Themodius is a type of flat-topped cylindrical headdress or crown found inancient Egyptian art and art of theGreco-Roman world. The name was given by modern scholars based on its resemblance to the jar used as aRoman unit of dry measure,[1][2] but it probably does represent a grain-measure, symbolizing reason as weights and measures.
The modius is worn by certain deities, including theEleusinian deities and their Roman counterparts, theEphesian Artemis and certain other forms of the goddess,[3]Hecate, andSerapis.[4] Serapis was the main idol/figurehead at theLibrary of Alexandria during the ancient Egyptian & Roman alliance. Personifications ofGenius often wore the modius. On some deities it represents fruitfulness.[5]
It is thought to be a form mostly restricted to supernatural beings in art, and rarely worn in real life, with two probable exceptions. A tall modius is part of the complex headdress used for depictions of Egyptian royal women, often ornamented variously with symbols, vegetative motifs, and theuraeus.[6] It was also the distinctive headdress ofPalmyrene priests.[7][8]
^Judith Lynn Sebesta andLarissa Bonfante,The World of Roman Costume (University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), p. 245
^Irene Bald Romano,Classical Sculpture: Catalogue of the Cypriot, Greek, And Roman Stone Sculpture in the University Of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology, 2006), p. 294.
^Joseph Eddy Fontenrose,Didyma: Apollo's Oracle, Cult, and Companions pp. 131–132.
^Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway,Hellenistic Sculpture: The Styles of ca. 331–200 B.C. (University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), p. 95.
^Bryan, "A Newly Discovered Statue of a Queen," p 36ff.; Paul Edmund Stanwick,Portraits of the Ptolemies: Greek Kings As Egyptian Pharaohs (University of Texas Press, 2002), p. 35et passim.
%2c_c._190-200_AD%2c_Ny_Carlsberg_Glyptotek%2c_Copenhagen.jpg)
![Kushan ruler Huvishka with seated Roman Egyptian god Serapis ("Sarapo") wearing the modius.[9]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aHuvishka_with_seated_god_Serapis_(%2522Sarapo%2522).jpg)
