page_title: Arsinoe II
section_title: Deification
hierarchical_section_title: Arsinoe II / Deification
caption_attribution_description: Greek, Ptolemaic; Oinochoe fragment with relief of Arsinoe II; Miscellaneous-Faience
context_page_description: Arsinoë II was a Ptolemaic queen and co-regent of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
  Arsinoe was queen of Thrace, Anatolia and Macedonia by marriage to King Lysimachus and co-ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom with her brother-husband, Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Arsinoe was given the unprecedented Egyptian title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt", marking her a full pharaoh.
context_section_description: After her death, Ptolemy II established a cult of Arsinoe Philadelphus. She received burial and deification rites at Mendes, where she had been a priestess, which are commemorated in the Mendes stele. This stele also includes the decree of Ptolemy II announcing her cult. All temples in Egypt were required to include a cult statue of Arsinoe II alongside the main god of the sanctuary. In the relief at the top of the stele, Arsinoe is depicted among the deities receiving sacrifice from Ptolemy - an image which recurs throughout the country. Separate temples were also constructed for Arsinoe, at Memphis and elsewhere. The Fayyum region became the Arsinoite nome, with Arsinoe as its patron goddess. From 263 BC, a portion of tax on orchard and vineyard produce in each nome of Egypt was dedicated to funding the nome's cult of Arsinoe.
  Arsinoe's cult was also propagated in Alexandria. An annual priesthood, known as the Canephorus of Arsinoe Philadelphus, was established by 269 BC. The holder of the office was included as part of the dating formula in all official documents until the late second century BC. An annual procession was held in Arsinoe's honour, led by the Canephorus. Every household along the procession's route was required to erect a small altar of sand and sacrifice birds and lentils for Arsinoe. A large temple was erected by the harbour in Alexandria. The admiral Callicrates of Samos erected another sanctuary at Cape Zephyrium, at the eastern end of the harbour, where Arsinoe was worshipped as Aphrodite Euploia (Aphrodite of the good-sailing). Similar sanctuaries were established at a number of port-cities under Ptolemaic control, including Citium in Cyprus, Delos in the Nesiotic League, and Thera. As a result of these sanctuaries, Arsinoe became closely associated with protection from shipwrecks. Coinage and statuettes depicting the divine Arsinoe survive. Her divine attributes are a small ram's horn behind her ear - symbolising her connection to the ram of Mendes - and a pair of cornucopiae which she carries. She appears in this guise on a set of mass-produced faience Oenochoae, which seem to have been associated with funerary ritual in Alexandria.
  Arsinoe seems to have been a genuinely popular goddess throughout the Ptolemaic period, with both Greeks and Egyptians, in Egypt and beyond. 'Arsinoe' is one of the few Greek names to be naturalised as an Egyptian personal name in the period. Altars and dedicatory plaques in her honour are found throughout Egypt and the Aegean, while hundreds of her faience oenochoae have been found in the cemeteries of Alexandria.
caption: Faience oinochoe with remains of gilding, depicting Arsinoe II
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