How Foreign Were the Cult of Isis and the Cult of Cybele in The Roman Context?

It was commonplace in ancient Rome to accept foreign gods into the Romans pantheon and Rome was in fact home to many foreign gods, but just how foreign were these gods? This essay will be looking at Rome’s attitude towards foreign gods. In doing so it will particularly look at the cult of Cybele and the cult of Isis as examples of foreign cults in Rome. This essay will particularly be focusing on why these two cults would have been considered foreign context. It will also be looking at how these cults were viewed by the Romans because of their otherness.

The cult of Cybele is a particularly strange foreign cult seeing as Cybele is an essential part of roman society, but at the same time its members are ridiculed and ostracized because of their strange practices. To understand the position Cybele has within Roman society one must look at the conditions under which she was brought into Rome. The Romans won a victory in 207 BCE, but Hannibal was still in Italy. In 205 BCE a prophecy in the Sibylline Books declared that, if ever a foreign enemy should invade Italy, he could be defeated if “the Idaean Mother of the Gods” were brought from Pessinus to Rome. (V. M. Warrior, 2006)

The cult of Cybele was introducing in Rome during The Second Punic War. It was brought into Rome because the Roman’s believed that doing so would help them win the war. Although this was not the only instance in which the Romans introduced a foreign deity into their city in order to insure their victory in war. We can for instance also see this in the Romans war with Veii. Before the Romans did battle with the city of Veii they first called upon a Goddess, who was worshiped by the people of Veii, (who the Romans called Juno) to join the Roman people and in the presses abandon the people of Veii. The idea being that this would make the impending war easier. Seeing as the Romans now the Romans had an additional deity supporting them whereas the people of Veii had lost the support of their deity. (E. M. Orlin, 2010) It was quite commonplace for the Romans to convert their enemies’ gods before doing battle with them, but the way in which Cybele was bought into Rome was somewhat different. Cybele was immediately taken inside the pomerium, something that was not commonplace for foreign gods:

After temporary lodgement it was placed in a temple on the Palatine, which was dedicated to the goddess. (H. Scullard, 1981)

Here we cab see that the Romans even took her to the Palatine hill (which was the very centre of Rome). Cybele only was “the second known foreign deity to be brought within the pomerium.” (V. M. Warrior, 2006) Cybele was “a native deity of Asia Minor” (M. Beard, J. North and S. Price, 1998). Because of this the Romans might have been more acceptive of her seeing as she could be connected to the city of Troy: The Roman’s mythological city of origin. If the Romans had connected Cybele to the city of Troy, Cybele would have been viewed as altogether that foreign. They could have felt that they were already connected to Cybele in some way. This might explain why Cybele was taken into Rome’s pomerium and was not left outside like we would see with most other foreign gods.

Despite the fact that the Romans seemingly easily accepted Cybele’s presence in Rome, they did not approve of the cult’s practices. In order to become a priest of Cybele (called a galli) one was required to castrate oneself. This had some implication for the Cults position within Roman society:
In Greek and Roman eyes, mutilation of their own bodies made it impossible for them to be accepted as normal members of the social group. (J, Alvar, 2008)
Along with the fact that the galli were castrated they also wore women’s clothing:
The social knowledge was that the galli were eunuchs and dressed in ‘women’s’ clothes; in ordinary daily experience. (J, Alvar, 2008)
This would have been extremely strange and unacceptable in a patriarchal society. It undoubtedly would have made the cult even stranger and even harder to accept by the Romans. Despite the fact that the cults practices were extremely foreign and would have been considered as unacceptable in Roman society the Romans were content in allowing the cult of Cybele to continue with its traditional practices. The state merely put some regulation on who could join the cult. No Roman citizen was allowed to join the cult. Only foreigners were allowed to become galli. (J, Alvar, 2008) Even though the cult of Cybele was a legal part of Roman society, one should not think that it was necessarily accepted by the Roman populace. One might expect that the galli’s strangeness might have been cause for mockery within Roman society. Indeed, this was the case. There is some evidence that the galli were in fact mocked for their strange practices:

The basic joke is that galli are acknowledged to be men, but their absence of genitals, and their wearing of clothes classified as ‘female’, defines them as non-men. (V. M. Warrior, 2006)

But, why would Rome’s state allow such practices to continue if they did not approve of them in their own culture. The answer is simple, Rome needed the cult of Cybele. Although Rome adopted new gods quite often it would seem that they did not necessarily want to do so. Rome could not be seen adding foreign gods to their pantheon for no particularly good reason. They only did so in times of crises:

In both republic and empire there are instances of the official adoption of new non-Roman gods, but often after initial resistance and unsuccessful attempts at suppression. The literary sources indicate that new cults were adopted by the state in times of crisis, especially plague or disaster in war. (V. M. Warrior, 2006)

 
Hannibal’s invasion of Italy most certainly could be seen as a disaster to the Romans. This would explain why the romans chose to take Cybele into their city, but it does not explain why the romans chose to allow her strange and foreign practices to continue. The Romans did not seem particularly concerned that gods would be angered if they did not worship them:

Romans’ behavior cannot be ascribed to a theological desire to avoid incurring the wrath of any divinity they encountered during their expansion. (E. M. Orlin, 2010)

Cybele was brought into Rome by the state itself. It was not merely a cult that was then begrudgingly accepted by the senate. Rome was not in a position to send Cybele back where she came from: she had entered the pomerium quite legally, had protected the city; Hannibal had been defeated. Since she, the goddess, had fulfilled her part of the bargain, the Romans could hardly renege on theirs. As a compromise, her right to prey upon young men was limited to a group of foreigners. (J, Alvar, 2008)
Essentially meaning that the Rome made a deal with Cybele to protect their city and now they have to put up with her. The fact that Cybele still was allowed to carry on with her traditional practises, albeit only with foreigners, could be seen as a compromise. Cybele protects Rome and in return she is allowed to carry on with her practices (to however a limited extent). Despite the cults oddness we can still see that Cybele had earned her way into Rome’s festival calendar. Every year the Romans something called the Megalensian games were held in Cybele’s honour. Thus, meaning that the people of Rome celebrated Cybele in this way regardless if they were priests of Cybele. We can see that the cult of Cybele was a cult that was extremely foreign and was ostracised by the people of Rome, but also at the same time seemed to form an important part of Roman religious life as could be seen with the Megalensian games. It is quite possible that part of the reasons the Romans held the megalisian games was because they were “stressing their own supposed Trojan origin.” (H. H. Scullard, 1981) Thus, meaning that by celebrating Cybele the Romans are in fact also celebrating their Trojan origins and therefor also Rome itself. Cybele therefor had the place she had in roman society largely because she was associated with Rome’s origins.

Unlike the cult of Cybele, the cult of Isis was not introduced into the city of Rome under crises, nor was it introduced by the Roman state. The cult of Isis also was a particularly strange cult within the Roman context, but for an entirely different reason. The cult of Isis was odd because of what it promised to its followers: Individually Salvation after death provided that one worshiped Isis.
Salvation in the cult of Isis is only possible on the basis of the individual’s voluntary search for truth, and—more important still—of the goddess’ divine aid, which, thanks to her magical and medicinal arts, makes resurrection and immortality possible. It was believed that salvation could only be found through the worship of Isis. This was not the case in roman state religion. Roman state religion there was no idea of salvation after death. The cult of Isis is quite focused on the individual. This too is not something we see in Roman state religion. The Roman state gods did not really care much about the individual, they were rather worshiped for the wellbeing of the community as a whole. The cult of Isis was fairly popular in ancient Rome and its ancient Rome and it might have been the idea of the individual salvation that made her so popular:
It used to be taken as an article of faith that official or civic religion in antiquity was largely distinct from the true feelings of the people. The idea was that the success of the mysteries was due to the fact that their rituals made a more direct appeal to their adherents. (J, Alvar, 2008) Isis quite simply was not as impersonal as Romans state gods.

Where Isis’s rituals took place also made her strange. In the cult of Isis there were both secret and public rituals. This once again would have been quite foreign to the Romans seeing as in Roman state religion this was not the case. In Roman state religion all rituals were conducted within the public eye. Isis’s rituals were not just in the public eye like one would see with state religion and neither were they only conducted in secret, as one would see with something like the cult of Mithras. The idea of secret rituals was that Isis confirmed some sort of divine knowledge upon her followers that would allow them to go to the Elysium fields upon their deaths. To romans worship in secret was seen as something bad. If ritual practices took place in secret it was seen as magic and not religion and therefor was bad. We can for instance see this in the Bacchic conspiracy of 186 BC. In this instance the worshipers of Bacchus were executed. They were executed largely because their rituals were conducted in secret. They subsequently were accused of all sorts of macabre rituals and above all that they had conspired against the state. This is an example of how the Romans saw secret rituals as something bad. Although this did not happen to the cult of Isis, seeing as they were not seen as having disrupted public order. This is the fundamental difference between cult of Bacchus and the cult of Isis on this particular occasion.

It would seem that the Roman elite looked down upon the idea of a personal relationship with a particular god:
Mysteries of all types, but particularly those of the imperial period, will be well up towards the pole favoring the establishment of close personal relations between deity and adherent, indeed in a manner that would traditionally have been considered unmanly or even superstitious by the civic élite. (J, Alvar, 2008) Although the Roman elite looked down upon mystery cults like the cult of Isis, they did not attempt to ban it because of this. Once a cult had taken hold of the populace, it generally would have been expedient to adapt it by eliminating unacceptable practices, rather than attempt to suppress it.

In the cult of Isis as in the Cult of Cybele we can see that the Romans state was prepared to accept all manner of strange practices as long as they did not disrupt public order, as was the case in the cult of Bacchus. The disruption of public order was not the only reason a cult could be made an illegal. The cult of Cybele was at one time made illegal by the Romans. It was made illegal in the civil war between Anthony and Octavian. This naturally was because the cult of Isis was an Egyptian cult and Antony at that time-controlled Egypt, but it was later once again made legal when Egypt was no longer seen as Rome’s enemy. As one can see success of a cult can be very dependent on the political situation in Rome at the time. Rome only introduced new gods under emergencies, they also only made the worship of foreign gods illegal if they felt that it was a threat to public order or for political reasons.

As one can see there was not specific formula for dealing with foreign gods. The cult of Cybele and the cult of Isis came into Rome under different circumstances and they were treated differently by the romans. As one cans see with both these cults the foreign cults, Rome had an intricate relationship with its foreign gods. These gods seemed to have formed an important role of Roman’s society, and yet they were ostracized (to a certain extent) by the Roman state who in turn begrudgingly accepted them.

References

E. M. Orlin, Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, 2010)
H. H. Scullard, Festivals and ceremonies in the Roman Republic (Thames and Hudson, 1981)
J, Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras (Leiden, 2008)
M. Beard, J. North and S. Price, The Religions of Rome, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1998)
V. M. Warrior, Roman Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

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