Love and kisses,
Kabo
Isis: The People’s Goddess- A Model For All Women
Today in societies all over the world, women are exposed to different ideas of what it means to be perfect. In America, many females look at celebrities and think that to be a model woman a girl must be in great shape, have perfect hair, do a plethora of charity work, adopt children from third-world countries, and so on. In ancient Egypt the celebrities of the time were the gods and goddesses. The example of a perfect woman came from Isis, the mother goddess, and in at least my opinion, a much more wholesome character. Isis was one of the few goddesses who was depicted in a human form rather than being associated with an animal, making her easier to relate to and aspire to be like (Lesko 170). As the queen of their gods she held a high rank of respect in Egyptian society and her compassion for her followers made her easy to love as well. Of all the goddesses her personality is also the most developed, this is owing to her stories being written down starting in the New Kingdom (Lesko 175). Isis was, for many reasons, the perfect woman. She was a devoted wife, and protective mother, a powerful healer, and a kind being; attributes that spoke to Egyptian women as ideal model of how they should behave.
Isis the Wife
The first role of Isis is her role as sister-wife of Osiris. The earliest references to her are from the Pyramid texts (Old Kingdom, ca. 2686-2181 B.C.E,) in which it is described that she foresaw her husband’s death by the hands of their brother Seth and she wept about it (Hart 80). The first outlined account that exists of the mythology of Isis comes from the 1st century BCE historian Plutarch which he wrote while traveling outside of his homeland of Greece (much of what we know about Isis today is pieced together from this outline and other references from the Pyramid texts, the Book of the Dead, and other funerary memorials) (Armour 54). According to the story, Osiris had left Isis in charge of Egypt while he ventured out to neighboring lands to teach people about civilization and law (Armour 55). His brother Seth was jealous of him and conspired against him, building an elaborately decorated casket to Osiris’ exact measurements (Armour 56). Once Osiris returned to Egypt, Seth threw a welcome home banquet for him and said that whomever fit inside the coffin could have it (Armour 56). When Osiris stepped into the box, Seth and his co-conspirators slammed it shut, nailed it closed, and poured hot lead around it so that Osiris would suffocate (Armour 56). The party attendees then threw the chest into the Nile River, happy to be rid of the god they were all so jealous of (Armour 56). After Osiris’ death Isis was very distraught and went in search of his body, knowing he was dead before anyone was able to tell her the news (Armour 56)#. According to legend, the town she was in when she realized he was gone from that time on was called Koptos, which means The City of Mourning (Armour 56). After a long time she found the cask that he had been shut in in a tamarisk tree and brought it back to Egypt and hid it in the marshes of the delta with her and Horus (Armour 57). One night on a hunting trip the evil Seth saw the special box that he had made and knew that Isis had found her husband, which got him very angry. He opened it and tore Osiris into fourteen pieces and threw them into the Nile so that the crocodiles would eat them (Armour 63). Crocodiles were lovers of Isis, though, and so out of respect for her they left him alone. Isis was said to have traveled in a boat made of papyrus and since the crocodiles loved her they did not attack her boat, this story lead to the belief that anyone who sailed a papyrus boat would be safe from crocodile attacks (Armour 63). Isis, out of love for her husband once again went out and searched for his dead body, finding all the pieces but his penis which she made a substitute for and magically put him back together in the Temple of Abydos so that he could finish his journey to the afterlife#. She then used her magic wings to help him on his journey through death (Armour 64, Hart 80)#. This is why she is often thought of as a guardian of the dead and the most famous depiction of her funerary roles is found in the tomb of King Tut (Lesko 177).The Egyptians were touched by this incredible devotion to her husband and moved by her persistence to keep him safe even after death (Hart 80)#. The story of Isis as a wife was one of her greatest roles, making her the pillar of family for the Egyptians. The significance of the story in mythological aspects is that it helped to define the divinity of the pharaohs of Egypt; the dead pharaoh becoming Osiris, ruler of the afterlife, and the new pharaoh taking his place being as Horus, divine king of Egypt (Donalson 3). The first temples to Isis were found alongside her husband’s temple at Abydos and Min at Coptos in the Middle and New Kingdoms (Quirke 67).
Isis is credited with the institution of marriage and appealed greatly to lonely women (Lesko 186). There were charms created for women in the Middle Kingdom so that they could love their husbands like Isis loved Osiris or to do the opposite and make her hate her husband like Isis hated Seth (Lesko 179). Centuries later, in Rome, betrothed couples celebrated in her temples, crediting her with bringing morality to the people (Lesko 195). Widows felt connected with Isis in regards to the struggle of a woman raising a son alone, she gave them hope through her persistence to do the best for her son and the memory of her husband (Lesko186).
Isis is sometimes depicted as an old woman; images meant to signify her wisdom as well as her being as widow without a husband by her side (Lesko 177). The ancient Egyptians, during the time of the Ptolemies’ rule, pitied Isis for being lonely after the death of her husband so they gave her a new companion, Arensnuphis (Donalson 10, Lesko 185). He was a minor, obscure God and, like Osiris, was greatly overshadowed by Isis.
Isis the Mother
Isis the mother is her most important role for the Egyptian monarchs and the Egyptian people as a whole, as it is their link to the pharaoh’s divinity. Isis is the mother of Horus and Horus is supposed to be embodied in the living pharaohs of Egypt (Hart 80). The ruler gains this divinity by drinking the breast milk of Isis and this image is found often in Egyptian art (Hart 80)#. After Osiris is killed by his brother Seth, Isis runs off to hide in the marshes of the delta and protect their son Horus from his uncle (Hart 80). Her protection of Horus is part of the reason that she was so protective of all children, coming to their aide when they were sick, caring for them as if they were her son Horus themselves (Hart 81). Isis brought her son up in secret so that one day he would be able to avenge the death of his father and take his rightful place on the throne (Hart 81)#. They go to court to fight over the rights but Seth throws a fit and refuses to continue with Isis present so the proceedings are moved to an island that she is supposed to be banned from. Isis is too clever though and disguises herself as an old lady first to get across the water and then as a knockout beauty to trick Seth into agreeing with her sob story of her son losing his inheritance after his father’s death. The judges hear that he has agreed that Isis’ son had been wronged and have to agree with Isis rather than sympathizing with Seth (Hart 82). She then further discredits him to the other judges though an elaborate scheme to prove he was sexually attacking her son, eventually leading him to admit defeat (Hart 82). The final way that Isis went above and beyond for Horus was when she tricked her father Ra into revealing his secret name to her by making a snake from his saliva and earth and having it bite him. She refuses to cure him from the pain until he gives her his name, which he eventually does, and which she gives to her son Horus, giving him power no other god had (Hart 82). As a mother Isis was as devoted as she could possibly be, saving her son from death and providing him with everything he deserved. During antiquity, many people lost their mothers due to disease or childbirth, so for them (Egyptians and later other followers of Isis), Isis became a sort of pseudo-mother, a figure to watch out for her followers as she watched out for Horus (Lesko 186). For Egyptian women Isis was a model of the love that they should show their own children each and every day.
The role of Isis as a mother reach beyond just normal mother and child relations, but into the world of fertility as well. Isis may have been linked to the fertility goddess Min as she was honored with him at the temple of Horus from the 18th dynasty in Nubia (Lesko 169). The gestation period of women was set according to the Egyptians by Isis, tying her role of fertility to her role of a mother, a role that starts in the womb (Lesko 198). Part of the story of Seth killing Osiris is to show the dangers of the desert (represented by Seth) and the vital need for Isis to bring about rebirth and give eternal life to the deceased (Lesko 164). Her tears over her husband revived the Nile each year, bringing life to the people (Witt 15). Like a good mother, Isis was always protecting her followers. She had a pair of magical wings that both shielded people in their journey to death and could turn into sails to help ships at sea (Witt 17,19). Another way that she protected them and tapped into her motherly fertility magic was by inventing the grinding of corn into flour and spinning of thread into cloth (Witt 16). Through these skills women were able to provide food and clothes and blankets for their families, keeping them healthy and happy. For Egyptians therefore, Isis not only showed the women how to be the best mothers but also helped them to be mothers themselves through fertility and life sustaining crops that allowed them to feed and clothe their children.
Isis the Healer
Isis became “Great of Magic” by learning her father’s secret name (Lesko 177). This is one of her most famous epithets as it pronounces her extreme skill in healing and the magical arts. The famous story of Isis’s magic is that of her and the scorpions- Isis was supposedly guarded by seven scorpions when she was hiding Horus in the marshlands of the delta. She stopped one day to find rest but was turned away by a woman who was scared of the scorpions. Isis politely left and found somewhere else to stay the night. Her scorpion guardians were not happy with how she had been treated though and they decided to put all their venom together into one of their stingers and then that scorpion went back and attacked the son of the rude housewife who had turned away the queen of the gods. The boy became very ill and his mother ran frantically through town trying to find someone who could cure him. Isis heard the woman and agreed to help her son by pulling the poison out of him (Lesko 181-182). This story was not only one in which her magical powers of healing were displayed but also her immense compassion for every person, even those who had scorned her. It is also the reason that ancient Egyptians used barley bread to draw out poison while uttering her name in hopes that she would show a victim the same compassion she showed the boy the scorpion had stung (Lesko 182).
Isis’ magic was represented in different ways. The amulet called the tyet, or the knot of Isis, was supposed to be a representation of a bloody sanitary napkin of Isis’ (Lesko 179)#. Her blood was sacred and menstruation was supposed to be credited for female creativity and power (Lesko 179). Her blood was so powerful in fact that it was discussed in spell 156 of the Book of the Dead (Middle Kingdom) to protect the dead and found in mummies (Lesko 179)#. Followers of Isis were promised everlasting life and flocked to her temples for cures to their ailments, much like the Greek followers of Apollo (Lesko 193). Her magical powers to cure her devotees as well as her actions of guarding of the dead made Isis a deity to admire. Egyptian women could only hope to learn her skills with healing and gain the same protective instincts that their mother deity possessed.
Isis the feminist
One of the best reasons that Isis would have been a model for ancient Egyptian woman is that she was one of the world’s first feminists, promoting the idea of female empowerment and equality among the sexes. Isis, as described earlier was the mother of the pharaoh of Egypt, but more than that, her name in hieroglyphics was written with the symbol that represents the throne of Egypt (Hart 79). The word, aset, translates as throne or Isis, and in many of her depictions a throne actually sits upon her head (Lesko 156)#. The significance of this image is that it shows the power she had in the monarchy, her role was important in the kingship and transmission of power. Her early temples were originally coupled with those of her husband’s but in the 4th century B.C.E. two grand temples were erected to honor her alone, one at Philae (the most famous)# and the other at Behbeit (the “most impressive”), representing both Upper and Lower Egypt (Quirke 68). The movement of her away from her husband shows that over time she was developing as a more powerful deity to the Egyptians and the fact that she was a woman had no bearing over their devotion to her and her powers. By the twenty-first dynasty in Giza, Isis was honored with a temple near the base of the Great Pyramid which lead to her becoming the Mistress of the Pyramids, protector of some of Egypt’s most famous and grand monuments of the dead (Lesko 178).
In the New Kingdom Isis appropriated the attributes of the solar goddess Hathor, the sun disk and cows horns, which were ancient, sacred symbols of power (Lesko 175). A famous example of her taking on Hathor’s attributes is found in the tomb of Nefertari, wife of Rameses II in a giant mural of Isis bringing the queen to the afterlife (Donalson 8)#. Records from the Memphite cemetery at the end of the eighteenth dynasty show that Isis had also replaced Hathor as Lady of the Beautiful West (Lesko 175). Her accumulation of other gods’ and goddesses’ attributes both shows how she evolved over the years but also shows that the role of women in society was growing stronger.
Priestess positions were formed for her cult during the Roman times, though before that women had always had roles in the cult as Kanephoroi (basket-bearers) (Bowden 165). Second century Roman priestesses of Isis were called pastophoros and would have served anywhere from a one year position to a lifelong career (Donalson 57). As the years went on Isis became the only deity for many of her followers because she was such a universal goddess, called Isis Panthea (“All-God”) (Lesko 191, Donalson 11). Priests in her cult had no problem with the idea of a female as being the all powerful goddess of the world, showing their acceptance of women as equals, which essentially made power equal for men and women (Lesko 198). A woman who followed Isis was taught that the perfect woman not only was a fabulous mother, wife, and healer, but was also strong and could take charge.
Isis outside of Egypt
As the decades went by in ancient Egypt, immigration in and out of the country meant that many ideas and theories were exchanged among peoples of the Mediterranean. The Greeks linked Isis to Demeter (Bowden 156). She was also linked to Apollo (for her healing skills), Hera (for being the queen goddess), Artemis (for her powers over childbirth and virginity), Athena (for her wisdom), Gea (for being the mother of nature), Venus (for her beauty and being the goddess of love)- she was “all things to men” (Witt 20). Because of this diversity many people were able to embrace her as if she were their native goddess and she rapidly spread across the world. Waterfront communities also credited Isis with being the Mistress of the Seas and had an important festival for her in March to ask her for protection at the start of the sailing season (Lesko 187). It was her qualities of a rescuer of those at sea, Isis Pelagia, that linked her to the famous Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria (Donalson 4). It was the sailors and merchants who were the first to spread her word because of the protection with which they felt she provided them. In the 1st century B.C.E., Herodotus considered Egyptian religion to be one of the sources of religious understanding for the Greeks (Bowden 159) and Diodorus claims an Egyptian origin for the mystery cults of the Greeks (Bowden 159). The ability of Isis to overcome destiny made her especially popular to the greater world outside of Egypt (Lesko 181).
Greek immigrants in Egypt liked the Egyptian gods over their own because they gave them hope for an afterlife. Isis, being a protector of the dead, was highly sought after because of this (Lesko 185). A cult for Isis was built in Athens by Egyptians who lived there in the 4th century and priests were actually brought from Egypt to work at them (Bowden 160, 165). She was fused with Asiatic Artemis and was honored in a mystery cult so much of the devotional rites have been lost in time due to the loss of secrets held by members (Lesko 187). Though much was lost, it is known that there were facets of the original cult from Isis that were kept, like the professional priesthood, using water from the Nile in special rites, public processions, sleeping overnight in the temples, and so on (Lesko 187).
Isis became popular among the Romans at first simply because she was popular among the Greeks, though not all were happy with her presence and their attempts at sabotage did not succeed in ruining her (Lesko 192). During the years of 59 to 48 B.C.E. there were five proposals brought to the Roman Senate to tear down the temples and statues of the cult of Isis but in the end she was worshiped will into the common era (Moehring 293). Her cult reached Italy in the 2nd century BCE (Bowden 161). Her cult was brought to Carthage, Spain, the Rhine Valley, and Britain by the Phoenician merchants (Lesko 187). Her cult was brought from Delos to Campania in Italy during the Roman Republic starting with the slaves but it eventually grew to include many people, all the way up to high officials (Lesko 190). Over time even some Roman emperors became initiates in Isis’ cult and built temples to honor her (Lesko 193). Temples built in Rome followed the traditional Egyptian style of closed walls, a very strange architectural form for Romans and Greeks who were used to more open temples (Donalson 93). Emperor Caligula dedicated a famous and large temple (later called the Iseum Campense) to Isis in 37 C.E., and then, following his Egyptian predecessors, used her to claim divinity for himself (Donalson 96, Lesko 193). Another reason that the Romans embraced her cult was that it helped them to rule in Egypt after the fall of Cleopatra, giving the emperor the title of pharaoh and Horus (Donalson 10).
For Egyptians, Isis was a model woman, someone who earned the respect that the gods demanded. She loved her followers and protected them throughout their lives. The women and men were so devoted to her that they were able to spread her word throughout the world and make her popular amongst many nations. Before anyone knew it, Isis was a common goddess of the world and a model for all women (and men) to follow. With how popular she became, so popular in fact that her cult was a large influence as well as a threat to emerging Christianity, I find it hard to believe as well as painfully sad that she seems to be forgotten in modern times. Her image was even a great inspiration for Donatello’s Virgin, though most don’t know well enough to make the connection (Stefaniak 92) The appeal to her followers was that she taught the basic rules of respect and love and this day in age those tenants need to be remembered by all.
Conclusion
Isis was the longest surviving deity of the Egyptian religion, outlasting her husband Osiris and other gods (Lesko 156). She was a woman whom Egyptians loved and wanted to be like; records even indicate that Cleopatra aspired to be like Isis (Witt 19). Her influence is still felt today, though most people do not realize it, because of the immense influence her cult had on the formation of Christianity and other religions (Witt 15). Her cult did not discriminate racially or ethnically, she did not persecute based on prudery of sex, she did not allow for a quarrel between science and religion; Isis was about love, she was about the good and the beautiful, her cult promoted peace and patience and forgiveness (Witt 22-23). The deeper I have gone in my studies of Isis the more apparent it is that she was the model for a perfect woman. She was strong and devoted and honest and compassionate and smart. The qualities that the Egyptians loved in Isis are the qualities that every person should aspire to have, whether male or female.
Bibliography
Articles
Magness, J. 2001. “The Cults of Isis and Kore at Samaria-Sebaste in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods,” The Harvard Theological Review 94: 157-177
Moehring, H. 1959. “ The Persecution of the Jews and the Adherents of the Isis Cult at Rome
A.D. 19,” Novum Testamentum 3: 293-304.
Stefaniak, J. 2006. “The Ancient Theology of Donatello's "Virgin" in the Santo, Artibus et Historiae 27: 89-110.
Books
Armour, R. 2001. Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, Cairo.
Bowden, H. 2010. Mystery Cults of the Ancient World, London.
Donaldson, M. 2003. The Cult of Isis in the Roman Empire, Lewiston.
Cott, J. 1994. Isis and Osiris, New York.
Hart, G. 2005. The Routledge Dictionary of Eqyptian Gods and Goddesses, New York.
Lesko, B. 1999. The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Norman.
Quirke, S. 1995. Ancient Egyptian Religion, New York.
Robins, G. 2008. The Art of Ancient Egypt, Cambridge.
Witt, R. 1997. Isis in the Ancient World, Ithaca.
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