Ploiaphesia

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Navigium Isidis or return of Osiris ; Wall painting from the Temple of Isis in Pompeii ; National Archaeological Museum, Naples (Inv. 8929)

The Ploiaphesia ( ancient Greek πλοιαφέσια "exit of the ship", in Latin navigium Isidis "exit of Isis") were a cult festival dedicated to Isis , Hellenistic - Roman times, which was celebrated at the beginning of the shipping season in spring.

Name and fixed date

The name Ploiaphesia is first encountered in an inscription from the 1st century from Byzantium , then in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius in the 2nd century, and finally in the 6th century by Johannes Lydos . Johannes Lydos sets the feast date to March 5th, and under this day the Menelogia rustica, probably from the Julio -Claudian period, lead the feast navigium, which is called Isidis navigium in Filocalus' calendar from the 4th century . But it was already known by this name as lactant .

Apuleius gives a detailed description of this feast of Isis, who was already the patron goddess of shipping for the Greeks, as from her epithets Euploia (“the good seafaring”), Pharia (after her sanctuary on the lighthouse island Pharos ) and Pelagia (“from the sea “). According to Apuleius, the festival was celebrated on the first full moon day, when the sun was in the zodiac sign Aries, so it was subject to the fluctuations of a lunisolar calendar , like Easter , with which it falls on almost the same day .

procession

The scene at Apuleius is the Isis sanctuary of Kenchreai , one of the ports of Corinth , which already testifies to the spread of the cult festival. The people taking part were in a happy mood and masked imaginatively, even animals were disguised. After the train had taken up line, the procession moved from the sanctuary of Isis to the port. It was led by women in white robes who scattered flowers on the path and poured out fragrant liquids. Men and women carried torches and lights in honor of the goddess, the mother of the stars. A choir sang songs, musicians accompanied the train with their wind instruments. After heralds urged to make room, those initiated into the cult followed, followed by the priests. The priests carried the symbols of the goddess: a bright lamp, auxiliary altars, a palm branch and more. Once at the port, gifts and offerings were placed. A ship built for the occasion was ritually cleaned and then loaded with offerings. The sail of the ship, which carried a tall mast, was woven with blessings for the New Year's seafaring. Finally the anchor ropes were loosened and the ship drifted out to sea in a breeze until it vanished from view. Then the procession returned and a priest called Grammateus called the pastophores together. Then, from special writings, he pronounced votes on emperors, senates and equites as well as the Roman people, and finally on all seamen and ships under Roman rule.

distribution

The cult of Isis staff that take in connection with the Ploiaphesia leaves, were from late Republican-Hellenistic period inscriptions traditional Nauarchen ( ναύαρχοι ) trierarchs ( τριήραρχοι ) Hieronauten ( ἱεροναῦται ) and Naubatai ( ναυβάται ). Nauarch and Trierarch connote terms from military shipping. Anyone who fitted out an Isis ship was the “master of the ship” and appeared as the official of the festival. Inscriptions by holders of these titles are known from different parts of the Roman Empire .

The oldest inscriptions mentioning the Nauarchs related to the Isis cult come from the 1st century BC. And were found in Boeotian Eretria . One of these inscriptions mentions a woman in this capacity. Other such inscriptions were found in the Asian cities of Byzantion , Nicomedia , and Sinope , on the Cycladic island of Tenos , but also in the Campanian Misenum and in Rome . Hieronautai can be found in Tomoi for the 3rd century , Trierarchs are known from Elaia in Mysia and Kios . Naubatai are mentioned in an inscription from Ephesus . For many holders of these titles one can make it probable that they were organized in cult associations, at least in the Greek East . Some of the inscriptions have honored associated with the cult liturgies financed several times, in other cases they had probably worn the related duties only once.

Inclusion and afterlife

The festival of the Ploiaphesien was introduced in the Hellenistic period when shipping became increasingly important to Egypt . It was celebrated as navigium Isidis until late antiquity , and Isis in her sacred ship was for a long time a motif of Roman coinage . Andreas Alföldi associated the festival with the annual vota publica for the well-being of the emperor, since Isis on a ship with the inscription vota publica can be found on coins of the 4th century. These events were very popular as they were associated with liberal donations of money and food from the emperors. But Alföldi could not assert himself with this view.

The cult of Isis lived in Rome until the end of the 4th century, a final allusion to the cult in the city is provided by the carmen contra paganos , an anonymous poem. Because it was related to the consul of 394, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus , it is also known as carmen adversus Flavianum . In verses 98-99 Isis occurs under their Epiclesis Pharia on, at the public celebration of the addressee has participated. It remains unclear whether this can be linked to the navigium Isidis . The same applies to the communication of Rutilius Namatianus in his poem De reditu suo that the "happy country folk" of Portus Falesia celebrated the resurrection of Osiris in 416 . The testimony of John Lydos proves that the Ploiaphesia were still in the consciousness of at least the Greek-speaking population of the empire in the 6th century. A continuation of the festival in carnival , as it has been suspected time and again since the 19th century, is now excluded.

literature

  • Reinhold Merkelbach : Isis Regina - Zeus Sarapis. The Greek-Egyptian religion depicted according to the sources. 2nd, improved edition. Saur, Munich 2001, p. 157.
  • Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae (= Religious historical experiments and preparatory work. Volume 28). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1969 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  • Ladislav Vidman: Isis and Sarapis among the Greeks and Romans. Epigraphic study on the distribution and the bearers of the Egyptian cult (= Religious-historical experiments and preliminary work. Volume 29) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, pp. 76-87 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  • Sarolta Anna Takács: Ploiaphesia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 1145.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11.17.
  2. ^ Johannes Lydos, De mensibus 4.45 (100 wishes).
  3. ↑ CIL I² p. 280.
  4. ↑ CIL I² p. 260.
  5. ↑ Laktanz, Divinae institutiones 1,11,21: certus dies habetur in fastis quo Isidis navigium celebratur (“there is a fixed day in the calendar on which the Isidis navigium is celebrated”).
  6. ↑ Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11: 8-17.
  7. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Isis and Sarapis among the Greeks and Romans. Epigraphic study on the spread and the bearers of the Egyptian cult (= Religious-historical experiments and preliminary work. Volume 29) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 86.
  8. ↑ Reinhold Merkelbach : Isis regina - Zeus Sarapis. The Greek-Egyptian religion depicted according to the sources. 2nd, improved edition. Saur, Munich 2001, p. 157.
  9. ↑ Sarolta Takács Anna: Ploiaphesia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Sp. 1145.
  10. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 38 f. No. 80–82 (No. 82 with the naming of a Nauarchin).
  11. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 58 f. No. 130 (early 1st century or earlier).
  12. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 168 No. 327 (from the 3rd century).
  13. ↑ CIL 3,6980, Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 168 No. 328 (Augustan).
  14. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 94 No. 154 (1st century?).
  15. ↑ CIL 10,3350 Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 233 No. 500 (3rd century).
  16. ↑ CIL 6.32772; Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 209 No. 428 (3rd century).
  17. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 304, No. 709.
  18. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 162 No. 315 a (from the time of the emperor).
  19. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 165 No. 324 (Hellenistic?).
  20. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sarapiacae. 1969, p. 155 f. No. 302 (between 145 and 161 AD).
  21. ↑ In summary: Ladislav Vidman: Isis and Sarapis among the Greeks and Romans. Epigraphic study on the spread and the bearers of the Egyptian cult (= Religious- historical experiments and preliminary work. Volume 29) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, pp. 78–87.
  22. ↑ Ladislav Vidman: Isis and Sarapis among the Greeks and Romans. Epigraphic study on the spread and the bearers of the Egyptian cult (= Religious-historical experiments and preliminary work. Volume 29) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 86 f.
  23. ^ Kurt Latte : Roman history of religion. (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Dept. 5, Part 4). Beck, Munich 1960, p. 362 f.
  24. ^ Andreas Alföldi : A festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian emperors of the IVth century (= Dissertationes pannonicae. Volume 7). Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1937, esp.p. 46 f., On coinage: passim.
  25. ^ Andreas Alföldi: A festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian emperors of the IVth century (= Dissertationes pannonicae. Volume 7). Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1937, pp. 36-50, the same: The Alexandrian Gods and the Vota publica. In: Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity. Volume 8-9, 1965-1966, pp. 53-87.
  26. ↑ Isidis Ladislav Vidman sees the connection to the navigium as not essential : Isis and Sarapis among the Greeks and Romans. Epigraphic study on the spread and the bearers of the Egyptian cult (= Religious-historical experiments and preliminary work. Volume 29) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 77 f .; John Gwyn Griffiths: Apuleius of Madaura: The Isis Book (Metamorphoses, Book XI) is also rather negative . Brill, Leiden 1975, p. 267.
  27. ^ Herbert Bloch : The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century. In: Arnaldo Momigliano (Ed.): The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century. Oxford 1963, pp. 193-218; Alan Cameron , on the other hand, suggested Vettius Agorius Praetextatus , who died in 384, as the addressee : Alan Cameron: The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2011, 273-319.
  28. ↑ On Rutilius Namatianus see Alan Cameron: The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2011, 273-319.
  29. ↑ A reference is made by Gail Corrington Streete: An Isis Aretalogy. In: Richard Valantasis (Ed.): Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000, p. 370, referring to Sharon Kelly Heyob: The Cult of Isis Among Women in the Graeco-Roman World. Brill, Leiden 1975, p. 35. Heoyb only takes the tradition as a general testimony to the continued existence of the Isis cult at this time; so also Reinhold Merkelbach : Isis Regina - Zeus Sarapis. The Greek-Egyptian religion depicted according to the sources. 2nd, improved edition. Saur, Munich 2001, p. 156 § 290, which understands the scene as a rural Osiris festival.
  30. ^ Andreas Alföldi: A festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian emperors of the IVth century (= Dissertationes pannonicae. Volume 7). Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1937, p. 57 f .; Kurt Latte: Roman religious history. (= Handbook of Classical Studies. Dept. 5, Part 4). Beck, Munich 1960, p. 362; Giampaolo di Cocco: All origini del Carnevale: Mysteria isiaci e miti cattolici. Pontecorboli, Florence 2007.
  31. ↑ Hellmut Rosenfeld: Fastnacht and Carnival. Name, history, reality In: Archive for cultural history . Volume 51, 1969, pp. 175-181; to summarize the state of research Wolfgang Herborn: The history of the Cologne Carnival from the beginning to 1600 (= publications of the Cologne City Museum. Volume 10). Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2009, esp. Pp. 124-144.