Egyptian Gods
Ancient Egyptian Gods, Goddesses and Religion
Isis
Mythology of Isis
The origins of Isis, who is the later
periods of history was to become Egypt's most important
goddess, are shrouded in obscurity. Unlike the situation
with so many Egyptian gods, no town in Egypt claimed to be
her place of origin or the location of her burial and there
are actually no certain attestations of her before the 5th
Dynasty. Yet she is clearly of great importance in the
Pyramid Texts where she appears over 80 times assisting the
deceased king.
In the funerary texts of later periods her protective and sustaining roles were extended to nobles and commoners and her power and appeal grew to the point that she eventually eclipsed Osiris himself and was venerated by virtually every ancient Egyptian. As time passed, and her importance grew, Isis merged with many other goddesses including Astarte, Bastet, Nut, Renenutet and Sothis, but her most important native syncretism was with Hathor from whom she took many of her iconographic attributes and mythological characteristics. Compared with some of Egypt's early cosmic goddess, the mythological roles played by Isis are relatively restricted, yet they are immensely important roles which together personified her as a goddess of great power whose relationship with her followers was a personal one extending from this life into the afterlife itself. Isis as Sister-Wife of Osiris
According to the theology of the
Heliopolitan sun cult, Isis and Osiris were both the
children of Geb and Nut, but Isis became the wife of her
brother and assisted him in ruling Egypt during his
mythological kingship on earth. The myths concerning the
two gods are extensive, and the fullest account is found in
Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, but Orisis' death
and dismemberment at the hands of his enemy Seth, Isis
along with her sister Nephthys,
mourned inconsolably and began to search for her
husband. Eventually the goddess found her husband's
scattered parts and reunited his body (or in another
version, she found his body enclosed in the trunk of a
tree). Through her magic Isis revivified the sexual member
of Osiris and became pregnant by him, eventually giving
birth to their child, Horus. This underlying mythological
role as the wife of Osiris is the basis of the importance
of the goddess in all of her other aspects.
Isis as Mother and Protector of Horus
A number of myths elaborate how Isis
fled from Seth to the marshes of the Delta where she gave
birth to her son Horus at Khemnis or Akh-bity which means
'papyrus thicket of the king of Lower Egypt'. The Egyptians
made literally hundreds of thousands of statues and amulets
of the infant Horus nursing on his mother's lap in
celebration of this mythic mother-child relationship
showing the importance of the goddess's role as mother of
Horus. After the birth of Horus various dangers threatened
the young god, but throughout them Isis steadfastly cared
for her son. She gained healing for him in one instance
from a potentially lethal scorpion sting, which became the
mythological basis for her healing powers and those
associated with the so-called cippi or healing
plaques of Horus the child. Isis continued to nurture and
protect Horus until he was old enough to avenge his father
and gain his rightful inheritance as king of all
Egypt.
Isis as Mother of the King
As the wife of Osiris and mother of
Horus, Isis was also the symbolic mother of the king who
symbolically was the incarnation of the latter god. As
early as the Pyramid Texts it is said that the king drinks
milk from the breasts of his 'mother' Isis (PT 2089, etc.),
and pharaohs of the New Kingdom and later periods had
themselves depicted verbally and visually as the son of
Isis. Because the goddess's name was written by means of
the hieroglyphic sign of 'seat' or 'throne', it is possible
that she originally was the personification of the power of
the throne. Though many scholars feel that this may have
been a later development, some have stressed that among
some African tribes the throne of the chieftain is known as
the mother of the king, and this anthropological insight
fits well with what we know of the Egyptian
goddess.
Isis as Goddess of Cosmic Associations
Although not originally a cosmic
goddess, the great importance of Isis nevertheless led to
several cosmic associations being made for her. She assumed
the role of the 'Eye' of Ra according to Plutarch she was
also venerated as a moon goddess, though it is more
difficult to find substantiation for this claim. Isis was,
however, closely equated with the star Sirius, just as
Osiris was equated with the constellation Orion. In this
role she emerged with the goddess Sothis and was sometimes
called Isis-Sothis. At the height of her development, as
may be seen in the hymns dedicated to her in her temple at
Philae, Isis was also ascribed powers of cosmic
proportions. One hymn, which is not atypical, states that
'She is the Lady of Heaven, Earth and the Netherworld,
having brought them into existence...'; and in a late
aretalogy or list of her virtues, Isis is made to say, 'I
separated the Earth from the Heaven, I showed the paths of
the stars, I regulated the course of the sun and
moon.'
Isis the Great of Magic
Magic is central to Isis' many roles,
for it is through magic that Osiris was revived, Horus
conceived ad protected, and the deceased - whether royal or
commoner - assisted in the afterlife. The magic of Isis was
also invoked in many spells for protection and healing -
often imploring the goddess to come to the aid of a child
or individual as if he or she were Horus himself. Most of
the myths relating to the goddess stress her magical
ability and one in particular - in which she learns the
true name of Ra - stresses her position as the greatest of
the Egyptian gods in terms of magical knowledge and power.
In this myth Isis creates a snake which bites Ra, and the
stricken sun god is only healed of the snake's venom when
he reveals his truename to her and thus further enhances
her power.
Isis as Mourner, Sustainer and Protector of the Deceased Along with her sister Nephthys, Isis represents the archetypal image of the mourner in Egyptian literature and art. Both goddesses are mythically equated with the kite, a bird of prey with a particularly shrill piercing cry which has been thought to have been suggestive of the cries of women wailing in mourning. The kite is also essentially a scavenging rather than hunting bird of prey that often wanders looking for carrion, and it is in this form that Isis was said to have searched for her murdered husband. The goddess was more than just a mourner, however, and through her great power Isis was able to function as the protector and sustainer of the deceased in the afterlife. Even in the Pyramid Texts she is said to care for the deceased, as she did for her own son Horus, and in the later periods of ancient Egyptian history Isis becomes the supreme deity in this capacity, caring for the deceased in a personal way based on her character as a devoted mother. 
Picture: The
conception of Horus by Isis in the form of a hawk
flying above the deceased Osiris. Isis is attended by
the birth goddess Heket in the form of a frog at the
foot of the funerary bier. Roman Period. Western roof
chapel, temple of Hathor, Dendera.Iconography of Isis
Isis is a represented
anthropomorphically in the form of a woman wearing a long
sheath dress and crowned with either the hieroglyphic
'throne' sign which represents her name or, beginning in
the18th Dynasty and most commonly in the later dynastic
period, with the horns and solar disk which she appreciated
from Hathor. The attributes she frequently holds, the
sistrum rattle and menat necklace, were also taken
over from Hathor, but Isis often holds only the generic
ankh sign and papyrus staff commonly depicted with
other goddesses. While her most commonly depicted
representational pose shows her standing upright, Isis is
also depicted kneeling - often with her hand resting on the
shen or eternity sign. In either of these
positions the goddess may be shown in the guise of a
mourner with one hand lifted to her face. Often her arms
are outstretched and placed around the seated or standing
figure of Osiris and sometimes her arms are winged. She is
depicted in this manner on the sides or corners of royal
sarcophagi of the 18th Dynasty and in statues or
representations where she shelters and supports Osiris. In
one known instance a figure of Isis protecting an image of
herself personifies the protective nature of the goddess.
Isis may also be represented as a scorpion, in fully avian
form, as a kite, and as a mother goddess she may be
depicted as a sow or in bovine form - in the latter case an
analogue of Hathor or as the mother of the Apis bull.
Finally, Isis could also be depicted in the form of a tree
goddess, as in the tomb of Tuthmosis III in the Valley of
the Kings where she appears as a personified tree, nursing
the king at her breast which descends from one of the
tree's branches. Amuletic depictions of Isis - usually in
anthropomorphic form - or the symbol often called the Isis
knot and known by the Egyptians as the tyet,
were frequently placed on the mummy from New Kingdom times,
and the goddess's protective power was doubtless utilized
in amulets carried by many ancient Egyptians in life as
well.
.JPG "Isis and Horus. Egyptian Gods and Goddesses")
Picture: The enthroned Isis (center)
and her son Horus receive offerings from the king. The
goddess's headdress incorporates both the hieroglyphic sign
for the throne and the horned sun disk. Roman Period.
Temple of Hathor, Dendera.
Worship of Isis
For a good part of Egyptian history it
seems that Isis was not usually associated with any
particular locality or worshipped in her own temples.
Rather she was incorporated into the temples of other
Egyptian gods with whom she was associated. There are minor
exceptions such as the chapel of Isis 'Mistress of the
Pyramid' constructed at Giza in the 21st Dynasty. However,
the first important temple known to have been dedicated to
the goddess, the Iseion - her temple at Behbeit el-Hagar in
the eastern Delta - was not begun until the reign of
Nectanebo II in the 30th Dynasty, and only completed under
Ptolemy III. Even here, as in her other later sanctuaries,
Isis was venerated along with Osiris and Horus as was
probably the case in earlier shrines which existed on the
site. Other important chapels and temples of Isis were
built at Dendera where the goddess was honored by Augustus
with a small independent sanctuary. This was at Deir
el-Shelwit just south of Thebes where a small temple was
also constructed for her in Roman times, and in her most
famous temple on the island of Philae which was begun by
Nectanebo I and grew under a series of Ptolemaic rulers and
Roman emperors. The hymns inscribed there identify Isis
with many other goddesses and show that she had
successfully absorbed them as 'Isis in all her
manifestations'. She was thus invoked in many spells of the
later dynasties often tailored to her own character, as in
spells and love charms to make a woman love a man as Isis
loved Osiris, or to take a woman hate her present partner
as Isis hated Seth.
Her influence was amazingly widespread. There was a temple of Isis at Byblos, where the goddess was equated with the local form of Astarte, from quite early times, though it is not known for certain whether the myth of Osiris' body being washed ashore at that site and the subsequent visit of Isis predates actual Isis worship at Byblos or not. Later, the worship of Isis  became widespread in the Graeco-Roman
worlds as one of the Eastern 'mystery religions', and
the Classical writer Apuleius left a detailed
description of the initiations into her cult. Evidence
of veneration of the goddess has been found as far
apart as Iraq and England, with temples being built to
Isis in Athens and other Greek cities and later in
many parts of the Roman Empire as well as in Rome
itself. The cult of Isis rivalled those of the
traditional Greek and Roman gods, and its importance
and presistence is seen in the fact that her worship
continued at Philae until the 6th century AD - long
after most of Egypt and the wider Roman world had been
converted to Christianity.
Picture: The goddess Isis-Aphrodite combined the greatthe great ancient Egyptian deity with the Greekgoddess of love in a form which became a popularthroughout music of the ancient Mediterraneanworld. Tarracotta figurine, c. 100 BC.University of Leipzig Museum. | ||||||||||
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"Mighty oone, foremost of the goddess
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