Concordiae Agrigentinorum Sacrum Res Publica Lilybitanorum. Nessi reali e presunti tra Marsala e Agrigento, A proposito di Iside. Parte II. Lilibeo: il santuario e il suo arredo scultoreo nel paesaggio religioso del Capo Boeo

Abstract

Some archaeological investigations at Lilybaeum (Marsala) have brought to light a building in the northern part of the Capo Boeo, close to an insula occupied by a large domus. According to an inscription that mentions a deity called myronima and thea megiste, two well know epicleses of Isis, this building has been interpreted as an Iseum. The text is engraved on the surface of a half column, whose function is now re-interpreted. Also some fragmentary sculptures, which were found during the same excavations, have been deemed to belong to an Isis- Aphrodite and a Sarapis. A new reading of these statues suggests a very different interpretation. The male torso and a fragment of a bearded head are now read as an Aesculapius whilst the female torso is much more correctly interpreted as an image of Hygieia. Both statues belong to types largely widespread in the Roman North Africa and at Lambaesis in particular. Together with an excursus on the relation between the cults of Aesculapius and of the Alexandrian couple Isis-Sarapis, this paper reconsiders these sculptures as well as all the published data on this context and proposes to integrate the reading of the sanctuary in relation to the most relevant architectural items of that area. The urban development of Lilybaeum is also considered, while evaluating other cults attested by inscriptions or artifacts, in order to reconstruct the religious landscape of the city in the Roman period, while proposing some hypotheses on the continuity and changes between the Punic and the Roman period and on the religious agency of the different subjects which could have had access to these sanctuaries and temples