Temple of Isis, Pompeii

About

A small temple to Isis stood in Pompeii's theatre quarter, rebuilt from its foundations after the earthquake of 62 CE at the expense of a freedman's six-year-old son — the boy was enrolled in the town council in return. Steps led up to a podium shrine; behind it a sunken basin held Nile water for purification, and a side room was painted with Egyptian scenes for initiates. The cult drew servants, freedmen and women in numbers no civic temple matched. Vesuvius buried the building in 79 CE. In 117 CE it lies under several metres of ash, its walls and paintings intact and unreachable.

What happened here

The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.

In ancient writing

• CIL X 846, dedication after 62 CE

  Numerius Popidius Celsinus, a boy of six, rebuilt the temple from its foundations at his own expense after the earthquake of 62 CE, and the council enrolled him free of charge in thanks — the money, of course, was his father's.

Sources

• https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Nearby

Temple of Jupiter / Capitolium

443 m

Temple of Apollo

463 m

Temple of Apollo, Pompeii

516 m

Stabian Baths

177 m

Tomb of Vestorius Priscus

282 m

Pompeii

374 m