The Goddess’s New Clothes. Conceptualising an ‘Eastern’ Goddess for a ‘Western’ Audience

Abstract

This paper deals with the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis, which spread through all the provinces of the Roman Empire and has left us with a rich compound of archaeological remains. In this contribution I want to ask how a religious idea could be transferred by means of material culture and especially by means of iconography. With the help of some illustrative examples that represent some of the major problems in the methodology, different ways of ‘translating’ foreign concepts into an intelligible visual system for the recipients shall be revealed. The transfer of this religious entity was only possible if people had a certain image of the goddess and her cult in their minds, one that they could identify with, but that was still innovative and interesting enough to stimulate sufficient fascination to adapt the cult. Therefore, its pictorial conception, consisting of cult statues, mythological scenes, and other depictions of the deities, was of vital importance. How can we evaluate changes and developments within the iconography or determine the ancient viewer’s understanding of them? How are original Egyptian iconographic and stylistic elements dealt with? Very often such elements are put into a new context, combined with Hellenistic or Roman motifs and the overall visual tradition of these dominating cultures. While the references to the Eastern origins are visually obvious, we have to question their deeper meaning and its possible changes on their way into the West.