The Isis of Paris. As early as the 15th century AD, many Parisian historians believed that the city of Paris owed its name to the Egyptian goddess Isis. There are various manuscripts from around 1402 AD at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris which contain drawings of the goddess Isis garbed as a medieval noblewoman seen arriving by boat to Paris and where she is greeted by nobles and clergymen under the caption ‘The very ancient Isis, goddess and queen of the Egyptians’ . As to why the name of the city was thought to have come from this Egyptian goddess, we have, for instance, the writings of a 14th century Augustine monk, Jacques le Grant, who claimed that: “In the days of Charlemagne (8th century AD)… there was a city named Iseos, so named because of the goddess Isis who was venerated there. Now it is called Melun. Paris owes its name to the same circumstances, Parisius is said to be similar to Iseos (quasi par Iseos), because it is located on the River Seine in the same manner as Melun.” In 1512, the French historian Lemaire de Belge reported that an idol of the goddess Isis had been worshipped in the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres in Paris . The same curious belief was also reported by contemporaries, notably Gilles Corrozet, the first historian to produce a comprehensive guide for the city. In 1550 Corrozet published a history of Paris titled Les Antiquitez, Histoire et Singularitez de Paris, in which he wrote: “…coming to the imposition of the name (of Paris), it is said that there, where stands St. Germain-des-Pres was a temple of Isis of whom it is said was the wife of the great Osiris or Jupiter the Just. The statue (of Isis) having come in our times, of which we recall… This place is called the Temple of Isis and, for the nearby city, this was called Parisis… meaning near the temple of Isis.” In 1608 the editors Pierre Bonfons and Jacques du Breul republished Corrozet’s book under their own names and retitled it Les Antiquitez et choses plus remarkables de Paris, recuillies par M. Pierre Bonfons et augmentees par Frere Jacques du Breul. Jacques du Breul was a Jesuit monk from St. Germain-des-Pres, and thus presumably conversant with the records kept at that Abbey. He wrote: “at the place where king Childebert (5th century AD) had constructed the church of St. Vincent now called St. Germain, and to which he donated his fief of Issy, the consensus was that there was there a temple of Isis, wife of Osiris, also known as Jupiter the Just, and from whom the village of Issy got its name, and where can still be seen an ancient edifice and murals which are believed to be from the castle of Cildebert.” A few years later, in 1612, the historian Andre Favyn reported that the cathedral of Notre Dame des Champs had an idol of Isis similar to the one found in the nearby Abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres: “I believe this was due to another idol, for the proximity that there is with (Notre Dame) and the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres where was venerated Isis, called by the Romans Ceres…” After his return from Egypt in 1799, Napoleon was to develop a curious interest for the Egyptian goddess Isis, and eventually set up a special commission headed by the scholar Louis Petit-Radel in order to verify whether or not the claims made by Gilles Corrozet and others that Isis was the true tutelary goddess of Paris was tenable... The Isis of Paris ............... © Robert G. Bauval 2002 The influence of the Egyptian Goddess Isis on the City of Paris homepage.ntlworld/fusniak/talisman/articles/isisofparis.html
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 22:10:36 +0000
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