Fitz Jenő (szerk.): Religions and Cults in Pannonia. Exhibiton an Székesfehérvár, Csók István Gallery 15 May - 30 September 1996 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: A. sorozat 33. (1998)

Among finds dug up in Carnuntum the Museum Carnuntinum in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg preserves five items of such reliefs (Carnuntum I, 1992, 33 sqq, No. 1-4 and 6; TUDOR 1969, 147 and 149-151.) made of marble, silver, bronze and lead, which show, in diverse variations, the two riders, related to the Dioscurs, who ride on horseback over a dead body of a fallen soldier resp. over a fish representing life, towards a goddess standing in the middle who is characterized as presenter of Life, to be identified likely with Luna. Worth mentioning as the one evidence for the Carnuntum presence of the local deity of Tavium, Middle Anatolia, is an altar consecrated to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus T a v i a n u s (VORBECK 1980a, 31, No. 48; Carnuntum I, 1992, 64 sq, No. 47), which was dedicated to the god from Galatia by a centurion of the 14th legion, surely of Celtic origin. In Lower Pannónia (Intercisa) further an epigraphic proofs for the rare cult of this celestial and storm deity from Asia Minor (TÓTH 1987, 111 and 125 sq, No. 10 and 11, 111. 4.), identified with the supreme god of the Romans. Remarkably infrequent and so in correspondence with the finds of Western Pannónia are in Carnuntum the proofs for the cult of the great mother of the gods of Asia Minor, Kybele, who, romanized, became the Magna Mater of Mount Ida (TÓTH 1990, 130 sqq). The Phrygian mother goddess was, nevertheless, the first of all Oriental deities who were accepted in Rome. In a state of emergency during the second Punic War, as Hannibal stood before the gates of Rome and pestilence and raining of stones terrified the population, the cult statue of the goddess in the form of a black meteorite was deducted in 204 B.C. to Rome following the advice of the Sibyllan Books with the aid of the King of Pergamon Attalos I, not least with the aim to have with Kybele a more potent goddess inside of their town walls as helper against the patroness of Hannibal, the Carthagian goddess Tanit. As for epigraphic monuments of Magna Mater till now only three modest votive altars were found; one of them, a small ara, dedicated by a certain Julia Mansueta, is in the Museum Carnuntinum.3 The few figurai representations of Magna Mater, mostly of small measures, as e.g. the little head of a bronze statuette with the typical wall crown or a representation of the goddess with her paredros Attis on a fragmentary relief (TÓTH 1989, 82-85, esp. No. 37-38) whose identification is, though, not beyond doubt, are now completed by a sporadic find detected in the late 70s, a small lead tablet, which represents the goddess in relief in a lion chariot, characterized by polos and tympanon (KANDLER 1990, 167-170,111.1, 2). From the small bronze statuettes representing Attis, being mostly pieces of decoration functioning e.g. as candlesticks (Carnuntum I, 1992, 67, No. 7; FLEISCHER 1967, 82 sq, No. 97, PI. 54-55), we can conclude only with precaution to the veneration of the paredros of the Great Goddess. Representations of an Attis tristis or funerarius4 do not allow, either, an implication that the defunct was initiated into the mysteries of Kybele and Attis. Among the sepulchral representations the figure of Attis must be interpreted in an ampler meaning, as has to be regarded as a general symbol of death and resurrection. In the inscription material of Carnuntum we find no sacerdos representing the cult personal of the goddess competent for the temple ceremonies, as the rites of rebirth or revival of the Krio- and Taurubolium and the processions, nor a college of the Dendrophori (as in Emona or Siscia) (SELEM 1980, 196 sq, No. 1, PI. XXXII.) who had, at the annual spring fests in March, to formate and carry a May Tree-like decorated pinia or pine trunk in rememberance of the burial and rebirth of Attis. It would be therefore not realistic to suppose the existence of another Metroon in the soil of Carnuntum, similar to that which came to light in Poetovio (SELEM 1980, 216 sqq; I. TÓTH 1989, 74 sqq, No. 19 and 20, 111. 6) with a cult statue of the goddess enthroned, flanked by two lions (Carnuntum I, 77 sqq, No. 7-15). All the same we cannot exclude that the cult of the Magna Mater in Carnuntum was ampler as it is presently documented by archaeological finds. For a few years it was namely thought that the small number of Isis-Fortuna statuettes, Serapis busts, small Ammon heads and Ushebti-figures came from individual devotees of the Egyptian deities, who had to go on a pilgrimage to the Iseum of Savaria (SZENTLELEKY 1980) as the nearest Egyptian cult centre if they wanted to partake in the Isis celebrations. Now since the coming to light of a monumental building inscription (WEBER 1985, 649 sq, PI. 12.1) in 1979, which proves the building (or restoring?) of a sanctuary of Serapis and probably also of I s i s for the welfare of the Emperor Caracalla and his mother by a commander of the 14th legion in A.D. 213, it is proven that in Carnuntum an organized community existed in the service of the Egyptian main deities. For the altars of Serapis Conservator and Iuppiter Serapis (Carnuntum I, 75 sq, No. 50 and 51 ; CIL III 11157 and 11141), known for a long time past, and the great altar of Iuppiter Ammon (CIL III 11128 Wien, Kh.Mus.AS III 331; CSIR Österr. 14, No. 500) is the erection in the temple area proven with almost absolute certainty. We can similarly presume that the early Ptolemaic Hathor-head as votive gift, the similarly original Egyptian porphyr relief of an Apis bull, finally the male head with the characteristic 3 VORBECK 1980b, 23 No. 86. -The whereabouts of the other two votive stones is as for the present unknown: CIL III 14088 (VORBECK 1980b, 292) and CIL III 13460 (VORBECK 1980b, No. 219), in whose case the attribution (through the completing interpretetion!) to Magna Mater is to be referred most likely to that of Silvanus Magnus, attested frequently in Pannónia. Cf. TÓTH 1989, 85. 4 We have to exclude from the authentic pieces the „floating statuette with wing fragments" from the Pfaffenberg (CSIR 1/2 No. 81 ; SCHÖN 1988, 103 No. 122; TÓTH 1989, 83 No. 40) which was repeatedly identified with Attis, because it represents most likely Victoria. 38