The cult of Isis emerged in Roman religion from the 1st century. The Egyptian goddess Isis was worshipped combined with other Roman goddesses, creating new composite deities, such as Isis-Fortuna. In Ancient Roman pantheon Fortuna, the equivalent of Greek Tyche, was the goddess of fortune, good luck and fertility, while Isis was worshipped for her powers related to the afterlife. Bronze statuettes of Isis-Fortuna, such as this fine example, would have featured attributes of both deities, such as the Isis knot tied to her robes and the headdress of Isis, a lunar disk between horns or feathers, and Fortuna’s rudder and cornucopia.
To discover more about religous syncretisms in Antiquity, please visit our relevant blog post: Religious Syncretisms in the Ancient Mediterranean Region.
