Baby Cast
Volaire Painting
Bronze Runner
Marble Head
Urn
Strongbox
Fresco
Kantharos
Isis Cup
Mosaic
Fresco
Krater
Venus
Livia Statue
Couch
Arm Band
Print Page
This silver cup depicts scenes of the cult of Isis. On one side of the cup is the goddess Isis. In her left hand, she holds a situla, a ritual vessel for holding the water of the Nile, and in her right she holds a sistrum, or metal rattle. The other side of the cup depicts a priest holding a container, also for the sacred water of the Nile.

The cup was carried by a man whose body was found in the Large Palaestra, a public building that served as a gymnasium of sorts. Because he carried this and another Isiac cup, it is thought that he was associated with the cult of Isis, which flourished from the end of the second century B.C. until the eruption of 79 A.D. Pompeii’s Temple of Isis was destroyed along with many other buildings when a powerful earthquake struck the city in 62 A.D., but was rebuilt immediately.