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Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI:
10.1163/156852711X593304
Numen 58 (2011) 697728 brill.nl/nu
Isis and Osiris: Demonology vs. Henotheism?
Valentino GaspariniKollegforschergruppe Religise
Individualisierung in historischer Perspektive
Max-Weber-Kolleg der Universitt Erfurt, Am Hgel, 1D-99084
Erfurt, Germany
[email protected]
AbstractReams and reams have been written by scholars about the
demonological and henothe-istic features of the Isiac cult. The
role played by Isis in Apuleius Metamorphoses as supreme and
primigenial Goddess and, at the same time, as demon has been
recently interpreted by N. Mthy as an effort to create a mythical
image, a literary character who personifies the myth joining
philosophical and religious demands. R. Turcan pre-fers to
interpret this feature of Apuleius and Plutarchs work as a result
of a substantial philosophical change within Middle Platonism: they
renounced demonology to the advantage of Isis feminine henotheism,
an answer of a certain paganism to the theo-logical crisis typical
of the second century a.d., an Age of Anxiety. But, as shown by G.
Sfameni Gasparro, Isis henotheistic role is not a product of the
imperial theological crisis, but has its roots in the Hellenistic
epoch (see aretalogistic literature). An inscrip-tion of
Thessalonica gives us the pretext for bringing up this issue once
more and investigating how the Egyptian religion (and in particular
its demonological and henotheistic connotations) had to be imbued
with Hellenistic Greek philosophy, and how Plutarchs and Apuleius
propagandistic choice of Isis and Osiris as personifica-tions of a
religious and philosophical Supreme Being was first of all an
attempt at reconcilement among different cultural and philosophical
systems.
KeywordsApuleius, demonology, henotheism, Isis, Osiris,
Plutarch
In recent years the history of religions has witnessed an
appreciable tendency to dismantle the categories commonly used to
label the very complex dynamics of assimilation, association,
cohabitation, equiva-lence, fusion and interaction among divinities
in the ancient world: terms such as syncretism or henotheism are
being replaced by more
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698 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
articulate attempts at defining these variegated processes of
polymor-phism of the deities and polysemy of their images.1 This is
what J.-M. Pailler defined as the Third Age of the studies of the
Oriental Religions (Pailler 1989). The increasingly evident
elasticity and dyna-mism of ancient cults not only entails
relations of coexistence or exclu-siveness among them, but
primarily a sensible inner fluidity of their theological status,
whose components can sometimes appear even to contemporaries as
contradictory and conflicting.
The following article deals with one of those apparent paradoxes
and one of these religions: the relationship between cosmic and
soteriologi-cal features possessed by the Egyptian cults in the
Greek and Roman epoch. This could look like an artificial problem,
since these connota-tions are also not unusual among several other
cults of that period. Yet what we will try to do here is to
introduce in this complex equation the demonological and
henotheistic features that the critics (and in partic-ular Nicole
Mthy, Robert Turcan and Giulia Sfameni Gasparro) have recognized in
it, and to analyze their diachronic role and development both in
the main epigraphic and literary sources and even inside the Greek
philosophical background with which the Egyptian religion was
imbued. This investigation will help us to understand how, during
Hel-lenism, Isis soteriological mastery of human individual destiny
adopted a range so wide as to include the universal destiny as
well: in this way, the sublimation of her demonological sympatheia
resulted compatible with her cosmic features and thus Plutarch and
Apuleius, during the second century a.d., could choose Isis and
Osiris as personifications of a Supreme Being, who was able to
embody at the same time their phil-osophical thought (based on the
Platonic dualism) and their religious preference (oriented towards
henotheism).
Nicole Mthy and Isis as Literary Mythical Image
Luckily for the development of the discipline that now it is
fashionable and even useful to call isiacology (Leclant 2000:xx),
critics have
1) Cf. Dunand 1973a; Lvque 1973; Dunand 1975; Versnel 1990;
Motte and Pirenne-Delforge 1994; Dunand 1999; Malaise 2000; and,
more recently and specifi-cally, Malaise 2005 and Xella 2009.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 699
recently ceased to deny the use of Apuleius Metamorphoses as a
faithful source of religious information. Over time, reams and
reams have been written about this topic,2 and for decades scholars
have been very scep-tical about the role of the Apuleian Isis as a
trustworthy source for this religious figure.3 Many of them
interpreted her as a simple literary creation,4 even going as far
as considering the Metamorphoses as a satire or a parody.5
Among those who have criticized these tendencies, underlining
how deeply Apuleius was acquainted with (and probably initiated
into) Egyptian cults and how accurately he inserted the Goddess in
his novel, is Nicole Mthy. To begin with, this scholars merit lies
in having stressed in her analysis (Mthy 1996, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c)
a sort of anomaly in Isis divine behaviour. Indeed, Isis is
presented in the Metamorphoses as a Supreme Divinity, not only in
an aesthetical sense (as in Fick-Michel 1991:468), but also in a
religious one, as a quick survey easily shows: Isis is una (Apul.,
Met. XI.5),6 summa (1, 1011, 22, 2526),7 maxima (12, 13), augusta
(16, 22), sancta (25) and sanctissima (25),8 regina (5, 26),
invicta (7), perpetua (25), potens (7, 22, 26), omnipotens
2) Only some of the most relevant works are: Berreth 1931;
Wittmann 1938; Scazzoso 1951; Grimal 1957; Bergman 1967; Walsh
1968; Martin 1970; Grimal 1971; Schlam 1971; Bergman 1972; Smith
1972; Bohm 19723; Hani 1973; Marin Ceballos 1973; Perry 1967;
Beaujeu 1975; Griffiths 1975; Monteduro Roccavini 1979; Walsh 1981;
Berg-man 1982; Beaujeu 1983; Hidalgo de la Vega 1983; Fry 1984;
Grimal 1985; Boscolo 1986; Hidalgo de la Vega 1986; Ternes 1986;
Fick 1987a; Moreschini 1987; Pizzolato 1989; Penwill 1990;
Fick-Michel 1991; Fick 1992; Mimbu Kilol 1994; Sandy 1994; Walsh
1994; Beck 1996; Harrison 1996; Hidalgo de la Vega 1996; Mthy 1996;
Mthy 1999a; Mthy 1999b; Mthy 1999c; Egelhaaf-Gaiser 2000;
Finkelpearl and Schlam 2000; Harrison 2000; El-Nowieemy 2007;
Hidalgo de la Vega 2007; Sanzi 2007a; Takcs 20082009.3) For
instance: Walsh 1968:1467; Bohm 19723; Walsh 1981; Moreschini
1987:21920.4) Grimal 1957:161; Perry 1967:238; Grimal 1985:10;
Fick-Michel 1991:500, 506. Contra Scazzoso 1951; Beaujeu 1975:88.5)
This trend dies hard: see Harrison 2000:238, 24852.6) Numen unicum
multiformi specie, ritu vario, nomine multiiugo totus veneratur
orbis. Cf. also Apul., De dog. Plat. I.5, 6 and 11; De Mund.
XXXVII.7) Cf. also Apul., De dog. Plat. I.11 and 12, II.1 and 23;
De Mund. XXV.8) Cf. Apul., De dog. Plat. I.5 and 1112; De Mund.
XXVII and XXXI. See also Mthy 1999a.
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700 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
(16), praepotens (1) and saeculorum progenies initialis (5). Her
primige-nial power is unlimited: rector mundi (25),9 rerum naturae
parens (5),10 elementorum omnium domina (5),11 tibi serviunt
elementa (25). Even Gods must obey: prima caelitum (5), summa
numinum (5), regina manium (5), regina caeli (2),12 siderum
caelestium stirps (9), deorum dearumque facies uniformis (5), te
superi colunt, observant inferi (25). She embodies in the
Metamorphoses one whom Apuleius himself describes in one of his
philosophical treatises (the Apologia) as ille basileus, totius
rerum naturae causa et ratio et origo initialis, summus animi
genitor, aeternus animantum sospitator, adsiduus mundi sui opifex,
sed enim sine opera opifex, sine cura sospitator, sine propagatione
genitor, neque loco neque tempore neque vice ulla comprehensus
eoque paucis cogitabilis, nem-ini effabilis (LXIV).
Isis is the Primigenial Goddess, an ineffable heavenly being,
even more powerful than Destiny: while traditional Greek and Roman
Olympic divinities in the last resort have to obey Fortune and
submit to the Moira, in the Metamorphoses Isis is able to master
Destiny, iden-tifying herself with Fortuna- and the .13 The
tran-scendent role of Isis makes her incognizable and
unidentifiable (quoquo nomine, quoquo ritu, quaqua facie te fas est
invocare . . ., Apul., Met. XI.2) and consequently ineffabilis
(Apul., De deo Soc. III),14 indicta et innominabilis (Apul., De
dog. Plat. I.5). Indeed, communication between the Supreme Being
and humans becomes impossible, just as Apuleius expressly confirms
several times in other works such as
9) Tu rotas orbem, luminas solem, regis mundum, calcas Tartarum.
Cf. also Apul., De Mund. XXIV; De dog. Plat. I.5, 710.10) Cf. also
Apul., De deo Soc. III.11) Cf. also Apul., De deo Soc. III; De
Mund. III. See also Belayche 2010.12) Cf. Hoevels 1974. 13) About
this particular topic see: Guilmot 1962; Bergman 1967; Griffiths
1975:2414; Monteduro Roccavini 1979; Fry 1984; Winkler 1985:40;
Fick 1987a:413; Fick-Michel 1991:36786; Sandy 1994:155762; Sfameni
Gasparro 1998; Turcan 2007:7685.14) See also Apul., Met. XI.3: eius
mirandam speciem ad vos etiam referre conitar, si tamen mihi
disserendi tribuerit facultatem paupertas oris humani vel ipsum
numen eius dapsilem copiam elocutilis facundiae subministraverit
and 25: nec mihi vocis ubertas ad dicenda, quae de tua maiestate
sentio, sufficit nec ora mille linguaeque totidem vel indefessi
sermonis aeterna series.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 701
De mundo, De deo Socratis and De dogmate Platonis. Besides,
Plato already considered it atheistic to think that gods do not
care about humans (Pl., Leg. 885b; 889d), but at the same time he
totally dis-missed the idea that they directly intervened in human
affairs (as often happened in Homers tales): Olympian gods live
eternal and imper-turbable in their parallel world, only
sporadically sending messengers (Pl., Symp. 203a).
However, in the Metamorphoses Isis acts in another and
completely different way: in order to help Lucius the donkey regain
his human condition, she often intervenes in human affairs
answering requests and clearly showing her benignity, normally
during dreams and without intermediaries, and minutely fixing all
the details. She is a supernatural guardian, and she shows herself
as a specific physical and humanly compassionate, sympathetic,
emotional being:15 exactly as the Fata Turchina would do in
Collodis Pinocchio fifteen centuries later (directly inspired by
the Metamorphoses themselves, cf. Manganelli 2002), the Goddess is
auxiliaris (Apul., Met. XI.10), benefica (26),16 benigna (22),
commota (5), favens (5), miserata (5), praesentissima (12),
propitia (5, 6, 22), providens,17 salutaris (22, 25), tutelaris (6:
vives in mea tutela gloriosus), humani generis sospitatrix (25),18
semper fovendis mortalibus munifica (25).
The theological status of Isis is evidently incompatible with
her behavior. So, how to reconcile these two aspects? Nicole Mthy
(Mthy 1999c; contra Beaujeu 1983:390) believes herself to have
recognized the solution of this theosophical problem in the
particular literary func-tion of the Metamorphoses. Indeed, the
novel represents the illustration of the Apuleian philosophical
texts: Apuleius portrays Isis performing as the Supreme Divinity
which the author deals with in his treatises, and which he now
tries to justify for rational apprehension with a human form. The
narrative image supplies a semblance that rationalizes
15) On Isis as saviour goddess: Bleeker 1963; Chirassi Colombo
1982:31722; Sfameni Gasparro 1998; Sfameni Gasparro 1999; Sfameni
Gasparro 2006.16) The term beneficium and its derivatives occur as
many as nine times in Book XI of the Metamorphoses.17) The term
providentia and its derivatives occur as many as ten times in Book
XI of the Metamorphoses.18) But see also Apul., Met. XI.9 and
15.
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702 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
what cannot be rationalized: a mythopoeic action. In this way
Isis becomes a mythical image (Mthy 1999b:140, 1999c:56), a
liter-ary character who personifies the myth (present in Plutarch,
but not in Apuleius) joining philosophical and religious demands
(Mthy 1996:2679).
Mthys interpretation is correct but limited, since it doesnt
proceed towards a deeper awareness of the existence of these
demands, underes-timating the role of the myth itself: Listen then
to the stories about the gods, Plutarch suggests, by accepting them
from those whose inter-pretation is religious and philosophical,
(Plut., De Is. et Os. 355d) because these accounts are but
reflections of a transcendent reality which turns back our mind to
different matters (359a). Exactly as in Apuleius, in Plutarchs De
Iside et Osiride19 (probably the last work of the philosopher from
Chaeronea, datable to the end of the first quarter of the second
century a.d.) the Egyptian divinities play a role even more
significant than a merely divine one:20 Osiris is the Lord of All
(355e), the Ruler and Lord of all that is good (371ab), the first
and most dominant of all things, which is identical with the Good
(372f ), and finally, more explicitly, in general, this god is the
best one (375c). Yet, at the same time, Plutarch strains to explain
that Isis and Osiris first were not even divine, but demigods
(demons), and only later they were promoted to the rank of
gods:
better is the judgment of those who hold that the stories about
Typhon, Osiris and Isis are records of experiences of neither gods
nor men, but of demigods, whom Plato and Pythagoras and Xenocrates
and Crysippus, following the lead of early writers on sacred
subjects, allege to have been stronger than men and, in their
might, greatly surpassing our nature, yet not possessing the divine
quality unmixed and uncontaminated, but with a share also in the
nature of the soul and in the perceptive faculties of the body, and
with a susceptibility to pleasure and pain . . . Plato calls this
class of beings an interpretative and ministering class, mid-way
between gods and men, and thence they bring hither the oracles and
the gifts of good things. (360d361c)
19) On Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride and its religious contents:
Latzarus 1920; Griffiths 1970; Hani 1976; Brenk 1977; Vernire 1977;
Chiodi 1986a; Chiodi 1986b; Burkert 1996; Torraca 1996; Rodrguez
Moreno 1999; Brenk 2001; Richter 2001; and more recently Brenk
2007; Del Corno 2008; Thissen 2009.20) On Plutarchs conception of
the supreme god also cf. Teodorsson 2001.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 703
Demonology
In order to explain further this apparent incongruity we require
a short digression concerning the meaning of the concept of demon
and the significance of demonology in ancient philosophy and
literature.
What is the demonic?
Il demonico ci che . . . trascende lumano e su esso
interferisce; quanto al divino nel senso stretto, cio il
sovra-umano non demonico, esso si caratterizza per placida e
imperturbata immobilit, forma della perfezione, mentre il demonico
si carat-terizza per essere turbolento, imprevedibile, mutevole e
spesso capriccioso. (Bianchi 1990:51).
The concept of the demon,21 born in Mesopotamia and developed in
the Babylonian and Egyptian era, is attested in Greece since Homer
(who conceives it generically as divine) and Hesiod (the first
person to distinguish demons from gods, also dividing demons into
good and evil ones). Plato thought of demons as ministers of the
gods and inter-preters of humans: lower divinities, souls of the
deceased, intermediate and guardian spirits. Demons share both the
divine status (they are superior and eternal beings) and the human
one (they have corporeal, or semi-corporeal, intellectual and
emotional characteristics). As an intermediate ring between the two
worlds, they often become messen-gers between heaven and earth:
only the demons, among the superior beings, intervene repeatedly
and directly and in detail in human life, in order to play a saving
role with their interventions, normally carried out through dreams.
The Platonic interpretation influenced the succes-sive demonologies
of Aristotle, Empedocles, Democritus, Crysippus and Xenocrates, but
the success of demonology didnt stop with them and continued during
the first century b.c. (especially with Poseidonius of Apamea and
Antiochus of Ascalone) and the first century a.d. (with Philo of
Alexandria), finally reaching Plutarch.
Plutarch refuses the euhemeristic historical exegesis of
theology (Plut. De Is. et Os. 360a; cf. Hani 1976:13141), just as
he does the Stoic physical one (Hani 1976:15865), and he follows
the Platonic and
21) Among others cf. Tarn 1928; Ter Vrugt-Lentz 1974; Zintzen
1974; Brenk 1986; Bianchi 1990; Donini 1990; Moreschini 1995; Luck
1997:295431, 552602; Sfameni Gasparro 1997; Turcan 2003.
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704 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
dualistic metaphysics.22 But Plutarch, deep connoisseur of
classical culture, didnt accept uncritically the Platonic
intellectual legacy, and he reinterpreted it with such originality
that he can be considered not only inspired by Neo-Pythagorean
Middle Platonism,23 but also as postmodern, as defined by Garca
Valds (Garca Valds 2001:112) following Lyotard. Indeed, by
elaborating the Platonic categories, he introduced elements even
belonging to Gnosticism (Burkert 1996:256), Orphism (Bernab 1996)
and Stoicism (Babut 1969)24 that anticipated Neo-Platonic
philosophy. On the Platonic theological base, Plutarch also imposed
Hesiods old interpretation (Plut., De Is. et Os. 361b; De def. or.
415bc, 431e; De gen. 593df ) of demons as the souls of the men of
the first two races (the Golden and the Silver ones), charged by
the gods with keeping watch over human behaviour as examples of
virtue, and making possible (thanks to virtue itself ) the passage
among the different categories. Following Empedocles (Plut., De Is.
et Os. 361c; De tranq. anim. 474 ac), Plutarch also thought that
the demons reproduce the tension between good and evil, love and
hate.
In De Iside et Osiride Plutarch, on the one hand, finds in the
Egyp-tian gods suitable protagonists for a religious translation of
his philo-sophical system (exactly what happened in Apuleius
Metamorphoses, cf. Pepin 1977); but on the other hand, he tries at
the same time to elabo-rate philosophically and transmit to Greece
the already often incongru-ent and contradictory variety of the
Egyptian cults and cultic traditions. In order to explain the
original Egyptian conception of the divine as deeply rooted in
nature and in human life, he chooses the Platonic categories of
demonology:25 the Osirian myth has been ontologized.26
Apuleius too was deeply influenced by Middle Platonism,27 and by
Plutarch himself. Apuleian demonology (passim developed in the
22) Hani 1976; Chiodi 1986a; Chiodi 1986b; Bianchi 1986; Bianchi
1987.23) Walsh 1981; Bianchi 1986; Bianchi 1987; Froidefond 1987;
Moreschini 1996; Garca Valds 2001.24) Even the Stoic component of
Apuleius and Plutarchs thought is very strong, as Turcan does not
forget to underline (passim Turcan 2007:7486).25) Soury 1942;
Griffiths 1970:258; Bianchi 1987; Alvar 1992; Santaniello 1996;
Casadess Bordoy 2001.26) Bianchi 1986:119; cf. recently Sanzi
2007b. 27) See Haight 1927; Riefstahl 1938; Herrmann 1959;
Portogalli 1963; Moreschini 1964; Moreschini 1965; Thibau 1965;
Perry 1967; Walsh 1968; Schlam 1970; Mortley
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 705
Apologia, De deo Socratis, De dogmate Platonis and De mundo) is
closer to Platonism than Plutarch, even if Apuleius multiplies the
intermedi-aries with a hierarchy composed of a supreme god,
invisible gods, visi-ble gods (stars), demons (of two types: human
souls outside or inside bodies, and personal guardian and adviser
demons) and finally humans. But no differently than Plutarch,
Apuleius in his philosophical works assimilates Isis and Osiris to
the demons (Apul., De deo Soc. XV) and the Metamorphoses represents
a sort of final mystical vision (Hidalgo de la Vega 1996:938)
coherent with this theosophy.
Robert Turcan and Isis as Answer to the Theological Crisis of
the 2nd Century A.D.
Recently, in the Proceedings of the IIIrd International
Conference of Isis Studies, Robert Turcan has joined the debate
with authority: Isis na rien dun dmon au regard de Lucius (Turcan
2007:75). The scholar does not notice demonological features in the
Metamorphoses and he thinks that the numen of Isis, almighty and
omnipresent, as evident expression of the transcendent divine will,
could easily assert itself in human life:
Isis assume les pouvoirs et les prrogatives des autres desses,
sinon des autres dieux, jusqu tre conue comme summa numinum, et par
numen il convient dentendre ici tymologiquement le signe manifeste
de laction divine ou dune volont transcendante qui saffirme dans la
vie des hommes . . . a-t-on le droit de voir dans lIsis dApule une
cration littraire ou comme un Mythe? (Turcan 2007:87)
Instead, he notices Apuleius different positions between De deo
Socratis and the Metamorphoses, in particular, and explains these
in the terms of
1972; Beaujeu 1973; Dillon 1977; Moreschini 1978; Donini 1979;
Walsh 1981; Heller 1983; Fick 1987a; Hijmans 1987; Pawlowski 1989;
Bajoni 1992; Jess de Miguel Zabala 1992; Moreschini 1993; Bernard
1994. Contra Harrison 2000:2549, who asserts: Though Apuleius
proclaimed himself a Platonic philosopher, and might have been an
Isiac initiate, the treatments of Platonic ideas and of Isiac cult
in his novel are fundamentally playful, filtered as they are
through the amusingly foolish narrator Lucius and his entertaining
and sensational experiences.
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706 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
a substantial philosophical change. Similarly Turcan (2007:87),
like Froidefond (1987:232) two decades before, thinks that Plutarch
him-self renounced his demonology, and concludes that, having
abandoned demonology, Apuleius and Plutarch would have at last
found the solu-tion of that aporia in what he calls Isis feminine
henotheism, which would have represented the answer of a certain
paganism to the theo-logical crisis typical of the second century
a.d.
Henotheism
This overview also needs a few words of explanation concerning
the meaning of the concept of henotheism, a term coined in the 19th
century by F.W. Schelling and mostly developed by F. Max Mller (the
founder of the comparative religion). Henotheism is well defined by
Raffaele Pettazzoni, as
latteggiamento religioso . . . di chi, nel fervore e nella
concentrazione momenta-nea delladorazione duna data divinit, la
invoca e la celebra come unica e sola, senza assurgere per questo a
una vera e propria concezione monoteistica (affer-mazione dun dio
solo con esclusione di tutti gli altri) n levare la minima protesta
contro il politeismo stesso, cui ladorante del resto pienamente
aderisce e in cui, svanita lesaltazione religiosa, ricade.
(Pettazzoni 1932:4)
In actual fact, there is neither proof nor clue that the tale of
the final conversion of Lucius in the Metamorphoses involved the
abandonment of the authors previous philosophical view (or part of
it) in favour of a henotheistic religious choice. It is true that
the term daemon never appears in the novel, but the persistence of
the use of the Platonic cat-egories seems to be still evident, as
we can easily realize for instance in the episode of Amor and
Psyche (Apul., Met. IV.28VI.24),28 which is moreover closely
related to book XI. Also the vocabulary of the Metamorphoses,
constantly alternating between the use of the differing terms dea
and numen (which occur 40 and 22 times respectively in book XI
alone), offers a functional and theological distinction that
con-temporary texts underline carefully. Finally, as Turcan himself
recog-nizes, at the end of book XI of the Metamorphoses Osiris
explicitly
28) Cf. Hidalgo de la Vega 1985.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 707
snatches out of Isis hands the role of Supreme Being as magnus
deus deumque summus parens invictus (Apul., Met. XI.27) and deus
deum magnorum potior et potiorum summus et summorum maximus et
maxi-morum regnator (30). Even if Turcan (2007:75) invokes
Vallettes proclamation of the unit essentielle des deux divinits in
order to solve this contradiction, the hypothesis remains
incompatible with the very definition of henotheism. Whoever
intends to identify this basic revo-lution in Apuleius thought has
to demonstrate this clearly.
Nevertheless, recognizing the inappropriateness of the tout
court use of the (modern) religious categories that commonly we
label as henotheistic does not entail a necessary denial of
Apuleius personal preference for Egyptian religion, as it is easy
to understand if we deal with parallel considerations (Brenk 2001)
made about Plutarchs texts, where the role gained by Osiris at the
end of the Metamorphoses is held throughout the entire work. There
are, in actual fact, a few minor incongruities in Plutarchs
demonology, which sometimes seem to be refuted even in a juvenile
work such as De Superstitione. However, in his treatises the
philosophical system seems to remain solid and homoge-neous.
Plutarch emphasizes frequently and explicitly that the
transcen-dent reality is represented by a first being, the
principle of the good, which can be mythically identified as
Osiris, the best among the gods. The mortal principle of evil
clashes against him and can be identified with Typhon (Plut., De
Is. et Os. 369a, 371b). The role of Isis (the feminine principle of
nature and matter) consists of recomposing this dualism, generating
order (the cosmos), which is embodied in the myth by Horus. The
multiformity and myrionomy of Isis (as in the literary account of
her clothes, 352b, 382c)29 lie just in this role: everything that
is ordered, good and useful is the work of Isis and (377a). Isis
holds the task of maintaining the cosmic tension between Osiris and
Typhon, leading to the knowl-edge of truth about the divine. There
are two different cosmological moulds in Plutarch (Torhoudt 1942;
Hani 1976:24752): on the one hand, there is the Isiac theology
inserted in a Gnostic system with the divine triad (better than a
triune god) composed by Osiris (as Supreme God), Isis (First
Matter) and Horus (Order); on the other hand there is
29) Cf. Pigeaud 1983.
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708 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
the Platonic doctrine with the dualism between a good soul and
an evil one, where the first, thanks to the Demiurge, becomes the
Soul of the World. Demonology and dualism are two different
explanations of the same cosmological view (Hani 1976:2323): the
opposition between good and evil is elucidated in demonology as the
physical contest between demons, in dualism as the metaphysical
contrast of the prin-ciple of the (or ) against Chaos. The final
and univocal mes-sage of Plutarch is: only by approaching Isis, who
is the bridge between humans and the supreme being (and so goddess
and demon at the same time), can humans understand the first being,
with whom she lives in everlasting union (Plut., De Is. et Os.
352a), and emancipate themselves from their miserable condition by
coming into contact with the divine. Isis and Osiris are a
sublimation of the demonology (Callebat 1973). Surely, Plutarchs
predilection for the Egyptian cult is a first step taken in the
direction of henotheism.30 But the whole theosophical approach of
Plutarch, based on dualism and ontologized in a preferential cult,
is evidently contradicting this concept, as clearly shown by some
artificial attempts at proffering a definition of couple
henotheism.31
So, it is better to conclude with Garca Valds who states:
a Plutarco le resulta difcil moverse en el pensamiento metafsico
y hacer compat-ible la ontologa dualista moderada del ltimo Platn,
con la que est en alto grado de acuerdo, y la concepcin y
preferencia personal del ltimo Plutarco, orientadas hacia el
henotesmo, y por eso entra en contradicciones. Lo intenta por medio
de la figura de Isis, transformada en esa tercera naturaleza divina
platnica, intermediaria entre el ser soberano y el cosmos, y a la
que ve, a la vez, poseedora de un culto y unos ritos que conducen a
la meta filosfico-religiosa que Plutarco considera lleva a los
seres humanos a la felicidad. (Garca Valds 2001:130)
And basically we can conclude the same thing about Apuleius.
30) Even monotheism, according to other scholars. Cf. Teodorsson
2001:275.31) See Sfameni Gasparro 2007:43, who quotes lines 1920 of
the hymn of Maroneia: You are two, but you are called many by men;
in fact, life has known only you gods. See also Alvar 2010.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 709
Giulia Sfameni Gasparro and the Hellenistic Face of Isis
In order to sum up and explain the ambiguous role of Isis and
Osiris in Plutarchs and Apuleius accounts, it is not necessary to
believe in the rejection of demonology and the choice of Isiac
henotheism, which consequently needs not necessarily to be
considered a reflection of the theological crisis of the second
century a.d. Just two pages before Turcans article, Giulia Sfameni
Gasparro (2007) offers the verification of this.
Analyzing the hellenistic face of Isis, in fact, the scholar
deals with
two distinctive traits of the Hellenistic physiognomy of the
Egyptian goddess, namely her quality as power with universal
functions and cosmic prerogatives and that of benefactor and
saviour of all humanity and of the single individual. These are in
fact expressive of the peculiar global and globalising tendencies
which are set in motion in this period, and which would become
concrete in the ecumenical Empire of Roma. (Sfameni Gasparro
2007:71)
In fact, if we turn over to the pages of the very useful
Myrionymi by Laurent Bricault (1996),32 it becomes clear that the
same epicleses used by Apuleius and Plutarch referring to Isis were
commonly in use already in the Hellenistic period: from the second
century B.C. till Late Antiq-uity, equally among epigraphic,
papyrological and literary sources, Isis is already invoked as
Supreme, All-powerful and Primigenial Goddess, Master of Destiny,
Creatrix and Queen of the Universe: , , , , , , domina orbis
totius, , , , , , mater deum, , , natura rerum, , , , , ,
primigenia, , regina, , . However, the same sources
contemporaneously stress the salvific protection guaran-teed by
Isis, invoking her as: , , , , , , , numen auxiliaris, salutaris, ,
, , .
32) We assign to this volume the task of offering further
references about the several epicleses quoted in the following.
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710 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
Without doubt it is the aretalogical literature33 that shows the
closest contacts, particularly with the Metamorphoses, which
evidently draws inspiration, style and linguistic formulas from
that literature (references in Mthy 1996:265, n. 116). Besides,
even if the prototype of the lita-nies dates back to the third
century b.c. and most of its versions belong to the second and
first centuries b.c.,34 several copies were drawn up and
consequently circulated in the middle of the Imperial epoch.35 The
aretalogies the best expression of the new Hellenistic physiognomy
of Isis present very clearly the same double-faced figure that we
meet in Apuleius: Isis is a cultural heroine and she casts over
humanity her saving benevolence (Sfameni Gasparro 1999 and 2006).
Yet, at the same time, once again, she is the One, she has the
superintendence of the divine world and destiny (Sfameni Gasparro
1998), she aggluti-nates it in her polymorphous and myrionomic
supreme identity.
Can we catch reflections of the Platonic demonology applied to
the Isiac cult already in the Hellenistic sources? Or does this
centuries per-sistence of the main cosmic and soteriological
features of the Egyptian cults force us to abandon demonology as a
key to the interpretation of the phenomenon and to look for an
explanation elsewhere? An inscrip-tion from Thessalonica casts, we
think, new light on the problem. The text shows revealing analogies
in confrontation with Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride, and so it is
imperative to put first in comparison the epigra-phy and one of the
Plutarchan passages:
For you, Osiris the demon, [Phylakides] built this enclosure
and, inside of it, the well-carved coffin, carried by the drift of
the current where you bring your periplus to fruition in the starry
night and make Isis charming during celebrations. Indeed, first you
yourself assembled the boards of the ship and made your way with
pol-ished oars. But rise, and may you allow to Phylakides and his
children the good
33) Recently cf. Kockelmann 2008. 34) Such as the hymns of
Assuan (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:69 with previous bibliogra-phy),
Philae (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:6668), Maroneia (Sfameni Gasparro
2007:4048; Papanikolaou 2009), Memphis (Sfameni Gasparro
2007:6971), Medinet Madi (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:4857), Telmessos,
right till the Augustan one from Andros (Sfameni Gasparro
2007:57).35) Such as the hymns of Cassandrea (RICIS Suppl. I
113/1201, in Bricault 2008:1057), Ios (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:59),
Kyme (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:5758) and Thessa-lonica (Sfameni
Gasparro 2007:59).
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 711
present of the fame, keeping them healthy so that everyone, by
seeing all this, will stir his heart to never forget the Gods.
[Poem] of Damaios. (RICIS 113/0506, trans. V. Gasparini)
The avenger, the sister and wife of Osiris, after she had
quenched and sup-pressed the madness and fury of Typhoon, was not
indifferent to the contests and struggles which she had endured,
nor to her own wanderings nor to her manifold deeds of wisdom and
many feats of bravery, nor would she accept oblivion and silence
for them, but she intermingled in the most holy rites portrayals
and sug-gestions and representations of her experiences at that
time, and sanctified them, both as a lesson in godliness and an
encouragement for men and women who find themselves in the clutch
of like calamities. She herself and Osiris, translated for their
virtues from good demigods into gods, as were Heracles and Dionysus
later, not incongruously enjoy double honors, both those of gods
and those of demi-gods. (Plut., De Is. et Os. 361de, trans. F. C.
Babbitt 1936)
The short poem of five pentameters, carved on a marble stele
found in the Isiac sanctuary of Thessalonica,36 was composed by
Damaios prob-ably in the last quarter of the second century b.c.
Though separated by 250 years and belonging to completely different
literary genres, the two Greek texts have many elements in
common.
The inscription celebrates the building, financed by Phylakides,
of a consecrated to Osiris and, inside it, of a : the latter has to
be interpreted as a reproduction of the coffin which, in the
Egyptian myth (Plut., De Is. et Os. 355d358e; cf. Hani 1976:4852),
held the corpse of Osiris (imprisoned there by Seth-Typhon) and was
carried by the current toward the Phoenician Byblos. The periplus
of Osiris (who is credited with the invention of navigation)37 and
the celebrations quoted in the text consequently refer to the
successive finding by Isis of the body of her brother and husband
(Plut., De Is. et Os. 357ad; cf. Hani 1976:6279), and to the feasts
of the Inventio Osiridis (corresponding in the Roman period to the
Ptolemaic Kikellia, which took place the 29th of the month of
Choiak: Plut., De Is. et Os. 366df; cf. Hani 1976:35465, with
previous bibliography). The mythi-cal context is exactly the same
as that to which Plutarch refers when he tells of the several , ,
,
36) Museum of Thessalonica, n. 979. Cf. RICIS 113/0506; Bingen
1972; Merkelbach 1973; Koemoth 2005; Bricault 2006:139140.37)
Usually considered Isis creation, just related to the Phoenician
episode: RICIS 302/0204, l. 15; Bricault 2006:42. Cf. Vandersleyen
2004.
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712 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
performed by Isis trying to overcome Typhons and .
Another evident analogy lies in the religious purposes pursued
in both texts: the protection that Phylakides invokes for himself
and his children by Osiris will act for everyone as a spur not to
forget the Gods, exactly as, in Plutarchs account, Isis is not
going to let her painful deeds fall into oblivion and silence but
wishes that they always could serve as a warning and encouragement
to humans. So, in order not to let her efforts be forgotten and
silenced but to give to humans comfort and hope, Isis created
images (),38 allegories ()39 and repre-sentations ()40 of her past
sufferings and introduced them in
38) For images () we can easily think that Plutarch meant
pictures and statues representing episodes of Isis mythical cycle,
exactly as the sailors who survived the sinking of their ship
(Juv., XII.268; Scholia ad Sat., XII.2628) or sick persons cured of
an illness (Tib., Eleg. I.3, 2728) used to fix to the walls of Isis
temple paintings representing the avoided danger. Yet, next to
these canonical kinds of images, others had to be in use. Cows,
holy boxes and small gold vases, noted by Apuleius (Apul., Met. XI
11) and Plutarch (Plut., De Is. et Os. 366ef ) were themselves a
metaphysi-cal genre of representation of the Goddess.39)
Understanding the meaning of the allegories (), equally mentioned
by Plutarch, is more difficult. The term was already old-fashioned
in the second century A.D., as Plutarch himself underlines in his
Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat (Plut., De Aud. Poet. 19f
), replacing it with . This, however, does not entail the term
being widely used in the Plutarchs corpus (where it appears a good
78 times), thus constituting the key of one of the philosophers
exegetical methods (Hani 1976:1245) as well as representing the
deepest nature of the enigmatic Egyptian theological wisdom (Plut.,
De Daed. Plat. I; De Is. et Os. 354c). From a more prag-matic point
of view, we must in this case interpret allegories as a form of
representation (told, depicted or theatrical). The only element of
this kind that for the moment can be linked to these allegories is
Apuleius account (Apul., Met. XI.8) of the anteludia of the
Navigium Isidis festival: the cult procession is introduced by a
popular comic parade (considered one of the antecedents of the
medieval carnival rituals: cf. Di Cocco 2007) which is considered
variously as an artistic creation of the author (among others Marin
Ceballos 1973:165; Griffiths 1975:17280; Griffiths 1978:1589;
Grimal 1985; Fick 1987a:356; Fick-Michel 1991:88, 95; Mthy
1999b:137; Harrison 2000:2401) or as an original Isiac allegoric
show (Wittmann 1938:42; Scazzoso 1951:106; Merkelbach 1962:89;
Dunand 1973b:225). Despite the dangers implicit in this last Scherz
und Ernst interpretation (Winkler 1985:2303), I personally adhere
to it. 40) With regards to the , it is quite reasonable to
interpret them as scenic representations (Nielsen 2002:2125)
performed during festivals, similar to the sacred
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 713
the holy ceremonies. Though we may doubt that these words hint
at the foundation myth itself rehearsed in the Isiac initiatory
ceremonies,41 the mystery feature of the is evident (Bianchi 1980).
Moreover Plutarch probably constitutes the first explicit account
of this: indeed, the other testimonies either refer to cultic
practices not necessarily possessing mystery and initiatory traits
(e.g. Herodotus II.171, 5th century b.c.; the aretalogies from Kyme
in RICIS 302/0204, l. 22, 1st century a.d.; and from Thessalonica
in RICIS 113/0545, l. 22, 1st2nd century a.d.; Papyrus Oxyrhynchus
XI.380, 190220 l. 111, end of the 1st-beginning of the 2nd century
a.d.; and a series of inscrip-tions in RICIS 101/03012, 1st century
b.c.; 113/0537 and 501/0127, 1st century a.d.; 303/1301 and
308/0401, 2nd century a.d.), or are later. Nevertheless, on the
basis of the impressions coming, for instance, from the aretalogies
of Maroneia (RICIS 114/0202, ll. 2224, end of the 2nd century b.c.)
and Andros (RICIS 202/1801, l. 102, 1st cen-tury b.c.), it is not
possible to infer whether the mystery nature of the Isiac cult is a
product of the Imperial period, and we must attribute it back to
the Hellenistic epoch, probably linking it to the reorganization of
the Isiac cult carried out at the beginning of the 3rd century b.c.
by Manetho (high priest in Heliopolis) and Tymotheus
(significantly, high priest of the Eleusinian mysteries).42 We will
return to this later.
Returning to Damaios inscription, a third analogy is even more
interesting for our purposes: the poet explicitly defines Osiris as
a
Medieval dramas (cf. Chassinat 19668:9). Parts of them were
presented only to the initiated into the holy Isiac mysteries and
took place inside the sanctuaries: Firmicus Maternus (Firm. Mat.,
Err. prof. rel. II.3), like Plutarch (Plut., De Is. et Os., 366ef
), describes the devotees who pretend to look for the remains of
the body of Osiris torn limb from limb and, when they have finally
found them, rejoice as sorrow fades away. During those occasions,
the temple became a sort of platform, a stage, around which the
devotees gathered: two frescoes from Herculaneum (see Gasparini
2006:1234, and 2010) seem to superbly represent these kinds of
events. Yet, at the same time other public performances were
probably held in the theatres. The topographical and func-tional
relationship between sanctuaries and theatres, which dates back to
ancient Egypt (Nielsen 2002:2338), is believed to be due to their
frequent proximity (Nielsen 2002:21636; Gasparini 2007:125, and
2011).41) On the nature of such ceremonies and their Egyptian
antecedents cf. Malaise 1981; Bergman 1982; Malaise 1986. On
Plutarchs account in particular see Vernire 1986. 42) On these
topics, related to the Egyptian sources and Apuleius as well, see
Quack 2002.
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714 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
demon. We are not dealing here with an old-fashioned Homeric
mean-ing of divine (as it is always translated), nor is it a
reference to an obscure and capricious demonic power typical of
popular superstitious demonology. In epigraphy, the terms or
daemon, commonly used to indicate unspecific demonic beings or very
marginal deities of the Greek-Roman pantheon, only sporadically
refer to specific gods (Nowak 1969:14, 16) and, in these instances,
are related to divinities such as Hermes or Hecate who share
simultaneously the chthonian and the Olympic worlds, and whose
demonic role can be strictly compared to that of Osiris or Anubis.
In any case, nearly all these testimonies belong to erudite
demonology. The same can be said of Damaios. Indeed Damaios son of
Egesandros, winner of the processional poetical contests of the
Helikones Mouseia,43 was a professional poet and his cultural
background had to be as erudite and intellectual as Plutarchs, even
if probably less bound to a real philosophical alignment.
Therefore, Damaios and Plutarch texts seem also to share the same
demonology, and, in conclusion, the same sources concerning the
Egyptian cults.
Platonism
What type of sources did Damaios and Plutarch use in their
works? I propose that they in all probability had recourse to
Manetho of Seben-nytos, high priest of Heliopolis. Very well-known
in the Hellenistic period (he wrote about 270 b.c.), Manetho was
deeply imbued with the main Greek philosophical tendencies (cf.
Hani 1976:252), that is, Platonism and Stoicism. But surely he was
not a Stoic, as shown by his , where Stoic physical theories were
openly attacked. It is probable that Manetho, inheriting the
Platonism filtered by Xenocrates and Crysippus, molded the new
Hellenistic Isiac theol-ogy by introducing Platonic elements such
as, among others, demonol-ogy, even if this is not explicit in
Manethos texts. Manethos work influenced all the later theological
traditions, beginning with Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride, for which
it is the main source (explicitly quoted in Plut., De Is. et Os.
371c). The philosopher of Chaeronea came across his texts probably
thanks to Ammonius (his master in 6667 a.d.), who
43) Jamot 1895; Wellmann 1896; Feyel 1942:123.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 715
belonged to the Alexandrian Platonic school founded by Philo.
So, it is plausible that the figure of Manetho stood behind both
Damaios and Plutarchs texts as a common source for their
demonology.
Conclusion
The Hellenistic reorganization of the Isiac cult was not limited
to the insertion of philosophical elements. The pharaonic Osirian
myth itself was revisited with new episodes and particulars such as
Osiris and Isis trip in Byblos (Hani 1976:79), and even with new
gods such as Sarapis (Plut., De Is. et Os. 362a). A probable echo
of this process survives in the passage where Plutarch tells us
that Osiris received the name of Sarapis when he changed his
nature, becoming a god from having been a demon (Plut., De Is. et
Os. 362b). It was all part of the same cultic reshaping, including
the new iconography of these deities (so different from the
pharaonic perception) and their new mystery nature (intro-duced
thanks to the cooperation of Timotheus, high priest of the
Ele-usinian mysteries).
Demonology, iconography, myth and mystery were the principal
aspects introduced or deeply transformed in the Hellenistic Isiac
revolution:44 these are the roots of the process that reaches
maturation and its highest expression with Plutarchs myth and
Apuleius novel.
The Hellenistic face of Isis is the result of an original
creative activity which led to the formulation of a basically new
religious identity, without doubt nourished with dense Egyptian
life force but expressive of ideological and spiritual needs
peculiar to that amalgam with a marked Hellenic density which is
commonly defined as Hellenistic culture. (Sfameni Gasparro
2007:71)45
44) Leclant 1986; Malaise 1997; Dunand 2000; Malaise 2000;
Sfameni Gasparro 2007.45) Cf. Motte and Pirenne-Delforge Vinciane
1994:22, Quant au syncrtisme hnothiste exprim dans les artalogies,
il est avant tout une demarche intellectuelle qui ne debouche pas
sur la creation dune divinit nouvelle, pas plus que les
syncr-tismes doctrinaux, du type expos dans le De Iside de
Plutarque, qui sont une tenta-tive de restructuration des systmes
de pense quelle vise concilier.
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716 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
Necessarily, this analysis opens further questions: does all
this complex intellectual operation carried out at the beginning of
the third century b.c. exhaust the explanations concerning the
particular nature of the Egyptian cult and, first of all, of what
we have preliminarily defined as theological incongruence? In
particular, does the coexistence of cos-mic and soteriological
features with demonology possess a binding rela-tionship during the
development of the Isiac cult or not? And if so, what is the cause
and what the effect?
The Greek restructuration of the Isiac cult constitutes only one
aspect of the phenomenon. Indeed, the pillars of that religious
tradition remained deeply rooted in the pharaonic cultic
background.46 In Ancient Egypt Osiris (at least since the Middle
Kingdom) and Isis (later) were already considered supreme gods
(Dunand 1973a:93; Hani 1976:236), and even in that epoch some
divinities were already presented as masters of destiny, such as
Amon-R, Horus, Knhoum, Nephthys, Ptah, and, specifically, Isis. In
the pharaonic period Isis simultaneously held another prerogative:
she was the magician par excellence, and her magic power affected
gods as well as humans, particularly through dreams.47
These few indications are enough to show the degree of
compatibil-ity between the pharaonic and the Hellenistic cults. The
persistence of those features was total: the magic nature of the
Egyptian tradition will remain unchanged through the centuries and
will finally find strong links particularly with Middle and
Neo-Platonism: first of all in Apuleius,48 whose work and life were
not extraneous to magic, but also in Porphyrius (Porph., Plot. X),
for instance, who tells us that an Egyp-tian priest, in order to
show to Plotinus his magic talent and reveal his demon in a
spiritistic sance in the temple of Isis in Rome, found that the
philosopher harboured not a demon but a god. Once again
46) Cf. Guilmot 1962; Sfameni Gasparro 1999:411, n. 36. About
the Egyptian sources of aretalogies see Quack 2003. 47) On this
topic, in ancient Egypt as in Greece and Rome: Lexa 1925; Sbordone
1944; Preisendanz 1956; Kkosi 1997; Assmann 1997; Janowitz 2001;
Sfameni 2004. 48) Hoevels 1979; Hidalgo de la Vega 1986:7184; Fick
1987b; Fick-Michel 1991.
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V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728 717
demonology seems to catalyze more ancient dynamics: besides, in
late Antiquity Isis was already commonly presented as , as in the
Etymologicum Magnum and in the Souda.
It is however the mastery of destiny which, I believe,
functioned as a fulcrum for the interpretatio graeca of the
Egyptian cults. Even magic is a sort of instrument which allows the
manipulation of individual des-tiny, and the demonic is in strong
relationship with destiny (Sfameni Gasparro 1997:70, 8791), since
even etymologically the daemon rep-resents what is distributed by
the destiny, not by a universal and immu-table fate, but rather by
a single and specific individual destiny (Bianchi 1990:523). So
Isis, as . . . (PGM 4 26645), on the one hand, holds what Ugo
Bianchi (1980) calls the small destiny, that one of the occasional
evils that the goddess cures. Yet, she holds, as a supreme
divinity, even the big destiny, the cosmic and universal one; and
finally, as a mystery deity, Isis holds also an inter-mediate
destiny, linked to death, individual and universal at the same
time.
Isis cosmic soteriology adopted a range so wide that it reached
the maximum possible in a polytheistic system (Chirassi Colombo
1982:3189): transcendence and immanence, also thanks to
demonol-ogy, almost met. And there is no incongruence in this:
Plutarch himself underlines that Isis and Osiris not incongruously
( ) enjoy double honours, both those of gods and those of demigods
(Plut., De Is. et Os. 361e). This was possible thanks to the
soteriological nature of this cult: only mystery cults are
dedicated to gods who are not distant and aseptic like the Olympic
ones, but, though supreme, are deeply immersed in immanence they
are good and evil, they love and betray, rejoice and suffer, win
and lose, live and die. A precarious-ness in which humans see their
own condition and the possibility of their emancipation, in a kind
of (actually more Stoic than Platonic) notion of a universal
sympatheia.
The success of those religions lies in all this. And henotheism
repre-sents only a form of this success, an effect due to a
momentary fervor and religious exaltation, (Pettazzoni 1932:4) and
not a cause of it. This temporary concentration in the worship of a
single deity can assume the forms of a specific religious surge (Te
tibi quae es una et omnia, dea
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718 V. Gasparini / Numen 58 (2011) 697728
Isis,),49 and/or of a doctrinal elaboration, where the
worshipped god or goddess can even lose his/her personal name in
favour of an anony-mous pantheism, without losing the specific
identity and the philo-sophical function.50 Besides,
we dont have to think of the divinities as different gods among
different peoples . . . but, just as the sun, the moon, the
heavens, the earth and the sea are common to all, but they are
called with different names by different peoples, in the same way
that one rationality, which keeps in order all the things, and the
one Providence, which watches over them and the ancillary powers
that are set over all, have arisen among different peoples, in
accordance with their customs, differ-ent honours and appellations.
(Plut., De Is. et Os. 377f378a)
This is
the same notion affirmed by the worshipper of Maroneia and
elaborated with great theological awareness by Plutarch, which
would become the dominant characteristic of the Isis of the
Apuleian Metamorphoses, namely that of a divine personality who not
only or in particular appears able to agglutinate around her a
multiplicity of various figures with partially similar
characteristics, but who expresses a single identity and cosmic
power, underlying the various methods of ritual approach of the
various human cultures. (Sfameni Gasparro 2007:55)
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