Editing Arsinoe II (section)

==Deification==
[[File:Arsinoe II.jpg|thumb|350px|Coin of Arsinoe II struck under the rule of her husband-brother [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], including her main divine attributes: the ram's horn and the double [[cornucopia]]]]
{{Ancient Egyptian religion}}
She died in 270 or 268 BC and circumstantial evidence supports the latter date.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oppen |first=Branko van |year=2010 |title=The Death of Arsinoe II Philadelphus: The Evidence Reconsidered |url=https://www.academia.edu/245632 |journal=[[Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik]] |volume=174 |pages=139–150}}</ref> After her death, Ptolemy II established a cult of Arsinoe Philadelphus. She received burial and deification rites at [[Mendes]], where she had been a priestess. Those rites are commemorated in the [[Mendes stele]]. This stele also includes the decree of Ptolemy II announcing her cult. All temples in Egypt were required to include a cult statue of Arsinoe II alongside the main deity of the sanctuary. In the relief at the top of the stele, Arsinoe is depicted among the deities receiving sacrifice from Ptolemy - an image that recurs throughout the country. Separate temples were constructed for Arsinoe, at [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], and elsewhere. The [[Fayyum]] region became the [[Arsinoite nome]], with Arsinoe as its patron goddess. From 263 BC, a portion of tax on orchard and vineyard produce in each nome of Egypt was dedicated to funding the local cult of Arsinoe.<ref name=H1014>{{harvnb|Holbl|2001|pp=101–104}}</ref>

Arsinoe's cult was also propagated in Alexandria. An annual priesthood, known as the [[Kanephoros|Canephorus]] of Arsinoe Philadelphus, was established by 269 BC. The holder of the office was included as part of the dating formula in all official documents until the late second century BC. An annual procession was held in Arsinoe's honour, led by the Canephorus. Every household along the procession's route was required to erect a small altar of sand and sacrifice birds and lentils for Arsinoe.<ref>[[P. Oxy]] 27.2465.</ref> A large temple was erected by the harbour in Alexandria. The admiral Callicrates of Samos erected [[Sanctuary of Arsinoe Aphrodite at Cape Zephyrion|another sanctuary]] at Cape Zephyrium, at the eastern end of the harbour, where Arsinoe was worshipped as Aphrodite Euploia (Aphrodite of the good-sailing). Similar sanctuaries were established at a number of port-cities under Ptolemaic control, including [[Citium]] in Cyprus, [[Delos]] in the [[Nesiotic League]], and [[Thera]]. As a result of these sanctuaries, Arsinoe became closely associated with protection from shipwrecks. Coinage and statuettes depicting the divine Arsinoe survive.<ref name=H1014/> Her divine attributes are a small ram's horn behind her ear - symbolising her connection to the ram of Mendes - and a pair of [[cornucopia]]e which she carries. She appears in this guise on a set of mass-produced [[faience]] [[Oenochoe|Oenochoae]], which seem to have been associated with funerary ritual in Alexandria.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=D.B. |title=Ptolemaic Oinochoai and Portraits in Faience: Aspects of the Ruler-Cult |date=1973 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford}}</ref>

Arsinoe seems to have been a genuinely popular goddess throughout the Ptolemaic period, with both Greeks and Egyptians, in Egypt and beyond. 'Arsinoe' is one of the few Greek names to be naturalised as an Egyptian personal name in the period. Altars and dedicatory plaques in her honour are found throughout Egypt and the Aegean, while hundreds of her faience oenochoae have been found in the cemeteries of Alexandria.