Religion under the Greeks and Romans
When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332
BC, he was welcomed by the people as their savior from the burden of
Persian domination and the effects of ineffectual native rulership.
The ensuing period of domination by the Ptolemaic Dynasty and then
the Roman emperors, however, did little to improve the lives of most
Egyptians. During this time Egypt experienced many changes in
aspects of its civilization, including religious beliefs and
customs. Increasing numbers of Greeks settled in Egypt, but there
was little attempt to integrate the gods of both peoples although
some Greeks eventually adopted some aspects of Egyptian religion.
The state, however, attempted to introduce certain cults with the
aim of uniting the two peoples. The Ptolemies who established this
dynasty were not entirely secure in their claim to rule Egypt;
therefore, they established an official dynastic cult to justify
their rulership. The earlier Egyptian practice of deifying and
worshiping the dead king as one of the royal ancestors now became a
cult of the living rulers.
Serapis Ptolemy I also created a new god, Serapis, to unite the Greeks and Egyptians. The god had a Greek appearance but was given an Egyptian name, and some of his features were based on the Apis bull, an Egyptian deity worshiped at Memphis. Serapis was tolerated by the Egyptians perhaps because of the long association between the Apis and the Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris; similarly, his appearance made Serapis acceptable to the Greeks, and with royal support the cult attracted many adherents. This artificially created cult, however, never achieved any fundamental religious unity between the Greeks and the Egyptians. .
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Importance of
Egyptian Religion In their own cities and communities within Egypt the Greeks worshiped their own gods and built shrines to Zeus, Apollo, Demeter, and Aphrodite. From the third century BC, however, the political climate began to change in favor of the Egyptians, and Egyptian religion became increasingly important. Their religious beliefs were pervasive because the gods had been worshiped for many centuries and, unlike Greek deities, they offered the promise of eternal life in a clearly envisaged hereafter. Even the animal cults that the Egyptians promoted to emphasize their national loyalties during the foreign dynasties were sometimes adopted by the Greeks. One example was Suchos, the crocodile god of the Fayoum, whom both Egyptians and Greeks worshiped. Some native Egyptian gods such as Isis and Amun were taken by traders and administrators to Greece, the Greek islands, and Asia Minor. Under the Romans Serapis reached the Black Sea, Sicily, and south Italy, while the cults of Osiris and Isis also became widespread. Isis continued to be worshiped until the fifth century AD, long after the arrival of Christianity. These gods retained popularity because they guaranteed individual immortality and combined a sense of mystery with their own almost human characteristics. One aspect of Egyptian religion that both the Greeks and the Romans sought to promote and perpetuate was the idea that the Ptolemaic rulers and the Roman emperors were also pharaohs within Egypt. This gave them the claim of ownership over the land and its people, a right that most of them exercised unscrupulously and with considerable zeal and that enabled them to extract economic benefits. As pharaoh, however, it was necessary for the ruler to build and repair the temples and promote the interests of the Egyptian gods and their priests. The Ptolemies decreed substantial concessions to the temples and regarded them as a vital element in the state. By comparison there were probably few large Greek temples outside Alexandria. The Romans also recognized the need to gain the Egyptian priests’ support, and they built new temples at several sites. The best-preserved examples of Egyptian temples dating to the Greco-Roman Period are found at Edfu, Esna, Denderah, Kom Ombo, and Philae. In the early years of Ptolemaic rule the kings had merely made additions to existing temples at Luxor, Karnak, and the Theban royal cult complexes, but they later built new monuments. These continued the earlier architectural traditions of the Pharaonic Period with only minor variations. Each temple had a series of courts, halls, and a sanctuary that were all reached through a main gateway. They were all built to a single plan and essentially repeated the same architectural and decorative features. Temples of this period, however, also introduced some new features including screen walls to separate the forecourts from the inner areas, roof apertures instead of clerestory lighting in the hypostyle halls, and the addition of a birth house (mammisi) where the god’s birth was celebrated. .
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Tomb Building
During this period the Greeks and Egyptians followed separate customs in building tombs. Ptolemaic burials for Greeks in Egypt are found in the cemeteries at Alexandria, Naucratis, and in the Fayoum. There is almost no evidence of fusion between Greek and Egyptian styles in these tombs. At Alexandria little evidence survives of the Egyptian burials, but elsewhere New Kingdom tombs were reused for multiple burials. These were entirely Egyptian with continued use of body coffins, mummification, and hieroglyphs. More attention, however, was paid to embellishing the outer casing of the mummy than to the decoration of the tomb or the provision of funerary goods. One particularly interesting example of Greek influence on an Egyptian tomb still survives at Tuna el-Gebel, the necropolis of the city of Hermopolis. Here in the tomb of Petosiris (high priest of the temple of Thoth in the reign of Ptolemy I) there is some evidence that, to some extent, Egyptian and Greek art and religion had fused, but such examples are rare because the underlying Greek and Egyptian concepts were so different. . Mummy Panel Portraits One important area where Egyptian beliefs and practices united with those of the Greeks and Romans is in the painted panel portraits that were now placed over the faces of the mummies. Intermarriage and increased links between the native and immigrant populations had led some Greeks and Romans to adopt certain Egyptian funerary beliefs and the associated practice of mummification. The painted panel portraits, head and chest covers, painted burial shrouds, and cartonnage or wooden coffins accompanying the mummy all demonstrate this hybridization and exhibit new or changed forms. Most panel portraits date to the Roman Period from the first half of the first century AD to the fourth century, when they were gradually abandoned because of decline in the practice of mummification. They are reminiscent of paintings found on the walls of houses at Pompeii, but in Egypt their funerary use and the climate have ensured that some have survived. They provide the most important single collection for the study of ancient portrait painting. The painting style and technique are truly innovative because, unlike the pharaonic face masks, which represented idealized rather than individual faces, these were undoubtedly personal portraits. They also introduced new artistic techniques and conventions from the Classical world such as shading, highlighting, perspective, and depth. Inside the elaborate outer casings, however, the mummies were often poorly preserved. This provides evidence of a steep decline in the embalmers’ skills and also perhaps of a rise in the number of clients who now chose to have their bodies mummified. .
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Religion under the Greeks and Romans
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