The gate of the year

Marble statue of Isis (II century A.D.) from the Farnese Collection of the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Naples, Italy.
Isis’s identification with Demeter and Persephone determined the development of her cult in the West on the model of the Mysteries of Eleusis, in which the adepts undergone a form of initiation that should secure them the salvation in an otherworldly realm. Mystery cults became very popular in the first centuries of the Christian era, and attracted disciples from every social backgrounds. Apuleius, in the II century B.C., describes, in his work the Metamorphosis, the goddess Isis as the Queen of Heaven (Regina caeli) and identifies her both with Demeter (Ceres) and with Persephone (Proserpine). The goddess presents herself as “the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, queen of all that are in hell, the principal of them that dwell in heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses” (Apuleius, XI, 5, trans. W. Adlington).
In the papyri with magical contents, written in Greek and in Coptic in the first centuries of the Christian age, appears a more gloomy and dark aspect of Isis. The goddess is invoked as mistress of the magic power, who makes filters, knows the herbs and has the power to heal. She was identified with Selene (the Moon), but also with the Earth, as goddess of fertility, of the spring and of the soil fertilized by the waters of the Nile. That is why she is often represented with the horn of abundance in her hand. Because of her identification with the Earth and her ancient association with Osiris, she deserved furthermore the attribute of a chthonian deity, associated with the “people of the dead” (Tardieu, 1981). These last characteristics of the goddess probably contributed to the creation of the images of female divinities of the night who appear in Medieval traditions and are at the root of what the inquisitors called the “Sabbath” of the witches (Ginzburg, 1989).

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortuna_Isis_MAN_Napoli_Inv6368.jpg]




Female Symbols

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Marble statue of Isis (II century A.D.) from the Farnese Collection of the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), Naples, Italy. Isis’s identification with Demeter and Persephone determined the development of her cult in the West on the model of the Mysteries of Eleusis, in which the adepts undergone a form of initiation that should secure them the salvation in an otherworldly realm. Mystery cults became very popular in the first centuries of the Christian era, and attracted disciples from every social backgrounds. Apuleius, in the II century B.C., describes, in his work the Metamorphosis, the goddess Isis as the Queen of Heaven (Regina caeli) and identifies her both with Demeter (Ceres) and with Persephone (Proserpine). The goddess presents herself as “the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of the powers divine, queen of all that are in hell, the principal of them that dwell in heaven, manifested alone and under one form of all the gods and goddesses” (Apuleius, XI, 5, trans. W. Adlington). In the papyri with magical contents, written in Greek and in Coptic in the first centuries of the Christian age, appears a more gloomy and dark aspect of Isis. The goddess is invoked as mistress of the magic power, who makes filters, knows the herbs and has the power to heal. She was identified with Selene (the Moon), but also with the Earth, as goddess of fertility, of the spring and of the soil fertilized by the waters of the Nile. That is why she is often represented with the horn of abundance in her hand. Because of her identification with the Earth and her ancient association with Osiris, she deserved furthermore the attribute of a chthonian deity, associated with the “people of the dead” (Tardieu, 1981). These last characteristics of the goddess probably contributed to the creation of the images of female divinities of the night who appear in Medieval traditions and are at the root of what the inquisitors called the “Sabbath” of the witches (Ginzburg, 1989). [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortuna_Isis_MAN_Napoli_Inv6368.jpg]