O sagrado na Roma imperial do século II d.C.: construção espacial e ritualística do culto ísiaco na obra O Asno de Ouro

Abstract

This study aims to understand the construction of sacred and ritualistic spaces in the book The Golden Ass, of the madaurensis Apuleius (125 AD – 180 AD), reflected in the way the author presents a series of cults considered, mostly, on the margins of the Roman religion and that have been introduced into their reality. Apuleius wrote during the Antonine dynasty, in the imperial time, period during which a considerable cultural diversity flourished in the Empire and reframed their customs. The cult dedicated to the goddess Isis, the core of this analysis, is an important tool that shows such entanglements, in this case, already accepted and inserted in the Roman religion during the imperial period and treated by the author in a benign way. It is intended, then – in the light of ritual and sacred space concepts and the methodological combination of Genetic Structuralism, from Lucien Goldmann, and of Categorial Analysis, proposed by Laurence Bardin – present the cult dedicated to the goddess Isis and the edification of isiac sacred spaces from the book The Golden Ass, emphasizing its cult of Mystery, their festivities and rituals, in order to understand its relevance to this culture and Apuleius intentions in positively present a cult at the expense of others, with the clear objective of making an apology to the Nilotic goddess.