Model Worlds
Expanding current constructions of Nilotica, chapter 6 examines the creation of three-dimensional “Egyptian” landscapes through garden statuary and water features at the Casa di Acceptus e Euhodia. Sidestepping unproductive debates about whether garden statuary signified “religion” or “Egyptomania,” this case study shows how “Egyptianizing” statuary collaborated with the garden’s other contents to create an interactive model landscape. Some evidence from this house suggests that its inhabitants may have directed a domestic cult toward a form of Isis. However, this chapter argues that such practices should not overdetermine our understanding of the garden assemblage. Rather than a binary divide between “Isiacs” and “non-Isiacs,” evidence suggests a broad spectrum of available religious choices. Furthermore, domestic material culture does not correspond to religious identity in a simple or straightforward way. Regardless of their relationship (or lack thereof) to Egyptian-derived cults, most Pompeians appear to have employed domestic Aegyptiaca and Nilotica in fairly similar ways.