Supervisors info:
Ὀλγα Παλαγγιά, Επίτιμη Καθηγήτρια Kλασικής Αρχαιολογίας, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Στυλιανός Κατάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής Kλασικής Αρχαιολογίας, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Πάνος Βαλαβάνης, Καθηγητής Kλασικής Αρχαιολογίας, τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Isis is an Egyptian goddess of fertility and the underworld with mostly egyptian symbols and appearance. From the 4th century and after though, her cult is introduced to the greek world and is spreading around fast because the goddess has more and more qualities and characteristics and she is transformed into a helper, a protector and a healer of the less fortunate people. This brings as a result her big popularity to the poor masses. In order to be more familiar to the people she stops having the corns of cow and the solar disc on top of her pharaonic wig and adopts a more greek appearance with long curls and a chiton and himation as garments. She still keeps of course some elements that connect her with her egyptian origin, such as the isiac knot between her breasts and the situla of fertility and the rattle that she holds in her hands. Sometimes though, even these elements are not present in her sculptures that are usually made of marble, although clay and bronze are also used too. We can see her then, holding symbols that belong to various greek goddesses such as the “ears” of wheat of Demetra and the roses of Aphrodite.
The degree of hellenism of Isis is not the same in all her greek sanctuaries and it is not happening at the same time. Sometimes it depends on the cosmopolitan or commercial status of the area and on how religious or not is the character of the sanctuary itself. For example the sanctuary of Isis in Delos island which was a famous multicultural and vast port, shows sculptures of the goddess that are pure greek. On the other hand, the sanctuary of Isis at Marathon that has strong religious purpose and is more isolated, shows the goddess with all her egyptian symbols.
The purpose of this thesis is to present and study the sculptures of Isis in the greek world, connecting them with the sanctuary they were found in and its character, always though keeping chronological order. This way, the aim is to study the degree of hellenism in the sculptures in relation to the special character of each sanctuary and in relation to the passing of the centuries, starting from the hellenistic period and continuing until the first centuries A.D.
