The rituals performed in the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods were occult, in accordance with the ceremonial of the mystical cult of the Egyptian Trinity. The identification of the gods was achieved through the conflation of cults, because both triads are related to the chthonic live-giving force.
The Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods was constructed in the second century AD, as part of the building programme funded by the Roman senator Antoninus. In the period of Roman rule (31 BC-AD 330), worship of gods of Eastern provenance enjoyed a sustained zenith. Among these deities were the Phrygian Great Goddess, Attis, Isis, Osiris, Mithras, and others.
Isis and Osiris were known in Greece from as early as the days of Herodotus, who had visited Egypt in the fifth century BC. However, worship of them was disseminated outside Egypt after the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st c. BC). The more important of the two was Isis, who was considered an omnipotent goddess, creator of the cosmos and the elements of nature, goddess of fruit-bearing, and so on.
The Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods was a large square building to the north of the Ceremonial Hestiatorion. In its central court stood a high stone base for three statues, a hearth, an initiation area with throne and tables. Surviving to the south, in good condition, is a circular space with bathtub, intended for lustral ablutions and purification of the priests.
