{{Short description|Annual ancient Roman religious festival in honor of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis}} [[File:Fresco Isis Nápoles 02.JPG|thumb|Fresco with the Navigium Isidis (Naples National Archaeological Museum)]]
The '''''Navigium Isidis''''' or '''''Isidis Navigium''''' (trans. ''the vessel of Isis'')<ref name="Valantasis2000p378"/> was an annual ancient Roman religious festival in honor of the goddess Isis,<ref>Haase and Temporini (1986) p.1931</ref> held on March 5.<ref>Michele Renee Salzman, ''On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (University of California Press, 1990), p. 124.</ref> The festival outlived Christian persecution by Theodosius (391) and Arcadius' persecution against the Roman religion (395).<ref>Alföldi (1937) p.47</ref>
In the Roman Empire, it was still celebrated in Italy at least until the year 416.<ref name="Valantasis2000p370">Streete (2000) p. 370</ref> In Egypt, it was suppressed by Christian authorities in the 6th century.<ref name="Valantasis2000p370"/>
The ''Navigium Isidis'' celebrated Isis' influence over the sea and served as a prayer for the safety of seafarers and, eventually, of the Roman people and their leaders.<ref>Michele Renee Salzman, ''On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (University of California Press, 1990), 169–175.</ref> It consisted of an elaborate procession, including Isiac priests and devotees with a wide variety of costumes and sacred emblems, carrying a model ship from the local Isis temple to the sea<ref>Malcolm Drew Donalson, ''The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire: Isis Invicta'' (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003), 68–73.</ref> or to a nearby river.<ref>Jaime Alvar, ''Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras'', trans. & ed. Richard Gordon (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 299.</ref>
Modern carnival resembles the festival of the ''Navigium Isidis'',<ref name="Valantasis2000p378">Valantasis (2000) p.378</ref> and some scholars argue that they share the same origin (via ''carrus navalis'', meaning ''naval wagon'', i.e. ''float'' – later becoming ''car-nival'').<ref>Rudwin (1919)</ref><ref>di Cocco (2007)</ref><ref>Alföldi (1937) pp.57-8</ref><ref>Forrest (2001) p.114</ref><ref>Griffiths (1975) p.172</ref> Many elements of Carnival were in turn appropriated in the ''Corpus Christi'' festival, most prominently in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).<ref>{{cite book|first=Teofilo |last=Ruiz |authorlink=Teofilo Ruiz|year= 2012 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCnT1pV2mWUC&pg=PT359 |title=A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain|chapter=8|page=359-ff|publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400842247 }}</ref>
==See also== * Mysteries of Isis * Foreign influences on Pompeii
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
==References== *Alföldi, Andreas (1937) ''A Festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian Emperors of the IVth Century'', Budapest *Forrest, M. Isidora (2001) [https://books.google.com/books?id=yqRRccJR1c4C&pg=PA114 ''Isis magic: cultivating a relationship with the goddess of 10,000 names''] *Griffiths, J. Gwyn (1975) [https://books.google.com/books?id=3dEUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA172 ''The Isis-book: Metamorphoses, Book 11''], chapter ''Commentary'' pp. 111–346 *di Cocco, Giampaolo (2007) ''Alle origini del Carnevale: Mysteria isiaci e miti cattolici'' (Florence: Pontecorboli) *Haase, Wolfgang and Temporini, Hildegard (1986) ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'', Volume 16, Part 3 *Rudwin, Maximilian J. (1919) [https://archive.org/details/originofgermanca00rudw ''The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy''] in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1919), pp. 402–454 *Streete, Gail Corrington (2000) ‘An Isis Aretalogy from Kyme in Asia Minor, First Century B.C.E’, in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-N6u74StgmUC& Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice],'' ed. by Richard Valantasi (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 369-384
==Further reading== *Brady, Thomas A. (1938) Reviewed work(s): ''A Festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian Emperors of the Fourth Century'' by Andrew Alföldi, in ''The Journal of Roman Studies'' Vol. 28, Part 1 (1938), pp. 88–90 *Rademacher, Carl (1932) ''Carnival'' in ''Hastings ERE 3'', pp. 225–9
{{Roman religion (festival)}}
Category:Roman festivals of Isis Category:Processions in ancient Rome Category:March observances