Isia, certain festivals observed in honour of Isis, which continued nine days. It was usual to carry vessels full of wheat and barley, as the goddess was supposed to be the first who taught mankind the use of corn. These festivals were adopted by the Romans, among whom they soon degenerated into licentiousness. They were abolished by a decree of the senate, A.U.C. 696. They were introduced again, about 200 years after, by Commodus.
Isiacōrum portus, a harbour on the shore of the Euxine, near Dacia.
Isidōrus, a native of Charax, in the age of Ptolemy Lagus, who wrote some historical treatises, besides a description of Parthia.——A disciple of Chrysostom, called Pelusiota, from his living in Egypt. Of his epistles 2012 remain written in Greek, with conciseness and elegance. The best edition is that of Paris, folio, 1638.——A christian Greek writer, who flourished in the seventh century. He is surnamed Hispalensis. His works have been edited, folio, de Breul, Paris, 1601.
Isis, a celebrated deity of the Egyptians, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, according to Diodorus of Sicily. Some suppose her to be the same as Io, who was changed into a cow, and restored to her human form in Egypt, where she taught agriculture, and governed the people with mildness and equity, for which reason she received divine honours after death. According to some traditions mentioned by Plutarch, Isis married her brother Osiris, and was pregnant by him even before she had left her mother’s womb. These two ancient deities, as some authors observe, comprehended all nature, and all the gods of the heathens. Isis was the Venus of Cyprus, the Minerva of Athens, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the Ceres of Eleusis, the Proserpine of Sicily, the Diana of Crete, the Bellona of the Romans, &c. Osiris and Isis reigned conjointly in Egypt; but the rebellion of Typhon the brother of Osiris proved fatal to this sovereign. See: [Osiris] and [Typhon]. The ox and cow were the symbols of Osiris and Isis, because these deities, while on earth, had diligently applied themselves in cultivating the earth. See: [Apis]. As Isis was supposed to be the moon, and Osiris the sun, she was represented as holding a globe in her hand, with a vessel full of ears of corn. The Egyptians believed that the yearly and regular inundations of the Nile proceeded from the abundant tears which Isis shed for the loss of Osiris, whom Typhon had basely murdered. The word Isis, according to some, signifies ancient, and, on that account, the inscriptions on the statues of the goddess were often in these words: I am all that has been, that shall be, and none among mortals has hitherto taken off my veil. The worship of Isis was universal in Egypt; the priests were obliged to observe perpetual chastity, their head was closely shaved, and they always walked barefooted, and clothed themselves in linen garments. They never ate onions, they abstained from salt with their meat, and were forbidden to eat the flesh of sheep and of hogs. During the night they were employed in continual devotion near the statue of the goddess. Cleopatra the beautiful queen of Egypt was wont to dress herself like this goddess, and affected to be called a second Isis. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1.—Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.—Diodorus, bk. 1.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 59.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 831.
Ismărus (Ismăra, plural), a rugged mountain of Thrace, covered with vines and olives, near the Hebrus, with a town of the same name. Its wines are excellent. The word Ismarius is indiscriminately used for Thracian. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 9.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 37; Æneid, bk. 10, li. 351.——A Theban, son of Astacus.——A son of Eumolpus. Apollodorus.——A Lydian who accompanied Æneas to Italy, and fought with great vigour against the Rutuli. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 139.
Ismēne, a daughter of Œdipus and Jocasta, who, when her sister Antigone had been condemned to be buried alive by Creon, for giving burial to her brother Polynices against the tyrant’s positive orders, declared herself as guilty as her sister, and insisted upon being equally punished with her. This instance of generosity was strongly opposed by Antigone, who wished not to see her sister involved in her calamities. Sophocles, Antigone.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.——A daughter of the river Asopus, who married the hundred-eyed Argus, by whom she had Jasus. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2.
Ismēnias, a celebrated musician of Thebes. When he was taken prisoner by the Scythians, Atheas the king of the country observed that he liked the music of Ismenias better than the braying of an ass. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica.——A Theban, bribed by Timocrates of Rhodes, that he might use his influence to prevent the Athenians and some other Grecian states from assisting Lacedæmon, against which Xerxes was engaged in war. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 9.——A Theban general, sent to Persia with an embassy by his countrymen. As none were admitted into the king’s presence without prostrating themselves at his feet, Ismenias had recourse to artifice to avoid doing an action which would have proved disgraceful to his country. When he was introduced he dropped his ring, and the motion he made to recover it from the ground was mistaken for the most submissive homage, and Ismenias had a satisfactory audience of the monarch.——A river of Bœotia, falling into the Euripus, where Apollo had a temple, from which he was called Ismenius. A youth was yearly chosen by the Bœotians to be the priest of the god, an office to which Hercules was once appointed. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 10.—Ovid, Metamorphoses bk. 2.—Strabo, bk. 9.
Ismenĭdes, an epithet applied to the Theban women, as being near the Ismenus, a river of Bœotia. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 31.
Ismenius, a surname of Apollo at Thebes, where he had a temple on the borders of the Ismenus.
Ismēnus, a son of Apollo and Melia, one of the Nereides, who gave his name to the Ladon, a river of Bœotia, near Thebes, falling into the Asopus, and thence into the Euripus. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 10.——A son of Asopus and Metope. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.——A son of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Apollo. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, fable 6.