Looking at Isis
The Legend. -
In the beginning. . .. . .there was the mighty sun god Ra and his wife Nut, goddess of the sky. But Nut was in love with the god Geb, her brother, the god of the earth, and whose symbol was a goose. When Ra found out about this union, he was furious about his wife's cheating on him. In his rage, he forbade Nut to have children on any of the 360 days that currently made up the year. Nut was very sad.
She called on her friend, Thoth, to help her. Thoth, lord of knowledge, who brought himself into existence by speaking his own name, searched through his magic. He knew that Ra's curse must be fulfilled, but clever Thoth had an idea. So, Thoth made a wager with the moon goddess, Silene,. At the time, Silene's light (the moon) was said to have rivaled the light of Ra (the sun). Thoth won his bet with Silene and was rewarded with one seventh of Silene's light. (It is said that this is why the moon now wanes each month) Thoth took this light and used it to add five days to the calendar, bringing the year from 360 days to 365. This gave Nut 5 days in which she could have sex and produce children with her brother Geb, while at the same time obeying Ra's commandment. And so she did. She didn’t let a single day go to waste. On each of these days, Nut and Geb had sex, and gave birth to Osiris on the first day. On the second day, Horus was born (Horus the Elder) An early form of Horus - God of light. Set (or ‘Seth’ in Greek), was born on the third day, Isis was born on the fourth day, and Nephthys on the fifth day.
Isis is said to have married her brother Osiris. She wanted to have sex with her brother Osiris, so she could produce the child Horus. Problem was, Osiris was dead at the time. So, it was necessary for Isis to learn magic. Isis became a magician, possibly the archetype for the high priestess of the tarot. Some say she learned her magic from Thoth. Other legends say she obtained her powers from Ra himself by tricking him (like mother - like daughter?) into revealing his name to her, thus acquiring his full magical knowledge.The legend says Isis tricked her stepfather Ra (later Amun-Ra/Atum-Ra) into telling her his "secret name", by getting a snake to bite and poison Ra, so that he would use his "secret name" to survive.
Anyway, possessed of her new magical skills, Isis magically animated Osiris and had sex with his dead body until he ejaculated, and thus conceived her son Horus. From the Book of the Dead: “She raised up the inactive members of whose heart was still, she drew from him his essence, she made an heir,. . .”
Horus, the son of Isis, was said to be nurtured and raised by Isis on a floating island in the marshes of Buto. But, apparently the child was weak and in constant danger, especially from the scheming of his wicked uncle Set, who sent serpents and monsters to attack him. Never a dull moment. But Isis was becoming magically powerful and she warded off all evil by use of a great spell that protected against creatures that bite with their mouths, or sting with their tails.
The Ancient & Original Isis
Her name literally means “throne” in a female sense, as in ‘queen of the throne’ The hieroglyph of her name means ‘of female flesh.’ She is originally depicted as a woman with an empty throne above her head. Isis is literally “the throne of female flesh that receives the pelvis of the king.” As such, many historians believe she may have represented deified historical queens, and/or that Old Kingdom early queens were probably identified with her.
Most Egyptian deities started off as strictly local, and when their area rose to national prominence, the regional deities rose to prominence with them. However, no traces of local Isis cults have been found. In fact, there are no known temples dedicated to her throughout her early history. The individual worship of Isis does not really begin until as late as the 30th dynasty. Prior to that, Isis was depicted, and if worshipped at all, was worshipped in the temples of other deities. Even then, Isis was not worshipped individually, but rather together with Horus and Osiris. Temples, specifically dedicated to Isis alone, only become wide-spread in later Roman times.
Before that, though, back in Egypt, Isis became largely replaced and absorbed into the female deity Hathor, the female cow goddess. Hathor is widely said to have, at times, manifested herself into two polar opposite forms, one as the bloodthirsty Lady In Red, the avenging ‘eye of Ra,’ named Sekhmet, depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, -or- as the Lady in Green, named Bast, depicted as a woman with the head of a domestic house cat. (I suppose if you dialed Hathor up, you might get either the big bad bloodthirsty lion, or the small soft cute playful kitty cat.)
Once power shifted to Memphis, during the Middle Kingdom, it was largely Hathor’s manifestation as Sekhmet that replaced Isis. Sekhmet became part of the Memphis Triad of three principal deities, Ptah, Sekhmet, and Nefertum.
When power later shifted again, from Memphis to Thebes, during the New Kingdom (1550 -1069 BC), a new Theban Triad of principal deities arose; Amun, Khons, and Mut (Amaunet), who replaced Sakhmet.
Mut, of Thebes, absorbed all female deities as she rose to prominence as the mut-her of everything. Mut and Sekhmet shared several important similarities, including that both goddesses were said to manifest themselves in the form of a human woman with the head of a lioness. Sekhmet apparently becomes seen as a manifestation of Mut, in similar fashion to how Sekhmet was previously seen as an aspect of Hathor. . . Infact, inside the area of Mut's own temple (known as 'Isheru') south of the Great Temple of Amun of Karnak are hundreds of statues of Sekhmet that were set up during the reign of Amenhotep III (Dynasty XVIII).
Modern Isis, a Greco-Roman pagan goddess
With the later advent of the Greek and Roman pagan gods, across the Mediterranean Sea, suddenly Isis rises like a phoenix from the dead herself. Long since absorbed and discarded in Egypt, covered by the dust of over a thousand years of history, Isis worship suddenly begins, in Hellenistic times, spreading and popping up all over outside of Egypt, with her temples being found even as far away as Roman England. In many locations, especially Byblos, her cult takes over and absorbs the worship of the Semitic goddess Astarte.
Originally Isis had priests of both sexes, however during the Hellenistic revival; the cult had only female officials. Her remarkable sudden widespread expansion is largely attributed to sailors. Due to her attributes as a protector, and mother, and most especially due to the lusty sexual orgiastic rites, that began upon her association with Hathor, she became the patron goddess of most sailors. With improved technology, coins, and the rise of great empires, sea commerce flourished throughout the Greco-Roman world, and Isis quickly became one of the most significant of the world's mystery religions.
Despite the Isis mystery cult's growing popularity, there is evidence to suggest that the Isis mysteries were not originally very welcome by the ruling classes in Rome. The rites associated with Isis were considered by Augustus to be "pornographic" and capable of destroying the Roman moral fiber.
Tacitus writes that a temple in honor of Isis had actually been ordered by Rome, before Julius Caesar’s assassination, but when Augustus became Caesar, he put a stop to it and tried to turn Romans back to the Roman gods who were more closely associated with the state. Eventually, however, the Roman Emperor Caligula abandoned such wariness and it was during Caligula’s reign that an Isis festival was established in Rome. According to historian Josephus, Caligula himself donned female garb and took part in the sexual rites and Isis mystery rituals. As a result, Isis acquired, in the Hellenistic age, a "new rank as a leading goddess of the Mediterranean world."
The sexual rites of Isis were familiar to many, and she became known as ‘Isis of Ten Thousand Names.’ Romans largely saw in the new Isis deity many welcome aspects of an old familiar diety. For many Romans, Egyptian Isis was merely an aspect of Phrygian goddess Cybele, whose orgiastic sexual rites were long practiced at Rome.
The cult of Isis rose to prominence in the Hellenistic world, beginning in the last centuries BC, and probably reached it’s zenith of popularity thanks to Roman Emperor Caligula. It lasted as a public entity until it was eventually banned by the Byzantine Christians in the 6th century.
