Editing Isis (section)

====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}}