Harpokrates and Isis 1.
Macrinus AD 217-218
AE 17, 3.14g
obv. AVT KM OPELLI CE - VH
MAKRINOCBust, laureate, r.
rev. NIKOPOLIT - WN PROC ICT[..]
Harpokrates, nude, stg. l., holding clothes and
cornucopiae in r.
arm and
raising r. hand to
his mouth.
unpublished?
very
rare, F+/about VF, green
patina2.
Julia Domna AD 193-217, wife of
Septimius SeverusAR - Denar, 3.5g, 18mm
Rome AD 196-211
obv. IVLIA -
AVGVSTABust, draped, r., hair waved in five waves and coiled at back
rev. SAECVLI -
FELICITASIsis, draped, with
polos on
head, stg. r, foot on prow, holding the infant Horus
at her breast, and
sistrum (or rattle) in r. hand,
altar at left behind her with rudder
leaning against it.
RIC IV/1, 577; C.174;
BMC 76
about EF
The half-circled lock of hair at her cheek should be typically for
Rome after AD 196 (?). The
sistrum is not mentioned in
RIC!
The first ISIS temple in
Rome was built by
Caracalla some years later in AD 217. The prow may be an allusion to the NAVIGIUM ISIDIS, a big ceremony on March 5. to celebrate the opening of the safe sailing season after the
winter.
Harpakhrad, also Heru-Pa-Khret (Greek: Harpokrates) meant "Horus the child" and he was also seen as a baby at the breast or as a naked infant sitting in the lap of
his mother Isis. In Mendes, the capital of
nome 16 of Lower
Egypt, he was the son of the town protector Banebdjedet and the local
fish goddess Hat-Mehit. Another depiction shows him as an infant boy with big, innocent eyes, engaged in sucking
his finger. He
had many names and shapes in the more than forty provinces (
nomes) where he was appearing in local forms. He
had a shaved
head with a big lock of hair hanging from the right
side. The
Greeks considered him the god of secrecy and discretion, misinterpreting the gesture of
his finger as meaning: keep quiet which was an
Egyptian gesture, symbolising childhood.
Horus (Greek) was a sky and solar god from Upper
Egypt from before the unification and one of the oldest gods in the
Egyptian mythology and by some concidered to have come from abroad by en early invasion of the Nile Valley. He was the personal symbol of the pharaohs symbolising protection and
courage.
Soon he became the Horus (the Elder: Heru, the Younger: Hor) and originated lots of combined deities like Har-pakhrad, Har-Wer etc, which
had wide spread cults all over the Nile Valley. He defeated all evilness in the world (symbolically) by defeating Set who
had killed
his father
Osiris.
His twin sister was Bast and he was sometimes seen as a child being breast fed sitting in the lap of
his mother Isis. In
his aspect Horakhty he was the combined god Re-Horakhte.
Osiris (in Greek) was
king of the Underworld and originally a god of
agriculture and nature.
His origin is disputed and he first appeared during dynasty five. In
Heliopolis he was said to be son of Re and he represented the dead
king. Minor gods were taken into
his vast cult and many legends were told about him. The common Myth of
Osiris is about
his death (murdered by
his brother Set) and resurrection. He was the chief judge in the court at the threshold to the next life, where all the dead citizens were trying to come through to Paradise. He always wore a mummy-dress and was brother to Isis, Hor (Horus the elder), Set and Nephthys.
His parents were Geb and Nut.
The Myth of OsirisIn the very beginning of time
Osiris was
king over
Egypt and
his queen (and sister) was the goddess Isis. He was beloved by the people whom he told how to worship the gods and grow their crops for their daily bread.
His brother Set became jealous and tried to overthrow him and become
king himself. When participating in a feast with
Osiris as host, Set began to describe a beautiful
coffin he
had, in a way that made the other guests curious.
He was asked to fetch it and so he did and this was just in line with
his plan.
Everyone agreed that it was a magnificent piece of craftsmanship and Set told them that he would give it away for free to whomever fitted exactly into it. Since he
had made the
coffin himself it was measured to fit one person only -
his brother
Osiris. When he placed himself in it everybody could see that he was the one who would get i as a present, but the evil Set
had other plans. With
his brother
Osiris still in it, he and
his fellows quickly nailed the lid and threw it into the Nile. Queen Isis was overcome by sorrow and began to
search all over the land for it, but in vain. ("Isis first invented sails, for while seeking her son
Harpocrates, she sailed on a ship." - Hyginus, Fabulae 277.)
One day she heard that a wonderful tree
had sprung on the shores of Byblos in the
north on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where the local
king had cut it down and built a palace from it.
Isis understood that this was the place where the
coffin had come to
shore and she went there in disguise. She got a job at the court as a hairdresser for the queen and now when she could walk freely inside the castle she began to look for the
coffin, and finally she found it in a remote chamber.
During the night she managed to snach it and embarked a boat heading for
Egypt. When she came there she hid in the marshlands in the delta. There she opened the
coffin and took a last farewell of her beloved husband
Osiris and began searching for a suitable place to bury him. But Set was aware of all this and was hiding nearby. When Isis went to rest for the night he snatched the
coffin and cut
his brother's body into fourteen pieces and spread them all over
Egypt. Isis became furious and asked her sister Nephthys and her son
Anubis, to
help her to find all the pieces of her husband's body.
They now started a nation wide
search that lasted for many years and finally all the
part of Osiris' body were found except for the thingy which
had been thrown into the Nile where it was devoured by a
fish.
Isis made a wooden replacement for it and then put the whole body together. She now asked the sun god Re to make her husband alive just for one day, which he did, and they could have a last night of love together. The next day
Osiris died and
his body was embalmed by
Anubis who thus made him the first mummy. Isis later gave birth to a son who was named Horus and she did all she could to keep it a secret from Set, but he found them and almost killed them in an ambush.
They were saved by the god of wisdom - Thoth, and he told them to hide in the reeds in the marshes once more. But as before Set found their hiding place and
had more wicked things on
his mind. He transformed himself into a
snake and gave the little Horus child a fatal bite.
When Isis came back she found her baby almost lifeless, and took him to the nearest village to get
help. A
wise old woman examined him and found out that it must have been Set as a
snake who
had bitten him. Thoth came to their rescue once more and drove out the poison from Horus' body and he recovered. He and
his mother stayed hiding in the delta until he was a mature
man and sometimes he took the form of a hawk and scouted out Set for the final showdown - the revenge on
his murdered father. When that moment came they fought for three days until Thoth stopped the fight. They were both taken to the Court of Law in the Underworld and there they presented their versions of the story leading to the
combat. The Court did not believe Set, who was sentenced to pull the boat with the sun across the sky forever. Horus now became the new
king of
Egypt like
his father
Osiris before him, and the
good had finally conquered evil.
Isis put the body of her dead husband in a
coffin and
had nineteen identical coffins made in which she put duplicates. Priest from Egypt's twenty biggest towns then were given one each and could all thereafter claim that they
had Osiris' tomb in their town. Thus many places in
Egypt were (and
still are) called Abusir - the place of
Osiris.
"Upon her [Isis’] brow stood the crescent moon-horns, garlanded with glittering heads of golden grain, and grace of royal dignity; and at her
side the baying
dog Anubis, dappled Apis, sacred Bubastis and the god [Harpokrates] who holds
his finger to
his lips for silence sake." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.692
Attached:
"Io, crowned with a pair of
cow horns, is carried to Isis and her son Harpokrates (by the River-God Neilos?)", a detail from the
Roman Fresco "Isis receives Io at Canopus", Pompeii 1st century BC, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli 9558
Sources:
Der kleine
Paulyhttp://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/1egypt/index.htmhttp://www.theoi.comBest regards