Pausarius (cult of Isis)

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A Pausarius (plural: Pausarii , also Pausarii Isidis ) was a member of the cult personnel of the goddess Isis during the Roman Empire .

As bearers of images of gods, the Pausarii accompanied processions on the occasion of the feasts of Isis. At chapels in honor of Egyptian deities , the procession was interrupted to hold religious ceremonies, whereby the porters could rest. These pauses ( Latin pausae ) led to their name.

The term is only attested by two inscriptions, which prove that the Pausarii were organized as a club in a corporatio or in a collegium . The largely fictional Historia Augusta from late antiquity reports that Emperor Commodus had joined such cult personnel in a procession in honor of Isis. According to the Historia Augusta , there is also said to have been a mosaic depicting Pescennius Niger at such a ceremony.

The Pausarii are comparable to other organized groups of cult personnel who carried sacred objects, such as the Dendrophori in the cult of the Cybele , the Hastiferi or the Pastophori .

The donors of three consecrations to the genius of the Pausarii from the sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater in Mainz are not these Isis cult personnel, but, since they were assigned to military decuria and a veteran department is called, donors who have the same name Held the office of oar master ( Pausarius ) in the Roman Rhine fleet .

literature

  • Grant Showermann: Isis. In: James Hastings (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. 7, Clark, Edinburgh 1914, p. 436 (reprint part 13, Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish 2003; outdated).
  • Robert Turcan : Les cultes orientaux dans le monde romain. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-251-38001-9 , p. 101 (mistakenly named Nîmes instead of Arles).
    • English translation: The cults of the Roman Empire. Blackwell, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-631-20046-0 , p. 99.
  • Reinhold Merkelbach : Isis Regina - Zeus Sarapis. Teubner, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-519-07427-3 , p. 156.
  • Laurent Bricault : Associations isiaques d'Occident. In: Attilo Mastrocinque, Concetta Giuffrè Scibona (ed.): Demeter, Isis, Vesta and Cybele. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion in Honor of Giulia Sfameni Gasparro. Steiner, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-515-10075-5 , pp. 97-98.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rome , CIL 6, 348 : Pro salute domus Augusti / ex corpore pausariorum et / argentariorum Isidi et / Osiri mansionem / aedificavimus .
  2. ↑ Arles , CIL 12, 734 : D (is) M (anibus) / Maximini / Festi paus (a) r (ii) / Isidis t (itulum) p (osuerunt) Arel (atenses) / collegae .
  3. ↑ Historia Augusta , Caracalla 9, 10–11: in quo quidem mihi mirum videtur, quemadmodum sacra Isidis primum per hunc Romam venisse dicantur, cum Antoninus Commodus ita ea celebraverit ut et Anubin portaret et pausas ederet; nisi forte iste addidit celebritati, non eam primus invexit and Historia Augusta , Pescenius Niger 6, 9: quibus Commodus adeo deditus fuit, ut et caput raderet et Anubin portaret et omnis pausas expleret. On these passages Laurent Briquel: Les Anubophores. In: Bulletin de la Société égyptologique de Genève. 24, 2001/02, pp. 29-42.
  4. ↑ Historia Augusta , Pescenius Niger 6, 8: hunc in Commodianis hortis in porticu curva pictum de musivo inter Commodi amicissimos videmus sacra Isidis ferentem.
  5. ↑ For example in Arles: CIL 12, 714 , Pastophori of Isis.
  6. ↑ AE 2004, 1020 ; AE 2004, 1021 ; AE 2004, 1022 .
  7. ^ So Marion Witteyer : The sanctuary for Isis and Mater Magna. Texts and pictures. Zabern, Mainz 2004, pp. 20-21, no. 7-9.
  8. ↑ Laurent Bricault: Associations isiaques d'Occident. In: Attilo Mastrocinque, Concetta Giuffrè Scibona (ed.): Demeter, Isis, Vesta and Cybele. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion in Honor of Giulia Sfameni Gasparro. Steiner, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-515-10075-5 , pp. 97-98.