Goddess isis
The textual conflation of these goddesses, particularly as inflected by the theme of Imperial militarism, is most notable in Book 2, when Lucius describes several statues in the atrium of Byrrhena’s house. In addition to the much-discussed statue of Diana and Actaeon, four identical winged goddesses barely balancing on spheres flank the atrium. Millar 1981), no study has taken sufficient account of the material world in which the Romans of Apuleius’ time were living in respect to reading Fortuna and Isis in the novel. This paper, which fills this void by reconsidering the textual evidence alongside the abundant material evidence in which these goddesses are syncretized, argues that the connections between Fortuna and Isis both within the text and in the religious culture outside of the text are so strong that they should be seen as the same deity throughout, the syncretized Isis-Fortuna.īeyond the description of Isis as Fortuna videns seen above, thematic consistency between the depictions of each goddess suggest that Fortuna and Isis should be seen as a single goddess. For instance, Lucius’ life under Fortuna is figured as slavery (Bradley 2000, Fitzgerald 2000, Sabnis 2006 11.15, described as servitium by Mithras) as is his life under Isis (11.6, when Isis demands the remainder of his life 11.15, also described as servitium by Mithras). Furthermore, both Fortuna and Isis are depicted with Imperial militaristic imagery throughout (e.g. Despite the fact that Apuleius’ novel has been shown to be deeply engaged in the “real” world of the Roman empire (e.g.
Merkelbach 1962, Fry 1984) to the recently more dominant idea that Isis is distinct from the Blind Fortuna of Books 1-10 (e.g. In one of the most famous scenes in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, Mithras, a priest of Isis, addresses the recently rehumanized Lucius before a crowd of Isis worshippers. Describing the events of Books 1-10 as the malevolent acts of the blindness of Fortune (11.15: Fortunae caecitas), Mithras assures Lucius that he has now found himself in the safety of Isis, described as Fortuna videns (11.15). The link between Fortuna and Isis in Mithras’ speech – and the implications thereof – has elicited several scholarly interpretations: from the notion that Isis and Fortuna are two aspects of the same goddess (e.g.