Ancient World Review

The Temple Of Isis In Pompeii

"The Temple of Isis is a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis. This small and almost intact temple was among one of the first discoveries during the excavation of Pompeii in 1764." (Wikipedia)

"... The preserved Pompeian temple is actually the second structure; the original building built during the reign of Augustus was damaged in an earlier earthquake of 62 AD. Seventeen years later with the massive volcanic eruption, the Iseum [Isis temple] alone was the sole temple to be completely rebuilt—ahead even of the Capitolium."

Next video shows the standing ruins of the temple as they appeared in 2009. All of its wall paintings and statues were apparently moved to the Archaeological Museum at Naples.

"The worship of Isis was [originally] treated with suspicion in official circles because of its associations with Ptolemaic Egypt," according to Pompeii: The Last Day by Paul Wilkinson (p.47). "After the annexation of Egypt by Augustus in 30 BC, however, attitudes relaxed and by AD 38 Rome itself had a Temple of Isis. The cult of Isis had its own full-time priests, whereas the more official Roman religions did not."

More views of the temple (including the entrance to an underground ritual purification chamber) can be seen in the next video. Turn up the volume.

According to Pompeii: The Last Day (pp. 176-177), "The sanctuary around the Temple of Isis is enclosed by walls on its east and north sides. It adjoins the Samnite Gymnasium [1] to the west and the theaters to the south. Very little is left of the original temple because it had been almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of AD 62. It was completely rebuilt in interesting circumstances by Numerius Popidius Celsinus. He was a six-year-old child who was admitted into the ruling body of Pompeii, the collegium decurionum, as a reward for his generosity (his father having actually provided the finances)." [2]

[1] "In the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered [Pompeii] (and all the other towns of Campania); the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. After the Samnite Wars (4th century BC), Pompeii was forced to accept the status of socium of Rome, maintaining, however, linguistic and administrative autonomy. In the 4th century BC, it was fortified. Pompeii remained faithful to Rome during the Second Punic War." (Wikipedia)

[2] According to Wilkinson, Numerius Popidius Celsinus was the name of the six-year-old child, but other sources give this as the father's name. It's possible that they both had the same name, however. One of the temple inscriptions reads "'Numerius Popidius Celsinus, son of Numerius, rebuilt at his own expense from its foundations, the Temple of Isis, which had collapsed in an earthquake; because of his generosity, although he was only six years old, the town councilors nominated him into their number free of charge.'" Source: The Post Hole. The Latin and an English translation of the inscription can be found here.

Note: The video above is part of a longer lecture series on a variety of ancient history topics.

Isis was an important deity in Pompeii, probably because of the goddess's association with water:

"Because this temple served the Isis cult and was not a public civil space, the Temple of Isis, or Iseum, and Isis herself must have held special meaning and value for the city of Pompeii. Pompeii’s seafaring economy and the rise of personal religion in the Roman world may explain this high value. Since Pompeii relied on commercial seafaring to support its economy, Isis’s emphasis on stable and life-giving water defeating the often treacherous, unpredictable, and sometimes-deadly water of the sea, strengthened the local cult. The confluence of architecture, art, and rituals implies why the Pompeiians so highly valued a cult sanctuary – gentle Isis, offering resurrection and regulated water, provided a comforting counterbalance to unpredictable Neptune." (The Post Hole).

Related: The Temples of Pompeii

Oriental and Mystery Cults in Pompeii

The Ancient Origins Of Halloween

"Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, can be traced back about 2,000 years to a pre-Christian Celtic festival held around Nov. 1 called Samhain (pronounced 'sah-win'), loosely translates to 'summer's end' in Gaelic, according to the Indo-European Etymological Dictionaries. [13 Halloween Superstitions & Traditions Explained]." Source: Live Science.

Closed captions helpful.

"Because ancient records are sparse and fragmentary, the exact nature of Samhain is not fully understood; but it was an annual communal meeting at the end of the harvest year, a time to gather resources for the winter months and bring animals back from the pastures. Samhain is also thought to have been a time of communing with the dead, according to folklorist John Santino.

"'There was a belief that it was a day when spirits of the dead would cross over into the other world,' Santino told Live Science. Such moments of transition in the year have always been thought to be special and supernatural, he added."

A Wiccan explanation of Samhain.

Halloween has very ancient roots. According to Wikipedia, "Samhain is believed to have Celtic pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. Some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the time of Samhain. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Bealtaine [a Gaelic May Day festival], special bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them."

Related: Mayday and the Celtic Festival of Bealtaine.

Irish Bealtaine "Rave" (2017). Kind of dull. Needs some animal or, better yet, human sacrifices.

Note: "It’s likely that bats were present at the earliest celebrations of proto-Halloween, not just symbolically but literally. As part of Samhain, the Celts lit large bonfires, which attracted insects. The insects, in turn, attracted bats, which soon became associated with the festival. Medieval folklore expanded upon the spooky connotation of bats with a number of superstitions built around the idea that bats were the harbingers of death." Source: Mental Floss.

These days we have dogs in bat costumes.

Christianity, of course, appropriated Halloween just like it appropriated other pagan festivals. To the Christians, Halloween, aka All Saint's Eve, is part of the Hallowmass season:

"Allhallowtide, Hallowtide, Allsaintstide, or the Hallowmas season, is the triduum encompassing the Western Christian observances of All Saints' Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day (All Hallows') and All Souls' Day, which last from 31 October to 2 November annually. Allhallowtide is a 'time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints, and all faithful departed Christians.' The present date of Hallowmas (All Saints' Day) and thus also of its vigil (Hallowe'en) was established for Rome perhaps by Pope Gregory III (731–741) and was made of obligation throughout the Frankish Empire by Louis the Pious in 835. Elsewhere, other dates were observed even later, with the date in Ireland being 20 April. In the early 11th century, the modern date of All Souls' Day was popularized, after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the dead." (Wikipedia)

Call me a heretic, but All Saint's Eve seems kind of lame. A better way to celebrate Halloween is to stage a riot and fight with the cops like these ravers did in the UK back in 2015:

Related: Halloween costumes were a lot scarier 100 years ago.

The Roman Cult Of The Vestal Virgins

Video from 2013.

The cult of the Vestals was the heart of the Roman empire, the symbol of its life and future. It's importance to the state can be seen in the continual improvements made to the Atrium Vestae, the House of the Vestals:

"Researchers have carried out scientific analysis of the materials used to build the Atrium Vestae in Rome. They found that successive phases of modification to the building saw improvements, including higher quality raw materials, higher brick firing temperatures, and better ratios between carbonate and silicate building materials." Source: Science Daily.

Video from 2011.

This whole area was sacred. "[The Atrium Vestae was] the house of the Vestal Virgins at the foot of the Palatine, just east of the forum proper. By the end of the republic this term had come to mean their dwelling-house, in which sense it is ordinarily used in extant literature ... but originally it included the whole precinct of Vesta ... This precinct contained the temple of Vesta, the dwelling of the Vestals, the sacred grove, and the Regia or house of the king. This group was called both Regia and atrium Vestae ... and regia Vestae." Source: University of Chicago.

The cult of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth, home and family, "expressed and guaranteed Rome's permanence," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised). "...The sacral status of the six sacerdotes Vestales, the Vestal Virgins (the sole female priesthood in Rome), was manifested in many ways. Though they were required to maintain strict sexual purity during their minimum of 30 years' service, their dress alluded to matrons' wear, their hairstyle probably to a bride's."

Most Vestals came from senatorial families, reflecting their elite religious function. "Though they had many ceremonial roles, their main ritual tasks were the preparation of the grain mixed with salt for public sacrifices and the tending of Vesta's 'undying fire.' The extinction of the fire provided the prima-facie evidence that a Vestal was impure: impurity spelled danger to Rome."

When Rome was still Rome, the cult of the Vestals was taken seriously. The punishment for impurity was to be buried alive. According to the OCD, "the last known case of living entombment ... occurred under Domitian in AD? 89. The last known chief vestal is Coelia Concordia (AD 380); the cult was finally abandoned in 394."

The cult of the Vestals was abandoned 14 years after Nicene Christianity was established as the state church of the Roman empire. Perhaps more than any other change that took place during that time, the dissolution of the Vestals shows just how radically the new religion had transformed Roman culture. The sacred fire symbolized the permanence of Rome. In many ways, it was Rome. When the fire was extinguished by official decree Rome -- the real Rome -- had basically ceased to exist. It's future was gone. By 394, when the last chief Vestal stepped down from her post, Rome was already in serious trouble. Eighty-two years later, the empire officially collapsed in the West when the last Roman emperor was deposed by the barbarians.

Closing down the cult of the Vestals was literally an act of cultural suicide.

The Long History Of Vampires (Updated)

The narrator in the video above was talking too quickly for me to catch the name of this particular Balkan vampire. Whoever he was, he definitely isn't the "earliest recorded vampire" unless the narrator meant that he's the earliest named vampire or the earliest vampire in the modern sense of the word, which could be true for all I know. The legend of the vampire been around for thousands of years, but the picture of the vampire we have today is only a few centuries old and apparently originated in eastern Europe:

"The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe." Source: Wikipedia.

The modern concept of the vampire appears to be based on very ancient legends which first appeared in the Near East thousands of years ago. I don't have any evidence for this, but I wouldn't be surprised if the legends could be traced all the way back to the Paleolithic.

"Among the elaborate and extensive demonology of Babylonia and Assyria the Vampire had a very prominent place. From the very earliest times Eastern races have always held that belief in the existence of dark and malignant powers, evil spirits and ghosts which is, we cannot doubt it, naturally implanted in the heart of man and which it remains for the ignorance and agnosticism of a later day to deny. The first inhabitants of Babylonia, the Sumerians, recognized three distinct classes of evil spirits, any one of whom was always ready to attack those who by any accident or negligence laid themselves open to these invasions." Source: The Vampire, His Kith and Kin, by Montague Summers, Chapter 4: "The Vampire In Assyria, the East and Some Ancient Countries."

According to one theory, the legend of the vampire may have been inspired by a disease like rabies.

"The most famous vampire is, of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula, but those looking for a historical 'real' Dracula often cite Romanian prince Vlad Tepes (1431-1476). Stoker may have modeled some aspects of his Dracula character on Vlad, but he probably just borrowed the name (Vlad Dracula). The characterization of Tepes as a vampire, however, is a distinctly Western one; in Romania, he is viewed not as a blood-drinking sadist but as a national hero who defended his empire from the Ottoman Turks." Source: Live Science (2014).

Recommended Listening: Vasile Lupasc - The True Story of King Vlad Dracula

Recommended Reading: Dracula, Prince of Many Faces, His Life and Times.

The legend of the vampire seems to have originated in the very ancient and widespread belief that "blood is life." It's no accident that blood sacrifice was also an integral part of ancient pagan rituals. According to Montague Summers (who believed that vampires are real), many cultures saw blood as a medicine. Several African tribes, for instance, treated the sick and dying by giving them human blood to drink. Blood has always been thought to have rejuvenating powers that could bring the shades of the dead back to a semblance of life. In the Odyssey, for example, when Odysseus enters Hades to learn how to get home, he makes a blood offering to the dead. The spirits have to drink the blood of his sacrifice before they can become substantial enough to talk to him.

Vampires -- the Undead -- are essentially dead bodies which require regular infusions of blood to maintain their strange existence and keep from decaying. They are physical manifestations of the occult power of blood to restore youth and vitality. The transformation of these bloodsucking corpses into sex symbols in the modern world is truly bizarre, but it obviously has something to do with the fact that the victims in vampire movies (and the female vampires) tend to be voluptuous women and the vampire attacks are usually presented as a kind of seduction.

Dracula does the job on Mina in stylish fashion.

The figure of the vampire is so fascinating that an entire Goth-style subculture of "real-life vampires" has emerged. These people claim to be actual vampires and the most extreme of them have gone so far as to have fangs surgically implanted. Technically, I guess, this makes them part of the larger body-modification culture. Basically they're LARPING in a group fantasy world and most of them don't make very convincing vampires.

Many people still believe that vampires are real. For instance, the following news report (2012?) describes how a Serb village was living in fear of a local vampire, Sava Savanovic, believed to be loose in the countryside after the collapse of his ancestral home.

"'People are very worried. Everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people,' Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assembly member, told ABC News. 'We are all frightened.'" -- ABC News (2012). For more information, see The Bloody Truth About Serbia's Vampire.

It would be easy to make fun of these people and call them superstitious peasants, but that would be kind of hypocritical considering how superstitious Americans are. This is also a pretty religious country. Millions of Americans believe in the supernatural in one form or another. For instance, many Christians believe in demons and angels and spirits. They believe that Jesus raised the dead and came back from the dead himself, but they'd probably laugh at the idea of vampires or call them demons, which is pretty close to the definition in many ancient cultures. One way or another, if you believe in the supernatural that opens the door to all sorts of things, including vampires.

One of my favorite vampire movies is The Night Stalker (1972) starring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak. The vampire in The Night Stalker is pretty good, but it has been scientifically proven that Christopher Lee was the greatest vampire of all time.

Finally, despite all the vampire novels that have been written since his time, Bram Stoker's Dracula is still the best. Written in 1897, this is Stoker's Gothic masterpiece, a fantastic product of the Victorian imagination. No modern novel even comes close.

The Fertility God Priapos

"Priapos was the rustic god of the bounty of the vegetable garden. He was also honoured as the protector of sheep, goats, bees, the vine and of all garden produce." Source: Theoi Greek Mythology.

Notes: Priapus was the John Holmes of ancient Greek deities. "He was represented in a caricature of the human form, grotesquely misshapen, with an enormous phallus," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. "The ass was sacrificed in his honour, probably because the ass symbolized lecherousness and was associated with the god’s sexual potency. In Greek mythology his father was Dionysus, the wine god; his mother was either a local nymph or Aphrodite, the goddess of love."

The Roman god Mutunus Tuturus was a phallic marriage deity closely associated with Priapus. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Priapus was "an ithyphallic god most familiar from the sportively obscene short poems called Priape; in these he typically threatens to punish by penetration any male or female intruder into the garden of which he is guardian."

Though I be wooden Priapus (as thou see'st),
With wooden sickle and a prickle of wood,
Yet will I seize thee, girl! and hold thee seized
And This, however gross, withouten fraud
Stiffer than lyre-string or than twisted rope
I'll thrust and bury to thy seventh rib.

Offerings were made to statues of Priapus, which were usually set up in gardens.  "A minor and disreputable god,"  he preferred the "lustful ass" as a sacrificial victim, but would also accept "animal sacrifice of the more normal type or, very commonly, offerings of fruit, flowers, vegetables (and fish)." (OCD)

The Temple Of Apollo At Didyma, Turkey

This is the temple of Apollo at the Ionian sanctuary of Didyma in Turkey. The oracular shrine of Apollo "was administered by a priestly clan, the Brnachidae, and rose to great prominence in the 6th cent. BC," according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed. revised). The fate of the sanctuary "seems to have been sealed by an oracle given in AD 303, advising Diocletian to initiate his empire-wide persecution of the Christian church. Constantine I closed the oracle, and executed the priests; it appears not to have functioned thereafter."

In other words, the oracle was shut down in retaliation for its advice to Diocletian.

"Sorceror's Treasure Trove" Discovered In Pompeii

"Experts have found a treasure trove of unusual objects concealed in Pompeii and it is theorized that the objects belonged to a Roman sorcerer who used them in the casting of spells." Source: Ancient Origins.

"... The Daily Telegraph reports that the items were found 'hidden in a room in the Casa del Giardino, or House of the Garden'. This is in Section V of the Pompeii Archaeological Park , which is in southern Italy."

Was The Byzantine Empire Roman?

Documentary from 2014.

"The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire [see comment]  in the Greek-speaking, eastern part of the Mediterranean. Christian in nature, it was perennially at war with the Muslims, Flourishing during the reign of the Macedonian emperors, its demise was the consequence of attacks by Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.

Comment: The Byzantine Empire is usually referred to as the "Roman empire in the East," but I've never thought there was anything particularly Roman about the Byzantines. Romans weren't Greek-speaking Christians; they were pagans who spoke Latin. If you ask me, the real Roman empire had already ceased to exist for all practical purposes by the time Italy and the western provinces were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fifth century AD. The Byzantines retained Roman institutions, but they were essentially an Oriental kingdom, a kind of hybrid of western and eastern traditions.

According to this view, the Roman Empire collapsed as a culture long before it was conquered militarily. When Rome fell in the West, that was the end of it. Parts of its territory still remained, however, most of it in the East, but it's hard to see these surviving territories as Roman.

The picture is very complicated, naturally. There were similarities and differences beween the Roman and Byzantine empires. It would be surprising if nothing had carried over from the old world. As a general rule, civilizations aren't suddenly obliterated, leaving no trace behind. Collapse doesn't work that way. Kingdoms and empires rise and fall and evolve into new political systems, usually after a period of chaos and warfare. Zombie civilizations are common in history -- nations that still exist long after their cultures have died or changed out of all recognition. Christian Rome and the Roman Byzantine Empire are both good examples, I think, of zombie empires.

The Byzantine empire was a "continuation" of the Roman Empire in the sense that it was once part of the Roman empire with all of its legal and political institutions, but it was Roman in name only. The main difference, I think, was religious. Paganism had been outlawed and driven underground, replaced by Christianity, an essentially Oriental religion.

Here's a modern analogy. Let's say that the United States becomes a Muslim caliphate, but keeps all of its current institutions in place. There's a White House, a Congress, a Supreme Court, and so on. People still vote, but all the candidates are Muslims. The county courthouse still looks the same, but Christianity is illegal and the courts enforce Shariah Law. Then the western half of the country is invaded and overrun by savage barbarians who settle down and take over the existing legislative machinery. The eastern half of the country still survives as an independent nation, but is it American? The answer is obvious.

Related: Continuity and change in the Byzantine Empire.

Female Druid's Face Reconstructed

"A toothless skull was all that researchers had of one of Scotland's oldest known Druids, but now they have something more: a wax re-creation of her face, showcasing her gnarled wrinkles and seeming intense determination." Source: Live Science. 

Hilda's skull was discovered around 200 years ago. She is thought to have lived sometime between 55 BC and 400 AD.

"Not much is known about Hilda. It's thought that her remains were found at Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis [see next video], off the northern coast of Scotland. Her skull was one of six 'Druids of the Hebrides' skulls presented to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh in 1833. Since then, the skull has remained at The University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum."

Note: Female druids aren't unheard of. For instance, "Irish mythology has a number of female druids ... often sharing similar prominent cultural and religious roles with their male counterparts. The Irish have several words for female druids, such as bandruí ('woman-druid'), found in tales such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge; Bodhmall, featured in the Fenian Cycle, and one of Fionn mac Cumhaill's childhood caretakers; and Tlachtga, the daughter of the druid Mug Ruith who, according to Irish tradition, is associated with the Hill of Ward, site of prominent festivals held in Tlachtga's honour during the Middle Ages." (Wikipedia)

The Cult Of Cybele: Mother Of The Gods

"A 2,100-year-old marble statue of Cybele, an ancient Phrygian mother goddess, has been unearthed in excavations in northwestern Turkish province of Ordu [Greek Kotyora] located on the Black Sea coast." Source: Archaeology News Network (2016).

Notes: Cybele may have evolved from an even older fertility goddess in the proto-city of Catalhoyuk (7500-5700 BC), also located in ancient Anatolia. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD, 3rd ed. revised), Cybele was "the great mother-goddess of Anatolia, associated in myth, and later at least in cult, with her youthful lover Attis. Pessinus in Phyrgia was her chief sanctuary, and the cult appears at an early date in Lydia."

According to Theoi Greek Mythology, "Kybele (Cybele) was the ancient Phrygian Mother of the Gods, a primal nature goddess worshiped with orgiastic rites in the mountains of central and western Anatolia. The Greeks identified her with their own mother of the gods--the Titaness Rhea."

The cult of Cybele was apparently introduced fairly early (3rd cent. BC) in Rome. "Thanks to its official status and early naturalization in Rome and in Ostia, the cult spread rapidly through the provinces, especially in Gaul and Africa, and was readily accepted as a municipal cult. Its agrarian character made it more popular with the fixed populations than with the soldiers, and it was especially favored by women." (OCD)

Cybele was also known as the Magna Mater or Great Mother (1). According to The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Ancient Texts, edited by Marvin W. Meyer (p.113), "she was honored as the mother goddess of fertility, but her particular power was evidenced in the wilds of the untamed forests and mountains." After Cybele entered the official Roman pantheon, "she was to function practically as a Roman national goddess" and enjoyed great favor with the emperors starting with Claudius in the first century.

(1) Several other goddesses were also referred to as "Great Mother."

"The most well-known Roman festival in honor of the Anatolian deities [Cybele and her consort Attis] was celebrated in the spring, during March," according to The Ancient Mysteries (p.114). These rites were associated with violent religious frenzy. "March 24 was aptly named The Day of Blood. On this day some of the fanatical celebrants flogged themselves until they bled and sprinkled their blood upon the image and altars in the sanctuary, while others are said to have imitated Attis by castrating themselves." (Ibid) Bulls were also sacrificed in honor of the Great Mother of the Gods.

Several Roman historians and poets described the cult of Cybele in detail. Livy, for instance, described how the cult was first brought to Rome in his History of Rome (Book 29.10-14):

"About this time a sudden wave of superstition swept over Rome. The Sibylline Books had been consulted because it had rained stones that year more than usual [!], and in the Books a prophecy was found that if ever a foreign enemy should invade Italy, he could be defeated and driven out if Cybele, The Idaean Mother of the Gods, were brought from Pessinus to Rome." (Ibid, p. 121).

Christian writers denounced the cult of Cybele and the church banned it altogether when they gained the secular power required to force their intolerant monotheism on the pagan world, but the tradition of the Great Mother still survives in the figure of the Virgin Mary.