Isis

“In the beginning there was Isis: oldest of the old, she was the goddess from whom all becoming arose.
She is the Mother of Mothers, she was the Great Lady, Mistress of the Two Lands of Egypt, Mistress of Shelter, Mistress of Heaven, Mistress of the House of Life, Mistress of the Word of God.
She was the unique.
In all her great and wonderful works she was a wiser magician and more excellent than any other god." - 14th century B.C.E.

Isis was one of the earliest and most important goddesses in ancient Egypt. The patron of mothers and wives, Isis was much loved for her nurturing and forgiving attributes, and represented the mighty wife of the pharaoh.

Isis was said to be “cleverer than millions of gods” and a better guardian of Egypt’s borders “than millions of soldiers.” To the ancient Egyptians, she was all that a mother should be - loving, clever, loyal, and brave.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of statues and images that show Isis holding the infant Horus on her lap, nursing the young god. To the Egyptians, she was the purest example of the loving wife and mother, and that was how they worshiped her - and loved her - the most.

Although the malicious god Set murdered Isis' husband Osiris and tore his body into fourteen pieces, Isis patiently searched and found them all. She then changed herself into a kite and hovered over the body of Osiris, singing magic spells to make him live again, then begot a child by him. She raised her son Horus in secret, protecting him from many dangers, until he defeated Set and became the king of all Egypt.

Isis was thought to “overflow with affection and compassion,” especially for mothers and children. In myths, Isis adopted her sister's child, Anubis, when the other goddess could not care for him. Isis was venerated as a special protector of children, and her name was often called upon in magical spells to cure childhood aliments. Children, young girls especially, were often named after Isis. Stillborn infants and deceased children were placed under Isis’ protection.

As a winged goddess she represented the wind. Hymns describe Isis as “she who made light with her feathers and wind with her wings,” sending fresh air to the underworld. Isis’ winged form was often painted on coffins in order to catch the departing soul in her wings and shepherd it to a new life.

In their tomb art the dead are promised that they will be fed by the Milk of Isis and become "as enduring as stars." Amulets of Isis have been found on nearly every mummy.

In the Book of the Dead Isis was described as “She who gives birth to heaven and earth, knows the orphan, knows the widow, seeks justice for the poor, and shelter for the weak. She gives bread to the hungry man, and water to the thirsty man, and clothing to the naked person, and a boat to the shipwrecked mariner.” Associations attached to her temples were formed to help needy parishioners.

Plutarch writes of Isis: "She is both wise, and a lover of wisdom; as her name appears to denote that, more than any other, knowing and knowledge belong to her.”

Magic is central to the entire mythology of Isis, arguably more so than any other Egyptian deity - she was called "Isis, Great of Magic." Thus it is not surprising that Isis had a central role in Egyptian magic spells and ritual, especially those of protection and healing. A spell to heal wounds invokes Isis: "O Isis, Great of Sorcery, mayest thou loosen me, mayest thou protect me, mayest thou guard me, mayest thou deliver me from everything evil and vicious and red."

Isis was thought to have “separated heaven from earth, showed the path of the stars, and regulated the course of the sun and the moon.” Isis is credited with teaching the Egyptian people how to grind barley, spin flax, make bread, weave cloth, and cure disease. Plutarch hailed Isis as the “Patron of Pardon and Peace.” The Latin writer Apuleius invoked Isis as “The Mother of the Stars, the Parent of Seasons, and Mistress of the Whole World.”

Isis was associated with dawn, while her sister Nephthys was associated with twilight. An annual “Lamentations of Isis” was held yearly in Egypt, commemorating when Isis and Nephthys bewailed the death of Osiris. According to Herodotus, the Sorrowing Ladies were shown in pantomime by female mummers in their tens of thousands, tearing their hair and clothes, beating their breasts, and morning aloud the loss of Osiris. Two chief mourners represented Isis and her sister Nephthys.

Says James Dennis in his translations of the traditional Lamentations: “The grief for the lost one, the hope of again beholding him, the cry from the heart for help, the reliance upon the divine all-ruling destiny that shall bring the trial to a happy ending, and the triumph of a desire realized and a hope fulfilled: these sentiments are as much a part of human nature now as then.”

The Egyptians believed that the Nile flooded every year because of Isis’ tears of sorrow for her husband. In one part of the Lamentations Isis cries: "Behold thou my heart, which grieveth for thee! I love thee more than all the earth! Why does thou not hear my voice, though I am thy wife who loved thee? I cry to the height of heaven, I weep for thee!"

The Pyramid Texts imply that Isis had the power of prophecy, and even prophesied the murder of Osiris, although she was unable to prevent it. Texts describe Isis’s pregnancy as unusually long and her labor as hard and painful. In myths Isis is depicted as oppressed by powerful males, struggling with poverty, and in constant fear of losing her child Horus. Texts raise the question that must be answered by every religion: if god is good, why do innocent children suffer?

An angry attitude towards divine indifference is put in the mouth of Isis - her challenge to the sun god to help her dying child is one of the most powerful emotional passages of all Egyptian literature. Ra responds by sending the god Thoth to cure Horus. Isis as everywoman has triumphed, and Ra promises that every child will be saved because Horus was saved.

In the mysteries of Isis, women found a deity who spoke directly to women’s concerns, to the loss and sacrifice required of being a wife and mother. The mysteries and lamentations especially appealed to those who identified a deceased husband, brother, or son with Osiris. The mourning rites provided them with an outlet for their grief and assured them that the deceased had a future life.

People were drawn to a divinity who had known suffering and who thus was bound to be sympathetic to their personal tragedies. Pilgrims left amulets decorated with ears for Isis Epekoos – "Isis, the One Who Listens."

No other Egyptian deity has stood the test of time as well as Isis. Her cult was not extinguished with the other Egyptian gods, but was embraced by the Greeks and Romans, who called her “Isis of Ten Thousand Names.”

So popular was her worship that eventually Isis absorbed nearly all the other goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon.

Isis was thought to be the daughter of Geb and Nut, the sister of Nephthys and Set, the sister-wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus and the Apis bull, and the adopted mother of Anubis. Sometimes Isis was considered to be the daughter of Taweret or Hathor, and the mother of Bast and Sopedu.