar as it diffused across the region and evolved over time.{{sfn|Beard|North|Price|1998|pp=248–249, 301–303}}{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=216–217}} Greek [[aretalogies]] that praise Isis provide much of the information about these beliefs. Parts of these aretalogies closely resemble ideas in late Egyptian hymns like those at Philae, while other elements are thoroughly Greek.{{sfn|Žabkar|1988|pp=135–137, 159–160}} Other information comes from [[Plutarch]] ({{circa|46}}–120 CE), whose book ''On Isis and Osiris'' interprets the Egyptian deities based on his [[Middle Platonist]] philosophy,{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=39–40}} and from several works of [[Greek literature|Greek]] and [[Latin literature]] that refer to Isis's worship, especially a novel by [[Apuleius]] ({{circa|125}}–180 CE) known as ''Metamorphoses'' or ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', which ends by describing how the main character has a vision of the goddess and becomes her devotee.{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=17–18}}

Elaborating upon Isis's role as a wife and mother in the Osiris myth, aretalogies call her the inventor of marriage and parenthood. She was invoked to protect women in childbirth and, in [[ancient Greek novel]]s such as the ''[[Ephesian Tale]]'', to protect their virginity.{{sfn|Heyob|1975|pp=48–50, 66–70}} Some ancient texts called her the patroness of women in general.{{sfn|Heyob|1975|p=53}}{{sfn|Kraemer|1992|p=74}} Her cult may have served to promote women's autonomy in a limited way, with Isis's power and authority serving as a precedent, but in myth she was devoted to, and never fully independent of, her husband and son. The aretalogies show ambiguous attitudes toward women's independence: one says Isis made women equal to men, whereas another says she made women subordinate to their husbands.{{sfn|Kraemer|1992|pp=76–77}}{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=190–192}}

Isis was often characterized as a moon goddess, paralleling the solar characteristics of Serapis.{{sfn|Sfameni Gasparro|2007|p=43}} She was also seen as a cosmic goddess more generally. Various texts claim she organized the behavior of the sun, moon, and stars, governing time and the seasons which, in turn, guaranteed the fertility of the earth.{{sfn|Pachis|2010|pp=307–313}} These texts also credit her with inventing agriculture, establishing laws, and devising or promoting other elements of human society. This idea derives from older Greek traditions about the role of various Greek deities and [[culture heroes]], including Demeter, in establishing civilization.{{sfn|Solmsen|1979|pp=34–35, 40–43}}

She also oversaw seas and harbors. Sailors left inscriptions calling upon her to ensure the safety and good fortune of their voyages. In this role she was called ''Isis Pelagia'', "Isis of the Sea", or ''Isis Pharia'', referring to a sail or to the island of Pharos, site of the [[Lighthouse of Alexandria]].{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=68, 74–75}} This form of Isis, which emerged in Hellenistic times, may have been inspired by Egyptian images of Isis in a barque, as well as by Greek deities who protected seafaring, such as Aphrodite.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=296–300}}{{sfn|Legras|2014|pp=96–97}} ''Isis Pelagia'' developed an added significance in Rome. Rome's food supply was dependent on [[Cura Annonae|grain shipments from its provinces]], especially Egypt. Isis therefore guaranteed fertile harvests and protected the ships that carried the resulting food across the seas—and thus ensured the [[salus|well-being of the empire]] as a whole.{{sfn|Pachis|2010|pp=283–286}} Her protection of the state was said to extend to Rome's armies, much as it was in Ptolemaic Egypt, and she was sometimes called ''Isis Invicta'', "Unconquered Isis".{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=177–178}} Her roles were so numerous that she came to be called ''myrionymos'', "one with countless names," and ''panthea'', "all-goddess".{{sfn|Donalson|2003|p=10}}

Both Plutarch and a later philosopher, [[Proclus]], mentioned a [[veil of Isis|veiled statue]] of the Egyptian goddess [[Neith]], whom they conflated with Isis, citing it as an example of her universality and enigmatic wisdom. It bore the words "I am all that has been and is and will be; and no mortal has ever lifted my mantle."{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=131, 284–285}}{{refn|group="Note"|The statue was at a temple in [[Sais]], Neith's cult center. She was largely conflated with Isis in Plutarch's time, and he says the statue is of "Athena [Neith], whom [the Egyptians] consider to be Isis". Proclus' version of the quotation says "no one has ever lifted my veil," implying that the goddess is virginal.{{sfn|Assmann|1997|pp=118–119}} This claim was occasionally made of Isis in Greco-Roman times, though it conflicted with the widespread belief that she and Osiris together conceived Horus.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=284}} Proclus also adds "The fruit of my womb was the sun", suggesting that the goddess conceived and gave birth to the sun without the participation of a male deity, which would mean it referred to Egyptian myths about Neith as the mother of Ra.{{sfn|Assmann|1997|pp=118–119}} }}

Isis was also said to benefit her followers in the afterlife, which was not much emphasized in Greek and Roman religion.{{sfn|Beard|North|Price|1998|pp=289–290}} ''The Golden Ass'' and inscriptions left by worshippers of Isis suggest that many of her followers thought she would guarantee them a better afterlife in return for their devotion. They characterized this afterlife inconsistently. Some said they would benefit from Osiris's enlivening water while others expected to sail to the [[Fortunate Isles]] of Greek tradition.{{sfn|Gasparini|2016|pp=135–137}}

As in Egypt, Isis was said to have power over fate, which in traditional Greek religion was a power not even the gods could defy. Valentino Gasparini says this control over destiny binds together Isis's disparate traits. She governs the cosmos, yet she also relieves people of their comparatively trivial misfortunes, and her influence extends into the realm of death, which is "individual and universal at the same time".{{sfn|Gasparini|2011|pp=700, 716–717}}

===Relationships with other deities===
[[File:Pompeii - Temple of Isis - Io and Isis - MAN.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Fresco of a seated woman with a cobra wrapped around her arm grasping the hand of a standing woman with small horns on her head|Isis welcoming [[Io (mythology)|Io]] to Egypt, from a fresco at [[Pompeii]], first century CE]]
More than a dozen Egyptian deities were worshipped outside Egypt in Hellenistic and Roman times in a series of interrelated cults, though many were fairly minor.{{sfn|Versluys|2007|pp=3–4}} Of the most important of these deities, Serapis was closely connected with Isis and often appeared with her in art, but Osiris remained central to her myth and prominent in her rituals.{{sfn|Takács|1995|pp=28–29}} Temples to Isis and Serapis sometimes stood next to each other, but it was rare for a single temple to be dedicated to both.{{sfn|Renberg|2017|p=331}} Osiris, as a dead deity unlike the immortal gods of Greece, seemed strange to Greeks and played only a minor role in Egyptian cults in Hellenistic times. In Roman times he became, like Dionysus, a symbol of a joyous afterlife, and the Isis cult increasingly focused on him.{{sfn|Bommas|2012|pp=425, 430–431}} Horus, often under the name [[Harpocrates]], also appeared in Isis's temples as her son by Osiris or Serapis. He absorbed traits from Greek deities such as [[Apollo]] and served as a god of the sun and of crops.{{sfn|Witt|1997|pp=210–212}} Another member of the group was Anubis, who was linked to the Greek god [[Hermes]] in his Hellenized form [[Hermanubis]].{{sfn|Witt|1997|pp=198–203}} Isis was also sometimes said to have learned her wisdom from, or even be the daughter of, [[Thoth]], the Egyptian god of writing and knowledge, who was known in the Greco-Roman world as [[Hermes Trismegistus]].{{sfn|Witt|1997|pp=206–207}}{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=263}}

Isis also had an extensive network of connections with Greek and Roman deities, as well as some from other cultures. She was not fully integrated into the Greek pantheon, but she was at different times equated with a variety of Greek mythological figures, including Demeter, Aphrodite, or [[Io (mythology)|Io]], a human woman who was turned into a cow and chased by the goddess [[Hera]] from Greece to Egypt.{{sfn|Solmsen|1979|pp=16–19, 53–57}} The cult of Demeter was an especially important influence on Isis's worship after its arrival in Greece.{{sfn|Pakkanen|1996|pp=91, 94–100}} Isis's relationship with women was influenced by her frequent equation with Artemis, who had a dual role as a virgin goddess and a promoter of fertility.{{sfn|Heyob|1975|pp=72–73}} Because of Isis's power over fate, she was linked with the Greek and Roman personifications of fortune, [[Tyche]] and [[Fortuna]].{{sfn|Donalson|2003|p=8}} At [[Byblos]] in [[Phoenicia]] in the second millennium BCE, Hathor had been worshipped as a form of the local goddess [[Baalat Gebal]]. Isis gradually replaced Hathor there in the course of the first millennium BCE{{sfn|Hollis|2009|pp=3–5}} and became syncretized with another goddess from the region, [[Astarte]].{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=326}} In [[Noricum]] in central Europe, Isis was syncretized with the local [[tutelary deity]] Noreia,{{sfn|Woolf|2014|p=84}} and at Petra she may have been linked with the Arab goddess [[al-Uzza]].{{sfn|Lahelma|Fiema|2008|pp=209–211}} The Roman author [[Tacitus]] said [["Isis" of the Suebi|Isis was worshipped by the Suebi]], a [[Germanic people]] living outside the empire, but he may have mistaken a [[Germanic deities|Germanic goddess]] for Isis because, like her, the goddess was symbolized by a ship.{{sfn|Rives|1999|pp=80, 162}}

Many of the aretalogies include long lists of goddesses with whom Isis was linked. These texts treat all the deities they list as forms of her, suggesting that in the eyes of the authors she was a summodeistic being: the one goddess for the entire [[oecumene|civilized world]].{{sfn|Sfameni Gasparro|2007|pp=54–56}}{{sfn|Smith|2010|pp=243–246}} In the Roman religious world, many deities were referred to as "one" or "unique" in religious texts like these. At the same time, [[Hellenistic philosophers]] frequently saw the unifying, abstract principle of the cosmos as divine. Many of them reinterpreted traditional religions to fit their concept of this highest being, as Plutarch did with Isis and Osiris.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2010|pp=17–21, 26–27}} In ''The Golden Ass'' Isis says "my one person manifests the aspects of all the gods and goddesses" and that she is "worshipped by all the world under different forms, with various rites, and by manifold names," although the Egyptians and Nubians use her true name, Isis.{{sfn|Hanson|1989|p=299}}{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=154–155}} But when she lists the forms in which various Mediterranean peoples worship her, she mentions only female deities.{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=143–144}} Greco-Roman deities were firmly divided by gender, thus limiting how universal Isis could truly be. One aretalogy avoids this problem by calling Isis and Serapis, who was often said to subsume many male gods, the two "unique" deities.{{sfn|Versnel|2011|pp=299–301}}{{sfn|Belayche|2010|pp=151–152}} Similarly, both Plutarch and Apuleius limit Isis's importance by treating her as ultimately subordinate to Osiris.{{sfn|Gasparini|2011|pp=706–708}} The claim that she was unique was meant to emphasize her greatness more than to make a precise theological statement.{{sfn|Versnel|2011|pp=299–301}}{{sfn|Belayche|2010|pp=151–152}}

===Iconography===
Images of Isis made outside Egypt were Hellenistic in style, like many of the images of her made in Egypt in Hellenistic and Roman times. The attributes she bore varied widely.{{sfn|Bianchi|2007|pp=480–482, 494}} She sometimes wore the Hathoric cow-horn headdress, but Greeks and Romans reduced its size and often interpreted it as a crescent moon.{{sfn|Delia|1998|pp=542–543}} She could also wear headdresses incorporating leaves, flowers, or ears of grain.{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=124–126}} Other common traits included corkscrew locks of hair and an elaborate mantle tied in a large knot over the breasts, which originated in ordinary Egyptian clothing but was treated as a symbol of the goddess outside Egypt.{{sfn|Walters|1988|pp=5–7}}{{refn|group="Note"|This knot is sometimes called the "Isis-knot", although it should not be confused with the ''tyet'' symbol, which is also sometimes called the "knot of Isis".{{sfn|Bianchi|1980|p=10}}}} In her hands she could carry a uraeus or a sistrum, both taken from her Egyptian iconography,{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=132–135}} or a [[situla]], a vessel used for [[libation]]s of water or milk that were performed in Isis's cult.{{sfn|Walters|1988|pp=20–25}}

As Isis-Fortuna or Isis-Tyche she held a rudder, representing control of fate, in her right hand and a [[cornucopia]], standing for abundance, in her left.{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=6–7}} As Isis Pharia she wore a cloak that billowed behind her like a sail, and as Isis Lactans, she nursed Harpocrates.{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=6–7, 74}} At times she was shown resting a foot on a [[celestial sphere]], representing her control of the cosmos.{{sfn|Pachis|2010|pp=305–306}} The diverse imagery sprang from her varied roles; as Robert Steven Bianchi says, "Isis could represent anything to anyone and could be represented in any way imaginable."{{sfn|Bianchi|2007|p=494}}

<gallery widths="200" heights="220">
File:Estatuas del Canope de Villa Adriana 01.JPG|alt=Bust of a woman set in a niche|Bust of Isis-[[Sothis]]-[[Demeter]] from [[Hadrian's Villa]], second century CE
File:Detail of Persephone-Isis, Statue group of Persephone (as Isis) and Pluto (as Serapis), from the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Gortyna, mid-2nd century AD, Heraklion Archaeological Museum (30391383045).jpg|alt=Life-size statue of a woman|Statue of Isis-[[Persephone]] with corkscrew locks of hair and a sistrum, from [[Gortyna]], second century CE
File:Isis-Aphrodite Petit Palais ADUT01910.jpg|Isis-Aphrodite, [[polychrome]] terracotta, [[Alexandria]], first century CE
File:Isis-Fortuna Walters 54751.jpg|alt=Metal figurine of a woman|Bronze figurine of Isis-[[Fortuna]] with a [[cornucopia]] and a rudder, first century CE
File:MANNapoli 8836 Isis Fortune painting.jpg|alt=Fresco of a woman standing with her foot on a blue sphere|Fresco of Isis wearing a crescent headdress and resting her foot on a celestial sphere, first century CE
File:Casa degli Amorini Dorati. Fresco. 09.JPG|[[Anubis]], [[Harpocrates]], Isis and [[Serapis]], fresco from [[Pompeii]]
</gallery>

===Worship===
[[File:NAMA 1193.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Funerary stele of Alexandra priestess of Isis, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens|NAMA]], [[Athens]].]]

====Adherents and priests====
Like most cults of the time, the Isis cult did not require its devotees to worship Isis [[religious exclusivism|exclusively]], and their level of commitment probably varied greatly.{{sfn|Beard|North|Price|1998|pp=236, 307–309}} Some devotees of Isis served as priests in a variety of cults and underwent several initiations dedicated to different deities.{{sfn|Burkert|1987|pp=46–50}} Nevertheless, many emphasized their strong devotion to her, and some considered her the focus of their lives.{{sfn|Bøgh|2015|pp=279–282}} They were among the very few religious groups in the Greco-Roman world to have a distinctive name for themselves, loosely equivalent to "Jew" or "Christian", that might indicate they defined themselves by their religious affiliation. However, the word—''Isiacus'' or "Isiac"—was rarely used.{{sfn|Beard|North|Price|1998|pp=236, 307–309}}

Isiacs were a very small proportion of the Roman Empire's population,{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=32–33}} but they came from every [[social class in ancient Rome|level of society]], from [[slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]] and [[freedmen]] to high officials and members of the imperial family.{{sfn|Takács|1995|pp=5–6}} Ancient accounts imply that Isis was popular with lower social classes, providing a possible reason why authorities in the Roman Republic, troubled by struggles between classes, regarded her cult with suspicion.{{sfn|Orlin|2010|p=206}} Women were more strongly represented in the Isis cult than in most Greco-Roman cults, and in imperial times, they could serve as priestesses in many of the same positions in the hierarchy as their male counterparts.{{sfn|Heyob|1975|p=87}} Women make up much less than half of the Isiacs known from inscriptions and are rarely listed among the higher ranks of priests,{{sfn|Heyob|1975|pp=95–96}} but because women are underrepresented in Roman inscriptions, their participation may have been greater than is recorded.{{sfn|Kraemer|1992|p=76}} Several Roman writers accused Isis's cult of encouraging promiscuity among women. Jaime Alvar suggests the cult attracted male suspicion simply because it gave women a venue to act outside their husbands' control.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=183–184}}

Priests of Isis were known for their distinctive shaven heads and white linen clothes, both characteristics drawn from Egyptian priesthoods and their requirements of [[ritual purity]].{{sfn|Donalson|2003|p=49}} A temple of Isis could include several ranks of priests, as well as various cultic associations and specialized duties for lay devotees.{{sfn|Heyob|1975|pp=93–94, 103–105}} There is no evidence of a hierarchy overseeing multiple temples, and each temple may well have functioned independently of the others.{{sfn|Bowden|2010|p=177}}

====Temples and daily rites====
[[File:Isiac water ceremony.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Refer to caption|Fresco of an Isiac gathering, first century CE. One priest tends a fire while another holds up a vessel of sacred water at the door of a temple flanked by [[sphinx]]es.{{sfn|Witt|1997|p=117}}]]

Temples to Egyptian deities outside Egypt, such as the [[Red Basilica]] in [[Pergamon]], the [[Temple of Isis at Pompeii]], or the [[Iseum Campense]] in Rome, were built in a largely Greco-Roman style but, like Egyptian temples, were surrounded by large courts enclosed by walls. They were decorated with Egyptian-themed artwork, sometimes including antiquities imported from Egypt. Their layout was more elaborate than that of traditional Roman temples and included rooms for housing priests and for various ritual functions, with a cult statue of the goddess in a secluded sanctuary.{{sfn|Bommas|2012|p=430}}{{sfn|Turcan|1996|pp=104–109}} Unlike Egyptian cult images, Isis's Hellenistic and Roman statues were life-size or larger. The daily ritual still entailed dressing the statue in elaborate clothes each morning and offering it libations, but in contrast with Egyptian tradition, the priests allowed ordinary devotees of Isis to see the cult statue during the morning ritual, pray to it directly, and sing hymns before it.{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=34–35, 39}}

Another object of veneration in these temples was water, which was treated as a symbol of the waters of the Nile. Isis temples built in Hellenistic times often included underground cisterns that stored this [[Sacred waters|sacred water]], raising and lowering the water level in imitation of the Nile flood. Many Roman temples instead used a pitcher of water that was worshipped as a cult image or manifestation of Osiris.{{sfn|Wild|1981|pp=60–61, 154–157}}

====Personal worship====
Roman ''[[lararia]]'', or household shrines, contained statuettes of the ''[[penates]]'', a varied group of protective deities chosen based on the preferences of the members of the household.{{sfn|Bodel|2008|pp=258, 261–262}} Isis and other Egyptian deities were found in ''lararia'' in Italy from the late first century BCE{{sfn|Alvar|2008|p=192}} to the beginning of the fourth century CE.{{sfn|Bodel|2008|p=261}}

The cult asked both ritual and moral purity of its devotees, periodically requiring ritual baths or days-long periods of sexual abstinence. Isiacs sometimes displayed their piety on irregular occasions, singing Isis's praises in the streets or, as a form of [[penance]], declaring their misdeeds in public.{{sfn|Bøgh|2015|pp=281–282}}

Some temples to Greek deities, including Serapis, practiced [[incubation (ritual)|incubation]], in which worshippers slept in a temple hoping that the god would appear to them in a dream and give them advice or heal their ailments. Some scholars believe that this practice took place in Isis's temples, but there is no firm evidence that it did.{{sfn|Renberg|2017|pp=392–393}} Isis was, however, thought to communicate through dreams in other circumstances, including to call worshippers to undergo initiation.{{sfn|Bøgh|2015|p=278}}

====Initiation====
{{main|Mysteries of Isis}}
Some temples of Isis performed [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery rites]] to [[religious initiation rites|initiate]] new members of the cult. These rites were claimed to be of Egyptian origin and may have drawn on the secretive tendencies of some Egyptian rites.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=42–43}} However, they were mainly based on Greek mystery cults, especially the [[Eleusinian mysteries]] dedicated to Demeter, colored with Egyptian elements.{{sfn|Burkert|1987|p=41}}{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|p=116}}{{refn|group="Note"|The mystery rites may have emerged as part of the Hellenization of Isis under the Ptolemies in the third century BCE,{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=58–61}} in Greece under the influence of the cult of Demeter in the first century BCE,{{sfn|Pakkanen|1996|pp=78–82}} or as late as the first or second century CE.{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|pp=113–114}} Even after the initiation ceremony had developed, few texts in Egypt referred to it.{{sfn|Venit|2010|p=90}}}} Although mystery rites are among the best-known elements of Isis's Greco-Roman cult, they are only known to have been performed in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor.{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|pp=113–114}} By giving the devotee a dramatic, mystical experience of the goddess, initiations added emotional intensity to the process of joining her following.{{sfn|Bøgh|2015|p=278}}

''The Golden Ass'', in describing how the protagonist joins Isis's cult, gives the only detailed account of Isiac initiation.{{sfn|Burkert|1987|p=97}} Apuleius's motives for writing about the cult and the accuracy of his fictionalized description are much debated. But the account is broadly consistent with other evidence about initiations, and scholars rely heavily on it when studying the subject.{{sfn|Bowden|2010|pp=165–167, 179–180}}

Ancient mystery rites used a variety of intense experiences, such as nocturnal darkness interrupted by bright light and loud music and noise, to overwhelm their senses and give them an intense [[religious experience]] that felt like direct contact with the god they devoted themselves to.{{sfn|Bowden|2010|pp=215–216}} Apuleius's protagonist, Lucius, undergoes a series of initiations, though only the first is described in detail. After entering the innermost part of Isis's temple at night, he says, "I came to the boundary of death and, having trodden on the threshold of [[Proserpina]], I travelled through all the elements and returned. In the middle of the night I saw the sun flashing with bright light, I came face to face with the gods below and the gods above and paid reverence to them from close at hand."{{sfn|Hanson|1989|p=341}} This cryptic description suggests that the initiate's symbolic journey to the world of the dead was likened to Osiris's rebirth, as well as to Ra's journey through the underworld in Egyptian myth,{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=315–317}} possibly implying that Isis brought the initiate back from death as she did her husband.{{sfn|Turcan|1996|p=121}}

====Festivals====
Roman calendars listed the two most important [[Roman festival|festivals]] of Isis as early as the first century CE. The first festival was the [[Navigium Isidis]] in March, which celebrated Isis's influence over the sea and served as a prayer for the safety of seafarers and, eventually, of the Roman people and their leaders.{{sfn|Salzman|1990|pp=169–175}} It consisted of an elaborate procession, including Isiac priests and devotees with a wide variety of costumes and sacred emblems, carrying a model ship from the local Isis temple to the sea{{sfn|Donalson|2003|pp=68–73}} or to a nearby river.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|p=299}} The other was the [[Isia (festival)|Isia]] in late October and early November. Like its Egyptian forerunner, the Khoiak festival, the Isia included a ritual reenactment of Isis's search for Osiris, followed by jubilation when the god's body was found.{{sfn|Alvar|2008|pp=300–302}} Several more minor festivals were dedicated to Isis, including the [[Pelusia]] in late March that may have celebrated the birth of Harpocrates, and the [[Lychnapsia]], or lamp-lit festival, that celebrated Isis's own birth on August 12.{{sfn|Salzman|1990|pp=169–175}}

Festivals of Isis and other polytheistic deities were celebrated throughout the fourth century CE, despite the [[Christianization of the Roman Empire|growth of Christianity]] in that era and the [[Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire|persecution of pagans]] that intensified toward the end of the century.{{sfn|Salzman|1990|pp=232–236}} The Isia was celebrated at least as late as 417 CE,{{sfn|Turcan|1996|p=128}} and the Navigium Isidis lasted well into the sixth century.{{sfn|Salzman|1990|p=239}} Increasingly, the religious meaning of all Roman festivals was forgotten or ignored even as the customs continued. In some cases, these customs became part of the combined classical and Christian culture of the [[Early Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Salzman|1990|pp=240–246}}