The Navigium Isidis or Isidis Navigium (trans. the vessel of Isis) was an annual ancient Roman religious festival in honor of the goddess Isis,Haase and Temporini (1986) p.1931 held on March 5.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. The festival outlived Christian persecution by Theodosius (391) and Arcadius' persecution against the Roman religion (395).Alföldi (1937) p.47
In the Roman Empire, it was still celebrated in Italy at least until the year 416.Streete (2000) p. 370 In Egypt, it was suppressed by Christian authorities in the 6th century.
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.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. 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 seaMalcolm Drew Donalson, The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire: Isis Invicta (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003), 68–73. or to a nearby river.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.
Modern carnival resembles the festival of the Navigium Isidis,Valantasis (2000) p.378 and some scholars argue that they share the same origin (via carrus navalis, meaning naval wagon, i.e. float – later becoming car-nival).Rudwin (1919)di Cocco (2007)Alföldi (1937) pp.57-8Forrest (2001) p.114Griffiths (1975) p.172 Many elements of Carnival were in turn appropriated in the Corpus Christi festival, most prominently in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).
See also Mysteries of Isis Foreign influences on Pompeii
Notes
References Alföldi, Andreas (1937) A Festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian Emperors of the IVth Century, Budapest Forrest, M. Isidora (2001) Isis magic: cultivating a relationship with the goddess of 10,000 names Griffiths, J. Gwyn (1975) 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) 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 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