Just as the male serpent sometimes bears attributes of Sarapis, coro-plastic and other depictions of the female serpent often give her Isiac attributes: the basileion crown, sistrum, and/or garments with Isis knot and fringed mantle582 . The common Hellenistic and Roman-period identification of Isis with Tyche/Agathe Tyche583 makes this
Syncretism natural. This figurine type is not widespread outside of Egypt858 .
As Dunand and Hoys observe859, there are three primary ways to depict this serpent goddess: (1) an Isiac female figure with a clothed, human upper body and a serpentine lower body; (2) a serpent with a female human head860; and (3) a completely serpentine figure861 wearing either a basileion crown, a Hathoric crown of bovine horns and sun disc, or simply a sun disc862 .
Numerous authors have associated iconographic representations of a serpentine Isiac figure with the Isis-Thermouthis cult at Medinet Madi in the Fayum863 . Hymns at this temple praise Isis in the names of both Thermouthis and Agathe Tyche864, and reliefs and stelae from Medinet Madi depict Isis-Thermouthis with a serpent body (Vanderlip 1972: pls. 9, 12b) . Other texts also syncretize Isis and Thermouthis as Isermouthis865 . The terracotta type of an Isiac figure with a serpentine
858 At least one other example, however, is attested abroad: Deschenes publishes one such serpent goddess figurine from a site in Asia Minor (1978: 308).
859 Dunand 1969: 16-21; Hoys 1991: 108.
860 Figurines of the human-headed serpent often depict her inside a naos (Tran Tam Tinh 1973: fig. 47; Schurmann 1989: no. 1026; Bailey 2008: 27-28) or perhaps seated on a throne (Deschenes 1978: 305; Dunand 1990: 147-148 ).
861 When the crown is not a specifically female one, it may be hard to tell whether a male or a female serpent deity is depicted For example, Rene Preys (in Willems and Clarysse, eds. 2000: no. 213) identifies a rearing cobra inside a naiskos with Aga-thos Daimon rather than Isis-Thermouthis. However, when the serpent is associated with a situla (an Isiac implement) or a kanephoros (cultic officiant of Arsinoe II), a female deity is more likely implied.
862 The wholly anguiform goddess can appear in a variety of settings, such as in a basket carried by a kanephoros (e. g. , Dunand 1969: 20; 1979: nos. 124-126, 132; Nachtergael 1988: no. 34; Schurmann 1989: no. 1127; the uraeus can also appear atop a situla (Dunand 1990: no. 975; Bailey 2008: no. 3279. ) or in a naos (Dunand 1969: no. 1). Standing, anthropomorphic figures of Isis sometimes also hold a solar-crowned uraeus in their right hands (e. g. , Dunand 1969: 17; 1979: nos. 32-35, 1990: no 396)
863 On the coroplastic material and iconography, see, inter alia, Dunand 1969; Tran Tam Tinh 1973: 15, 24; Deschenes 1978; Fraser 1984: 349 n. 6; Malaise 1985: 133-135; Nachtergael 1988: 12-13; Schurmann 1989: nos. 1026-1028; Mysliwiec 1997; Frankfurter 1998: 40, 104; Willems and Clarysse, eds. 2000: no. 211. On Isis-Thermouthis at the Medinet Madi temple, see Broekhuis 1971: 110-137; Vanderlip 1972; Tran Tam Tinh 1973: 19; cf also Mysliwiec 1997 on Isis-Thermouthis at the site of Athribis
864 Hymn 1, lines 1-2; Hymn II, lines 1-2; Hymn 3, lines 1-3; see Vanderlip 1972: 17-18, 34-35, 50-51, pls. 6-8; cf. also Broekhuis 1971: 127-129.
865 Vanderlip 1972: 20; cf Abdalla 1991: 193. Aelian (De natura animalium 10.31) further notes that the Egyptians referred to female house snakes, the counterlower body not only bears a strong resemblance to the Medinet Madi reliefs, but is also attested at the site (Vanderlip 1972: pl. 12a) .
As is well known, Thermouthis is the Hellenized rendering of Renenutet, a goddess first attested in the Old Kingdom866 . Pharaonic representations of Renenutet often show her in the form of a serpent or a human-bodied goddess with a serpent head867 . Numerous household shrines at Deir el-Medina held stelae or images of Renenutet868, providing a New Kingdom precedent for the appearance of serpentine deities in Hellenistic domestic cult869 . Evidence for the syncretism of Renenutet and Isis appears as early as the New Kingdom870.
The Medinet Madi hymns identify Thermouthis with Agathe Tyche871, and reliefs of serpent goddesses occasionally feature inscriptions supporting a link between these deities872 . As discussed above,
Part to the male Agathoi Daimones, as “Thermoutheis” (cf. the comments of Tarn 1928a: 218-219).
866 Dunand 1969: 43 n. 2; Broekhuis 1971; Vanderlip 1972: 20-21, n. 4; Deschenes 1978: 309-313; Abdalla 1991: 193. Cf. also the reviews of Broekhuis 1971 collected in Quaegebeur 1975: 31 n. 1.
867 E. g. , Michailides 1956: pl. 4; Silverman, ed. 1997: no. 7 . Such images thus invert the later representations of Isis-Thermouthis as a human-headed serpent.
868 Sadek 1987: 77; cf the Memphite naiskos discussed by Van Siclen 1991.
869 Compare the Isis-Thermouthis statue in a shrine outside Luxor (Frankfurter 1998: 39, pl 2)
870 Deschenes 1978: 311; Malaise 1985: 134.
871 See above, n. 863, 864. In particular, Hymn 1 at Medinet Madi not only gives Isis the titles of Agathe Tyche and Hermouthis but also praises her control of fate (Line 29; see Vanderlip 1972: 33). Elsewhere, Isis can even be identified directly with fate (Shai); a Demotic ostrakon from the archive of Hor gives Isis the epithet sy 'i, or “great destiny” (Dousa 2002: 179; Kockelmann 2008: 12-13, 16, 66-67). On Isis’ control of fate and her identification with Agathe Tyche and Renenutet, see Dousa (2002: 175-179)
872 At least two reliefs of the female serpent deity bear the dedication En ArAOQ (Dunand 1969: 11, 13, nos. 3, 7), a phrase commonly used to invoke good fortune in votive inscriptions. Also related to Thermouthis’ associations with Agathe Tyche may be a relief showing male and female anguiform deities flanking a griffin. As Dunand (1969: 21-22) notes, this mythological creature could allude to the griffin of Nemesis, a goddess closely related to Tyche. In Egypt, the griffin could serve as an attribute of the goddess Petbe, who was associated with Nemesis (Kaper 2003: 118120; see esp. 120 on the Petbe-griffin’s serpent tail). Egyptian griffins also have their own associations, however, with the goddess of the returning solar eye, in whose procession they appear in a hymn from the Medamud temple (Darnell 1995: 80, 85-86). Thus the griffin is an appropriate animal companion for the serpentine goddess in both an Egyptian and a Greek context. To an Egyptian, the griffin would suggest the uraeus-goddess’ associations with the solar eye goddess as the Uraeus of Re (see below), while within a Greek religious tradition, it would evoke Nemesis and Agathe Tyche’s associations with fate.
Renenutet and Shai—like Agathe Tyche and Agathos Daimon—appear together as guardians of individual destiny, a parallel that may have inspired Greeks in Egypt to equate the deities (cf. Dunand 1969: 46 n. 3) . Indeed, a hieroglyphic inscription on one Greco-Roman-period relief from Karnak should probably be read as invoking rnn. t nfr. t (“Good Renenutet” or “Good Fortune”), which, as the excavators point out, seems to be an exact translation of the Greek “Agathe Tyche”584 .
If some pre-Hellenistic Greek concept of Agathos Daimon as a serpent-bodied deity did exist, such similarity to the Egyptian Renenutet and Shai could only have assisted this syncretism Alternatively, since serpentine representations of Agathos Daimon are not clearly attested before the fourth century, we might ask whether his growing association with Egyptian serpent deities in fact helped encourage Greek artists to depict him in snake form. The longstanding Greek association of serpents with chthonic forces and agricultural fertility, as well as the existence of other anguiform Greek deities and heroes (e g Mitropoulou 1977), would have helped make such depictions seem natural and appropriate
Renenutet is thus the most obvious Egyptian analogue for Agathe Tyche, but of course, she is far from the only Egyptian goddess with a serpent form585 . Other anguiform goddesses include, for example, Wadjet, the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt586; Meretseger, the deity of the Theban necropolis587; or Shepset, who sometimes appears instead of Renenutet as the partner of Shai588. In some cases, details of the iconography and/or findspot of an image of a serpent deity may illuminate a connection with a particular local cult589 A simple equation of all stelae or terracottas of female serpent deities to Isis-Thermouthis would miss such nuances.
In addition to specific local deities that commonly take serpentine forms, the uraeus serpent is also one of the forms of the returning solar eye goddess879 . Thus any of the numerous goddesses who act as a manifestation of the solar eye—including the Ptolemaic queens880— can also take on the form of a uraeus, and depictions of a serpentine goddess may recall this form of the solar eye881 .
World History
