Deity or Genius of the Eastern Provinces
Description
<p>Many religions were syncretistic, meaning that as they grew and came into contact with other religions, they adopted new beliefs and modified their practices to reflect their changing environment. Both Greek and Roman religious beliefs were deeply influenced by the so-called mystery religions of the East, including the Egyptian cult of Isis, which revealed beliefs and practices to the initiated that remained unexplained, or mysterious, to the uninitiated. Most popular Roman cults had associations with these mystery religions and included the prospect of an afterlife. Although this figure was found in Egypt, the elaborate costume and headdress are similar to images from southeastern Anatolia and Armenia. Female figures in the same costume appeared as personifications of Asia and Armenia on monuments in Rome, suggesting that the boy represents the genius, or spirit, of one of these eastern provinces.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/54.1330' rel='external'>Deity or Genius of the Eastern Provinces</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
Connections
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 54.1330 tier-2
- Walters-id 24690 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.