Athena Review Image Archive ™
	Pompeii: Temple of Isis, statue of Isis Pompeii: Temple of Isis, statue of Isis (Naples Mus.Arch.; photo: Athena Review)
	This statue of Isis from the Temple of Isis at Pompeii is shown at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Isis is dressed in a transparent chiton (tunic), and holds a coptic cross (crux ansata) in her left hand. Her raised right hand probably held a sistrum, or ceremonial Egyptian rattle. The worship of Isis and Serapides, taken up by the Ptolomeic Egyptians in the 3rd century BC, spread to Italy at the end of the following century (the Serapeum in Pozzuoli dates from 105 BC). The cult of Isis attracted a number of followers, especially from the lower classes, to whom it promised salvation after death in return for  worshiping the mysteries of the compassionate goddess Isis.
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