ENDNOTES  page 406

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million-named Isis: *

One of the premier roles of Isis was wife & mother (as in the Osiris myth); she was credited as the inventor of marriage & parenthood, invoked to protect women in childbirth as well as to protect their virginity.  Some texts called her the patroness of women in general.  She was also characterized as a moon goddess, paralleling the solar characteristics of Serapis.  She was also seen as a cosmic goddess.  Some texts claimed she organized the behaviour of the sun, moon, and stars, governing time and the seasons which, in turn, guaranteed the fertility of the earth.  She is credited with inventing agriculture, establishing laws, even promoting civilization itself.  In Hellenistic times Isis was given the role of overseeing the seas & harbours; sailors called on "Isis of the Sea” to ensure their safety & good fortune in their voyages.  For Rome she had added significance as the city’s food supply was dependent on grain shipments from Egypt.  Isis therefore guaranteed fertile harvests & protected the ships that carried the grain.  Isis had become the pre-eminent deity of Europe & the Mediterranean, associated with older goddesses such as Inanna/Ishtar, Aphrodite, and Sauska among others.  During the period Christianity was taking form Isis dominated religious sensibilities.  The concept of the Dying and Reviving God, established centuries earlier through the Osiris myth, seemed to be echoed in the story of Jesus as popularized in the evangelical missions of Paul (42-62 AD).  Christianity itself drew on the power of Isis to establish itself and over time, epithets for Isis morphed into those for the Virgin Mary such as "Mother of God" and "Queen of Heaven". 

 

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the Baalath of Carthage (Tanit, Dea Caelestis) honoured by Septimius Severus. *

aka Baʿal Ḥammon, in English: “Lord Hammon”; chief god of Ancient Carthage, linked & identified as one of the Phoenician deities covered under the name of Baal; he was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation & esteemed as King of the Gods; depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns.  His female consort was Tanit, the main goddess of Carthage, derived from Berber Libya. In the 4th century BC political-religious reforms placed her at the top of the Carthagean pantheon. Partly uranic, partly chthonic, she was Heavens Goddess, Moon Fertility Goddess, associated with Hera & Demeter, both a Mother and a Death Goddess  It was claimed that children were sacrificed to her. With the Punic expansion her cult spread to Sicily, Sardinia, Malta and Spain.

 

Dea Caelestis or Virgo Caelestis was the name the Romans gave to Tinit.  Before Septimius Severus she is not known outside of Africa.  Her Roman temple stood inside the Pomerium, the sacred district of Rome, on the Northern part of the Palatine. Her cult was on top of all other foreign cults. Here we find orgiastic activities as they were usual for Tinit, blended with similar deities.  The Historia Augusta refers to oracles by her, uttered shortly before the reigns of Pertinax & Severus.  Her prophecies were important as they were concerned with the forthcoming death of Commodus and the coming of Pertinax and Severus.

 

Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna (present day Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. He grew up here & even spoke the local Punic language fluently.  Although educated in Latin and Greek, he spoke with a African slight accent.