The Assimilation of Ptolemaic Queens to Isis: An Iconographic Reassessment

Abstract

This article analyzes the identification of female portraits with divine attributes as possible representations of Ptolemaic queens assimilated to the goddess Isis. To this end, it examines the main characteristic attributes of the goddess within the Egyptian religious context, the historical precedents of divine assimilation by royal women, as well as the type of portrait and the function of the various iconographic media on which the Lagid queens are depicted. The proposed hypotheses are based exclusively on images whose identification is supported by inscriptions or by a clearly documented archaeological context. This analysis confirms that the symbolic association between queens and the goddess Isis/Hathor was a widely used visual device in Egyptian art of the Ptolemaic period. Nevertheless, it is proposed that anonymous female portraits in Isiac style should be interpreted as representations of the divinity, with the possibility of a royal identification considered only when the royal diadem is present as a distinctive attribute.