The Isis-Aphrodite

This figure of Isis-Aphrodite is currently on exhibit in the Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Museum. It is displayed alongside several other artworks of deities from the ancient Mediterranean, each individual object incorporating aspects from a myriad of religious systems and cults. The Isis-Aphrodite figure dates back to the Roman Empire sometime between 150-200 CE. It is made from a copper alloy and would once have been a burnished orange, but now appears a dark green-gray.

It is 29.9 cm tall and 15.3 cm wide. The figure stands with her weight on her right leg and her left leg slightly bent, in a relaxed contrapposto, her right foot slightly forward. Her arms are outstretched but bent at the elbows. In her left hand she holds a small pedestal upon which a miniature figure sits; in her right hand she grasps a handle, though the body of the object has come unattached.

She is naked, but wears an array of jewelry: two armbands, round earrings, a necklace, and a crown. Her hair is parted down the middle and pulled back into a knot at the nape of her neck, with a coil of hair across each shoulder. She looks directly toward the viewer, her expression neutral. Her eyes sockets are large and round but empty, and might once have contained inlays.

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The figure embodies the goddesses Isis and Aphrodite, two foreign deities that were adopted by syncretic religious cults of the Roman Empire. Isis was one of the primary deities of the Egyptian pantheon, fulfilling a myriad of roles and responsibilities. As a wife and mother, magical healer, and protector of the dead, she was one of the most diverse deities of ancient Egypt. She was the wife and sister of Osiris, god of the dead and the afterlife, and the mother of Horus, god of the sky and the pharaohs; thus, Isis was closely associated with the afterlife, resurrection, fertility, and kingship (1).

Even before the Romans conquered Egypt and adopted its gods, the Egyptians themselves had blurred the lines between their individual deities. Isis, notably, was closely associated with several deities, and dabbled in many domains. Most pertinent here is her association with the goddess Hathor, who was the personification of love and sexuality. It may have been the close tie between Isis and Hathor that allowed Isis to be so easily associated with the goddess Aphrodite during the Hellenistic and Roman eras, as Hathor served as a parallel to Aphrodite (4).

As Hathor was the Egyptian goddess of love and sexuality, Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She was the daughter of Uranus, the primeval god of the sky, and wife to Hephaestus, god of the forge and fire. As the goddess of sexuality, Aphrodite was often depicted nude – more so in later eras. She was also often portrayed with her sacred animal, the dove, or one of her many symbols, such as a mirror, apple, or shell.

When Alexander the Great, and later the Romans, conquered Egypt, they adopted the Egyptian Pantheon into the Greek one; some cults merged Isis with Aphrodite, and worshipped Isis-Aphrodite as a goddess of their combined realms. They also combined the two goddesses' iconography, as in the figure from the Archeological Museum. It would be difficult to identify the figure by its physiognomy alone, but it is made recognizable by its adornments and their symbolism.

Several details help to identify the figure as some version of Aphrodite. The figure is unclothed, as Aphrodite was commonly depicted by this era. As the goddess of love and sexuality, she was often portrayed naked, and represented an ideal of beauty. She was also believed to have risen from the sea fully naked, born from seafoam when Uranus's genitalia were cut off by his son Kronos and thrown into the ocean. Her very origin reinforces the notion of her sexuality and lends credence to later depictions of her in the nude.

The figure of Isis-Aphrodite is, however, adorned with lavish jewelry, as images of Aphrodite sometimes are. Of special note is the crown she wears – a Greek stephane, a metal headband that rose in the center and tapered down toward the temples. Greek female deities were often shown wearing a stephane, and sometimes a veil, which marked their divinity.

The figure also holds two objects in her hands. In her right, she grasps a handle, although the upper part of the object is no longer attached; it is thought, however, to have once been a mirror. Mirrors were one of Aphrodite's many symbols, and represented her unmatched beauty. Nonetheless, this is only a postulate, and one cannot be sure what the missing element actually was.

In her other hand, though, she still holds a small pedestal surmounted by a sitting figure. This component is what identifies the figure as Isis-Aphrodite. The pedestal resembles a lotus blossom, a sacred flower of the Egyptians that represented renewal. The flower would close at night and reopen at the dawn, and thus represented the daily cycle of the sun; it also represented rebirth, and was thus closely related to Osiris – Isis's husband - and the realm of the dead (3).

Accordingly, the lotus was also associated with Isis herself. Sitting on the lotus is an image of the infant Harpocrates, who was a manifestation of Horus and the young sun (2). Harpocrates has a finger in his mouth and wears a disk on his head, a symbol of the sun. The details limn a very comprehensive image of Harpocrates, identifying the miniature figure as a canonical depiction of the young Horus, Isis's son. One of Isis's roles was that of a mother, and she was a fierce protectress. She is sometimes depicted with him, as in the Isis-Aphrodite figure.

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Isis-Egyptian-goddess
2. http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=169
3. http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/glossary.aspx?id=225
4. http://www.academia.edu/5011152/The_Hellenistic-Roman_cult_of_Isis

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