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A small Roman bronze figurine of a seated infant was found in Byzantine Shivta in the arid region of the Negev in southern Israel. The figurine was probably part of a sculptural group or part of a vessel or other utensil. This paper studies the iconography of the figurine, and aims to decipher the gap in time between its production in the Roman period and its discovery in a Byzantine context, some two centuries later. We argue that the Roman figurine was readopted in Byzantine Shivta as an amuletic object, and we strive to explain its function as a miniature relic transferred in time, and perhaps also in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the essay the Descriptio Silentii (Description of Silence) by Celio Calcagnini, a humanist scholar from Ferrara, an essay written in the early sixteenth century and published in 1544. The article provides the first English translation of the essay, describes its inspiration and sources and reviews the content of the essay in order to assess Calcagnini's contribution to the philosophy of silence from the Renaissance and before. Calcagnini's essay is an ekphrasis of a picture supposedly located in the ruins of the Roman temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste, the inspiration for its format is the late Hellenistic text the Tabula Cebetis, and the principal content is an appeal for the virtues of silence in human affairs and the castigation of the garrulous following the example of Plutarch's essay De Garrulitate from the Moralia. However, this appeal to the virtues of silence is a prelude to the deeper theme and purpose of the essay: the theme of mystical silence, a silence by which it is possible to approach and understand the god-head and the divine, and which can only be expressed in non-verbal language, riddles or poetic imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Archaeological Institute with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences keeps a bronze lamp shaped like a foot wearing a sandal topped by a boy holding a goose. Is it possible that this foot represents the so-called Foot of Sarapis? Lamps played an important role in the rituals connected to the solar aspects of the Egyptian deities Harpocrates and Serapis as well as in the Isis mysteries. The feet of Sarapis spread mainly during the Roman period were votive objects representing a part of the body of the god. Considered as part of Sarapis these foot images could become symbolic representations of the god and objects of veneration for Sarapis's followers. In addition, they were presented as magical objects and were considered to have healing properties. Like the footprints in the temples dedicated to Egyptian deities, these feet materialize the appearance of the deity in the temple and its beneficial powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of material can be found in Isiac sanctuaries, that is, those devoted to Isis, and her companion Sarapis, as well as the synnaoi theoi, Anubis and Harpocrates? To answer this question, we can study the sacral inventories, but they are few. Sundry information is also to be found in literary and epigraphical texts (especially dedications) and iconography, but all these sources have to be linked with the material discovered in sanctuaries. Three main groups of material can be identified: first of all, the statue and everything connected to it (such as garments and jewels); then, the material used to worship the god or goddess during everyday worship or on different feasts; finally, objects used to create a special atmosphere peculiar to a mystery cult.

In 1755, the Marquise de Pompadour commissioned a marble statue of Eros-Harpocrates withthe right index finger resting on its lips, to decorate the hôtel d’Évreux, the future Palais de l’Élysée. This gesture of the little Horus, which in Egypt was simply the sign of childhood, became the object of an interpretatio romana that transformed the son of Isis and Osiris into a god of silence and mysteries. This interpretation was to have a long legacy, being revived in the Renaissance and then becoming accepted after the publication of a work devoted to the god by the Dutchman Gisbert Cuper in 1676. Now an allegory of political prudence and scientific or esoteric secrets, it is still Harpocrates who, today, stands at the entrance to the courtroom of the Palais du Luxembourg, seat of the Senate of the French Republic.

A pendant representing a human figure was found during the 2015 excavation campaign within the Roman pottery workshop in the town centre of today’s Crikvenica (northeast Adriatic), in the area pertaining to the remains of roofed rooms with pavements. The iconographic analysis ascertained that, with all probability, it represents the Hellenised Egyptian deity Horus, that is, the Greco-Roman Harpocrates; along with the rest of the gens of Isis, he belongs to the “Alexandrine family” or triad/ tetrad. The pendant, made of faience, can be placed alongside similar objects uncovered in the eastern Adriatic, within the wider context of spread of the cult of Isis and with it associated beliefs in the Adriatic area, but it can also be regarded in the light of personal religiousness or belief, possibly with the apotropaic, individualised significance of an amulet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What kind of material can be found in Isiac sanctuaries, that is, those devoted to Isis, and her companion Sarapis, as well as the synnaoi theoi, Anubis and Harpocrates? To answer this question, we can study the sacral inventories, but they are few. Sundry information is also to be found in literary and epigraphical texts (especially dedications) and iconography, but all these sources have to be linked with the material discovered in sanctuaries. Three main groups of material can be identified: first of all, the statue and everything connected to it (such as garments and jewels); then, the material used to worship the god or goddess during everyday worship or on different feasts; finally, objects used to create a special atmosphere peculiar to a mystery cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though we find only a few traces of the Egyptian god Harpocrates on epigraphic inscriptions, his cult was widespread in Ancient Near East during the Graeco-Roman period. The discovery of figurines (terracotta, glass, bronze, silver, and sometimes gold) and other artefacts depicting the young god (for instance on lamps) is a good sign of his popularity at all stratas of society. In Cyprus, such representations of Harpocrates are scarce (Amathontes, Salamine), except for Nea Paphos. The recent publication of an amulet discovered in Nea Paphos gives the opportunity to discuss its interpretation and to come back on the presence of the young god on the island.

The concentration of a large quantity of material linked to isiac and metroac cults inside and round the so-called Palaestra at Herculanum and the connotations of certain pieces which point to their original belonging to a context of religious and public nature induce us to look for a different interpretation of the building’s function. The architectural analysis reveals anomalies which do not correspond to the typical characteristics of Roman palaestras but far more correspond to various prototypes of Hellenistic origin. We here propose to identify the so-called Palaestra with a shrine dedicated broadly speaking to the Mater Deum, namely that under that name there could be found the Phrygian Cybel (presumably since Augustan times) as well as the Egyptian Isis (possibly added in the Flavian era).

Discovered about 1867 in Saint-Paul-d’Uzore (Loire), three bronze statuettes featuring Mercury, Harpocrates and an unknown god, are now part of the collections of the Museum of Diana in Montbrison. The iconographic Mercury type is very unusual for the area, and the other two figurines have characteristics that tempt us to view them as fakes, contrary to what was believed until now. Burial of these three items could be the work of a forger who wanted to support the theory of a mountain of Uzore dedicated to Isis.

Even though we find only a few traces of the Egyptian god Harpocrates on epigraphic inscriptions, his cult was widespread in Ancient Near East during the Graeco-Roman period. The discovery of figurines (terracotta, glass, bronze, silver, and sometimes gold) and other artefacts depicting the young god (for instance on lamps) is a good sign of his popularity at all stratas of society. In Cyprus, such representations of Harpocrates are scarce (Amathontes, Salamine), except for Nea Paphos. The recent publication of an amulet discovered in Nea Paphos gives the opportunity to discuss its interpretation and to come back on the presence of the young god on the island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first excavation campaign of the Paphos Agora Project (3rd July – 6th August 2011), an interesting object was discovered. In Trench II, Area 2 (Room 5), in the upper, late Roman layer, an oval amulet was found (siltstone, 39.41 x 41.32 x 4.81mm). The layer is dated to the 6th century AD, partially due to the presence of ceramic objects of the Cypriot Red Slip Ware type (Hayes form 2, AD 450-550). The obverse of the amulet contains a schematic, simplified figure of a sitting Harpocrates and below the mummy of Osiris in a boat, as well as depictions of animals (a crocodile, a rooster and a snake) and symbolic astrals (a half-moon and a star). On the reverse, however, an eight-line text of the so-called ιαεω- palindrome, consisting of 59 letters of the Greek alphabet, was carved. According to the current state of knowledge, it was translated in the following way: “Yahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine”. Both the depiction and the text carved into the surface of the amulet clearly indicate the influence of the Orient and the context of solar ideas; the object may be dated to the 5th-6th century AD.

Egipto presenta en época de los emperadores Antoninos unas series monetales excepcionales de tipo provincial, o mejor «subprovincial», pues están batidas en los nomos o distritos egipcios, apareciendo sus nombres geográficos escritos en los reversos; y junto a las leyendas se muestran las imágenes de las divinidades tutelares, Isis, Horus-Harpócrates, etc. Así pues, anversos y reversos se complementan en las monedas ofreciendo una iconografía religiosa local egipcia en apoyo de la ideología imperial romana, a la que se adapta, y a la que se integra en las acuñaciones de la primera mitad del siglo II d.C. El presente trabajo estudia y comenta a modo de ejemplo la iconografía de algunas de estas emisiones, concretamente las que se centran en la figura de Harpócrates, y como se complementan con el ejercicio propagandístico llevado a cabo en Egipto por los principales emperadores del siglo II d.C.In the Antonine Period Egypt presents an exceptional provincial or rather subprovincial coinage, as they were made in the so called nomes or Egyptian districts. On their reverses we find the geographical names and, together with the legends, images from the provincial gods such as Isis, Horus-Harpokrates, etc. Hence, obverses and reverses complement each other offering an Egyptian, local and religious iconography supporting imperial Roman ideology, to which it adapts and integrates on the coins minted in the first half of the second century AD. Here we study and comment as an example the iconography on some of these coins, especially those focused on the figure of Harpokrates, and how they served as a complement to the propaganda exercise carried out by the main emperors in the second century AD in Egypt.

During the first excavation campaign of the Paphos Agora Project (3rd July – 6th August 2011), an interesting object was discovered. In Trench II, Area 2 (Room 5), in the upper, late Roman layer, an oval amulet was found (siltstone, 39.41 × 41.32 × 4.81mm). The layer is dated to the 6th century AD, partially due to the presence of ceramic objects of the Cypriot Red Slip Ware type (Hayes form 2, AD 450-550). The obverse of the amulet contains a schematic, simplified figure of a sitting Harpocrates and below the mummy of Osiris in a boat, as well as depictions of animals (a crocodile, a rooster and a snake) and symbolic astrals (a half-moon and a star). On the reverse, however, an eight-line text of the so-called ιαεω- palindrome, consisting of 59 letters of the Greek alphabet, was carved. According to the current state of knowledge, it was translated in the following way: “Yahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine”. Both the depiction and the text carved into the surface of the amulet clearly indicate the influence of the Orient and the context of solar ideas; the object may be dated to the 5th-6th century AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]