{"id":1363,"date":"2018-10-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2018\/10\/01\/3762\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:46:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:46:02","slug":"3762","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/","title":{"rendered":"The Middle Platonic Isis: Text and Image in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Herodes Atticus&#8217; Marathon Villa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This study examines the sculptural program of the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Marathon, part of Herodes Atticus&rsquo; villa complex. These monumental statues depict the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris in an unusual Egyptianizing style. First, I consider the sanctuary&rsquo;s intended audience, arguing that Herodes used this part of his villa for philosophical discussions with pupils and members of the Middle Platonist Athenian School. Next, I reread the sanctuary and its sculptures in light of Middle Platonic philosophies of the god, focusing on Plutarch&rsquo;s <em>De Iside et Osiride <\/em>and a group of Isiac texts called aretalogies. Both sets of texts emphasize Isis&rsquo; ability to unify deities from around the Mediterranean under a single godhead while also emphasizing each god&rsquo;s discrete powers and personalities. I argue that the sanctuary&rsquo;s design and sculptural program responded to these themes in a way that primed viewers to reconsider their textually derived understanding of Platonic philosophy. This approach demonstrates that the types of viewing across multiple media proposed for literary genres should also be considered for philosophy; that is, viewing art may have been a method for creating and critiquing philosophical thought in ancient Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This study examines the sculptural program of the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Marathon, part of Herodes Atticus&rsquo; villa complex. These monumental statues depict the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris in an unusual Egyptianizing style. First, I consider the sanctuary&rsquo;s intended audience, arguing that Herodes used this part of his villa for philosophical discussions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[9,28,29,37],"issues":[652],"region":[879],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-sculpture","tag-arthistory","tag-romanperiod","tag-religioncult","issues-652","region-greece-attica"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Middle Platonic Isis: Text and Image in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Herodes Atticus&#039; Marathon Villa | October 2018 (122.4) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Middle Platonic Isis: Text and Image in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Herodes Atticus&#039; Marathon Villa | October 2018 (122.4) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This study examines the sculptural program of the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Marathon, part of Herodes Atticus&rsquo; villa complex. These monumental statues depict the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris in an unusual Egyptianizing style. First, I consider the sanctuary&rsquo;s intended audience, arguing that Herodes used this part of his villa for philosophical discussions [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-01T04:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1224_Mazurek.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"546\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"website\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"website\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"website\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f93c211048ad920b94c1e8abdb2053f0\"},\"headline\":\"The Middle Platonic Isis: Text and Image in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Herodes Atticus&#8217; Marathon Villa\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-01T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1224_Mazurek.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sculpture\",\"Art History\",\"Roman Period\",\"Religion\/Cult\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\",\"name\":\"The Middle Platonic Isis: Text and Image in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Herodes Atticus' Marathon Villa | October 2018 (122.4) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1224_Mazurek.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-01T04:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3762\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1224_Mazurek.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/1224_Mazurek.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":546,\"caption\":\"On-site replicas of the Isis and Osiris statues set up roughly where the original statues stood inside the West Pylon, viewed from the east (T. 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