| The impression given here is that the Roman population had turned everyday into a party, and the work week was reduced to 1 or 2 days a week, if that. We have to consider whether this would be good for any nation. It certainly didn’t help Rome very much, in the end. The Aristocracy was supported by lavish lifestyles while the slaves supported the Aristocracy. Similar to how America and first world nations use slave labor abroad while the rich sit on lavish cruise liners and own several vacation homes. The provincial altars in Rome towards the 4th and 5th centuries AD were either to Mithra, Jupiter, Maia, Bacchus, Neptune, or Isis, and there were even a few erected to the emperors, but not one statue in the entire history of Rome was ever erected to Jesus Christ, despite his worship having become the state religion. (108) Iupeter had a healing temple erected in the Insula Tiberina, (109) in 196 BC, and was given the name “Salutaris.” (110) Isis in Rome Isis temples were erected in Athens, at Helicarnassus near Corinth and at Antioch. There were temples established in Cyprus, Syria, and Asia Minor as well. The worship of Isis was eventually welcomed into the Roman Empire. (111) The worship of Isis and the construction and destruction of temples in Rome was an ongoing event over many years, but the popular demand was such that Roman officials were forced to comply on several occasions with the desires of the citizenry. The Temple of Isis was rebuilt on five separate occasions between 59 and 48 BC, until temporary recognition of the rites were given in 43 BC. (112) Years later, it was associated with allies of Antony and Cleopatra and suppressed again by Augustus (113) and then the decree was reversed by Gaius in 37 AD, and much later on in 215 AD, Aurelius Caracalla (AD 188-217) integrated the Goddess into the Roman pantheon and provided her an impressive temple on Capitoline hill. (114) Two festivals commemorating the Egyptian deities Isis and Osiris were held in Rome. The Navigium Isidis was held in the spring, and the Osiridis was held in the fall. The spring festival, held on March 5, was the “Vessel of Isis” and celebrated the opening of the sailing season. Isis was held to be a protectress of sailors as well, by this time. (115) From October 28 through November 3, lamentation over Osiris would occur mixed with celebratory joy. (116) Festivals to Isis were at their greatest in Rome in 394 AD, with Mithraism being the strongest competitor. (117) On November 3, 417, the Gaulish writer Rutilius Namatianus wrote of the “crowds of peasants rejoicing” and celebrating the Hilaria of Osiris at the crossroads of the town. In Egypt, up until the 5th century AD, Isis even had worshippers among the highly educated townspeople. (118) |
After the transition to the Gregorian calendar, March 25 became May 1 every alternate year. Festivals and celebrations were moved up from the time of the vernal equinox to what we now call Mayday, and similar fertility rites are expressed in modern times on Mayday. (119) Today, March 25 is called Lady Day in Christianity because it’s the “Feast of the Annunciation” day. This was the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of her conception of Christ. The origin of this festival, going back to the Hilaria, can be traced back as far as the 2nd millennium BC in Asia Minor. (120) Up until the time of 486 AD, Isis still had her sanctuary at Philae. Her worship was not altogether abolished until 535 AD. According to Robert Turcan, in his Cults of the Roman Empire: “Narses, who was then in command of Justinian’s troops in Egypt, put the priests of Isis in prison and had the idols sent to Constantinople. The carved walls were plastered over and the pronaos became a church.” (121) The female principle embodied in the “Great Mother” or magna mater, became the mater Ecclesia, a sort of “voodoo doll” for the Catholic male priesthood. (122) The continuation of the tradition of goddess worship was carried into the Ophite sects of Gnosticism and even as late as the 4th century, Epiphanius was condemning the Collyridians for offering cakes to the Virgin, who was now Mary, as once were offered to the Queen of Heaven. The priesthood had to prevent the goddess worship from overtaking the early church so Epiphanius issued a proclamation stating “the body of Mary is holy but she is not god; she is Virgin and worthy of great honor but she is not given to us in adoration, rather she adores Him Who is born of her flesh,” and “Let Mary be honored, but let the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be adored.” (123) (108) Middle Ages Revisited, p. 210 (109) Livy, xxxiv, 53 (110) Healing Gods, p. 430; Bruzon, La Medecine et les religions, p. 135, (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum xiii, 240) (111) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 176 (112) Dia Cassius. xlvii, 15, 4; liii, 2, 4; Tertullian, Apol., 6; ad nat., I, 10 (Varro) (113) Virgil, Aeneas, vol. iii, 698-700 (114) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 176-77; Minucius Felix, Octavius, 22, 2 (115) Cults of the Roman Empire, p. 114; M. Malaise, Les conditions de penetration ..., p. 217ff (116) ibid, p. 116-17 (117) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 180; Codex Parisinus, 8084, 98-101 (118) ibid, p. 128; Zachary the Scholastic, Life of Severus, in Patrologia Orientalis, II, Paris, 1907, p. 27ff (119) Cf. C.B. Lewis, A Miscellany of Studies to L.E. Kastner, 1932, p. 338ff (120) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 188; Herodotus I, 34ff (121) Cults of the Roman Empire, p. 128 (122) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 200; Cf. P. Batiffol, Le cathlicisme de saint Augustine, Paris, 1920, pp. 270ff (123) ibid, p. 201-202; Panarion, 78:II, 24; 79: 4, 7 |