throughout the Greco-Roman world. The Greeks and Romans always had admiration for Egyptian culture, and before Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, there was a cultural fusion between Greeks and Egyptians. After Alexander's defeat of Egypt in the fourth century, the Greeks started to incorporate Isis into their pantheon of deities. Isis was easily accepted into Greek religion because of her many similarities to the Greek goddess, Demeter. Eventually, she became the patron goddess of the sea, as a protector of people traveling by sea. One of her major temples was on the island of Philae. In Rome, Isis was introduced as a replacement deity for Venus, after the death of Caesar, and was looked to for guidance. Three years after the Battle of Actium, in 28 BCE, Octavian encouraged the worship of Isis and the rebuilding of her associated temples, but strictly outside the borders of the pomerium. Octavian thus incorporated Egyptian culture into his newly forming empire while clearly distinguishing his idea of Roman identity as separate from foreign cultures. Among the Greeks and Romans, she was known as Isis because the Egyptian word for “throne” translates to “Isis” in Greek. Isis is most associated with fertility and motherhood, and was looked to as the ideal image of a queen, wife, and mother but is also known for powers in healing and magic. Because she was a fertility deity, she was looked up to by women. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, and the downtrodden, who also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. For women specifically, participation in the cult of Isis provided an opportunity to engage with religion on a level similar to that of men, to enter the public sphere with a role as a priestess that they otherwise could not obtain in Roman state cults, and to earn salvation through a cleansing initiation into the cult. These untraditional options for women began to revolutionize what Roman religion could be. Devotion to Isis was also intimately coupled with the acquisition of knowledge, considered an endowment of the gods. There are a couple of Hellenistic versions of Isis: one depicts her as holding a musical instrument in her right hand, and a water pitcher in the other. The other models her similarly to Demeter, in which she holds corn in her right hand, rather than the instrument. Her left hand is