Goddess Isis: The most important figure
The Egyptian goddess Isis was a powerful divinity whose worship spread to Greece and Rome. The Osiris tale, which first mentioned Isis, comes from the ancient Sumerian empire (2181-2686 BC). In the tale, she resurrected her murdered god-king Osiris and gave birth to his successor, Horus. She also rose from the dead.
People believed Goddess Isis escorted the deceased to the afterlife by guarding them, just as she protected Osiris. She was regarded as the pharaoh’s celestial mother because he resembled her son Horus. She was also a witch who used healing magic to help ordinary people.
At first, Goddess Isis had only a small role in royal hymns and funeral rituals. In mystical books and art, artists often depicted her as a human female wearing a throne on her head. During the New Kingdom, she took on Hathor’s traits. Artists showed Isis wearing Hathor’s robes and carrying a sun disc between a cow’s horns, just as they had previously depicted Hathor.
Isis and Osiris were the most popular Egyptian gods throughout the first millennium BC. With the disease of the rulers of Egypt and its neighbors in Nubia building temples for Isis, as her temple in Philae was the most important religious center for Egyptians and Nubians, Isis took many of the attributes of other gods with the disease of the rulers of Egypt and its neighbors in Nubia building temples for Isis
The name of the Egyptian Goddess “Isis”
Many people have tried to figure out where the name Isis came from. Her Egyptian name was (Est), from which the Coptic name (Essi) and the Greek name Isis (from which the current name was derived) were derived. A throne symbol appears in the hieroglyphic name. The name of the throne in the Egyptian language is the one that Isis wears on her head as a symbol of her identity (Set).
Isis’s Family
Isis, Osiris, Set, and Nephthys were the final generation born from Geb, the god of the ground. They all descended from the creator god, Atum or Ra. The creator god ruled the first universe and passed his authority down through nine generations of male gods until Osiris became king.
The Death and Resurrection of Osiris
Set, Osiris’s brother, murdered him and dismembered his body. Isis, Nephthys, and other gods like Anubis searched for the pieces of his body. They succeeded and gathered all the parts. Isis then helped restore Osiris’s body. The burial scrolls contain her words, where she expressed her grief, sexual desire, and rage at his death. All these emotions helped resurrect Osiris. Isis gave his body new life.
Isis and Horus
She is Horus’ mother in the ancient kingdom’s tale of Isis and Osiris. After a long and difficult pregnancy, Isis gave birth to Horus on a papyrus in the Nile Delta. She stayed by her son’s side, helping and protecting him.
Early pyramid inscriptions also portrayed Isis as Horus’s mother, though some evidence suggests Hathor was the mother. Osiris remained in the underworld but had a son and heir who avenged his death and performed the funeral rituals for him.
According to ancient tales, Isis was the mother and mythical wife of kings. She wore two cow horns on her head, which associated Horus with any living pharaoh and Osiris with each deceased pharaoh. Her prominence grew in the New Egyptian dynasty. Her image appeared in temple inscriptions from this period. Sometimes, the goddess Hathor was shown nursing the king from Isis’s breast. The most powerful goddesses were depicted on queens’ crowns. Burial inscriptions from the New Kingdom of Isis show images of Ra sailing across the underworld. She was one of the many gods who defeated Ra’s enemy.
Isis, the Goddess of Knowledge and Magic
Isis was known for her supernatural abilities, which she used to resurrect Osiris and protect and cure Horus. People also recognized her for her brilliance, as many claimed her magical abilities made her the most talented deity in many incarnations. The contemporary kingdom’s tales. Isis, the goddess of the sky: The many roles that Isis played gave her an important place in the sky, linking passages in the pyramid texts of Isis with (Sopdet), the goddess represented by a star, and her relationship with her husband (Saah) and their son (Sopdo), which parallels Isis’s relationship with Osiris and Horus.
Isis as a Goddess of the Universe
Isis’s influence extended across the entire world. She protected Egypt, supported its monarch, and brought rain, which resurrected nature. According to hymns, her control over nature brings people back to life and honors the dead. In Egyptian art, artists often depicted Isis as a woman in a beautiful garment. She held a bundle of papyrus in one hand and an ankh, the symbol of life, in the other.
Isis and Nephthys often appeared together, especially in scenes of Osiris’s death or as they protected the coffins of the dead. Isis also appeared as other animals, such as a pig, which represented motherhood, a cow, or a scorpion. She was often depicted as an eagle in a tree or as a woman from whom a tree emerged, providing food and drink to the dead.
Goddess Isis’s Temples and Festivals
Until the end of the New Kingdom, people linked Isis’s worship with that of male deities like Osiris and Amun. They regarded her as their mother or wife and worshipped her alongside them. For many of Horus’s pictures, they venerated her more as a mother. She also had her own places of worship, such as the temple at Abydos in the late New Kingdom.
The earliest Isis exiles were in the north of Egypt (Bahbet al-Hajar) and the south (Philae). Pilgrims traveled from all across the Mediterranean Sea to the Egyptian-Nubian border to see the Temple of (Philae).
Goddess Isis during the Roman Period
Goddess Isis had other followers; during the Roman period, Egyptians throughout the country celebrated her birthday by erecting a statue of her in every field. However, it was commemorated every 10 days by the monks on Elephantine Island. In the fourth and fifth centuries AD, Christianity became the most popular religion across the Roman Empire, including Egypt. Due to a combination of hypocrisy and enmity against Christians, Egyptian gods’ temples progressively faded away.
Join us and let’s inhale Egyptian Mythology
Book one of our Egypt Tour Packages. Join an authentic Nile River Cruise with Egypt Fun Tours. You can explore the growth of the goddess Isis’s cult and ancient Egyptian mythology with us.
