Dion - Sanctuary of Isis

Dion - Sanctuary of Isis, originally uploaded by Ava Babili.

The worship of Sarapis and Isis arrived in Dion in the Hellenistic period. A Sanctuary of Isis was located in 1978 immediately outside the SE corner of the city walls.

The rare luck of finding this sanctuary intact, just as it fell down after earthquakes tremors, is due to the mud of floods, which covered it immediately after the final catastrophe. In this sanctuary the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis, as the inscriptions testify, succeeded the worship of Artemis to whom offerings were found dating from the Hellenistic period. A small temple housed the worship of another goddess, namely Aphrodite, who had in Dion a particularly characteristic name: "Hypolympidia", i.e. Aphrodite worshipped below Mt. Olympos.