Olha Aliakina
Google
The temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis is a small sanctuary in the center of ancient Pompeii. Her name was engraved on the stones of the temple. The goddess Isis came to the Roman Empire from culture of Ancient Egypt, where she was revered as the goddess of fertility and prosperity.
The Temple of Isis was built by immigrants from Egypt in the second century BC. that is, before Egypt was conquered by the Romans. The central sanctuary is surrounded by columns. The facade of the temple of Isis is depicted on one of the frescos found in ancient Pompeii. It depicted a sacrifice in honor of the goddess in front of the temple.
Entrance faces the courtyard, surrounded by a four-sided portico. The portico was decorated with red panels and portrayed priests in ceremonial clothes and Egyptian landscapes, separated by architectural themes. The upper zone contained images of a temple and small paintings of landscapes and still lifes on a white background. All the surviving decorations can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples in rooms dedicated to the temple and its finds
The temple that is on the podium in the middle of the courtyard has an entrance with a portico with niches on either side of the entrance. The walls were originally covered with white plaster, and along the back wall was a raised base, designed to support the statues of Isis and Osiris. In the niche on the back of the podium was a statue of Dionysus with a panther.
The main altar of the temple is not in the temple itself, but to the left of the entrance along with the second altar on the south side. On the east side of the complex is a small temple-like building with a staircase leading down to the underground cistern containing the sacred waters of the Nile. A small temple was called Purgatorium, the place where the purification ceremonies were held. The facade has a broken triangular pediment and a frieze with two processions of priests converging towards the center. Mars with Venus and Perseus with Andromeda are shown on the relief on the outside of the wall.
To the west of the temple is a large room, known as the Ecclesiasterion.
To the south of this room is a room, which was called a sacristy and used to store religious objects. The room is covered with frescoes depicting snakes guarding a wicker basket adorned with moon symbols. In the southeast corner of the complex, a number of rooms are open from the south side of the portico. These rooms were the living quarters of Pastophorion priests and include a kitchen, a triclinium and a cubical.
The ancient Roman Empire had an interesting relationship with the gods of other cultures. It was allowed to pray to any god of another people if a person also sacrificed to the state gods (Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn, etc.) and deified emperors. If a person refused to pray to the gods of Rome, he could be killed. So for example, there were thousands of Christians in the first few centuries of the Nativity of Christ.
