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| '''Isis''' (Greek version, Egyptian is '''Aset''') is the ] of motherhood and fertility in ancient ]. She is a ] (see ]), as well as one of the ]. Later, she acquired the goddess ]. | |||
| Originally, she was a goddess of royalty (her ] includes the word for "throne"). Later still, during the period of ] dominance, she was the patron goddess of sailors. | |||
| She was a close companion of ]. | |||
| Isis was the daughter of ], goddess of the sky, and ], god of ]. She married with ], her brother and the father of her son ]. Osiris was murdered by Seth but she reassembled his body (leading to her associated with the ] and the funerary ]) and impregnated herself with his body and gave birth to Horus in ], a ]. In addition to Horus, Isis was the mother of ] (alternatively, they were lovers). | |||
| Together with her sister ] they can be seen on the sides of coffins in human form, their wings outstreched protecting the dead. The sisters also had magical powers. | |||
| Isis helped her husband, killed by ], to come back to live and take over the rule in the land of the dead. | |||
| Isis is often symbolised by a cow, or also a cow's head or horns (illustrating a connection with ]). In ], she was depicted with her son, Horus, a crown and a ], and sometimes as a ] flying above Osiris' body. | |||
| Alternatively, Isis was identified as the ] goddess Serq or Selk. | |||
| <div style="width:230px; float:left; margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; text-align:center;"> | |||
| ]<br><small> | |||
| ''Isis nursing Horus''</small></div> | |||
| The cult of Isis rose to great prominence in the ] world throughout the last centuries BCE up until it was eventually banned by the ] in the sixth century. Despite the Isis mystery cult's growing popularity, there is evidence to suggest that the Isis mysteries were not altogether welcomed by the ruling classes in ]. Her rites were considered by the ] ] to be of a "pornographic" nature and capable of destroying the Roman moral fibre. It is not surprising therefore that part of Augustus' programme for reconstruction after the fall of the ] was an attempt to infuse new life into the old gods of Rome. Tacitus writes that after Julius Caesar's assassination, a temple in honour of Isis had been decreed in a moment of weakness; Augustus suspended this, and tried to turn Romans back to the Roman gods who were closely associated with the state. Eventually, the Roman emperor Gaius abandoned the Augustan wariness towards Oriental cults, and it was in his reign that the Isiac festival was established in Rome. According to Josephus, Gaius himself donned female garb and took part in the mysteries he instituted, and Isis acquired in the Hellenistic age a "new rank as a leading goddess of the Mediterranean world." | |||
| Roman perspectives on cult were ], seeing in a new deity merely local aspects of a familiar one. For many Romans, Egyptian Isis was an aspect of Phrygian ], whose orgiastic rites were long naturalized at Rome. In the ''Golden Ass'' (1st Century CE) ]' goddess ] is identified with the Phrygian ]: | |||
| :"Behold, Lucius, I have arrived. Thy weeping and prayers have moved me to succour thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, the Mistress and Governess of all the Elements, the initial Progenitrix of all things, the Chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven, the First of the Gods celestial, the light of the Goddesses. At my will, the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in various manners, in various customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the ]...' (''The Golden Ass'') | |||
| Among these attributes of Roman Isis, ']' is outstanding for its long and continuous history. | |||
| Some scholars argue that aspects of Isis worship have influenced the practices of some Christians in regards to the ]. | |||
| There has recently been a revival of Isis worship among neo-pagans and feminists who are attracted by the ] notions of ] worship. | |||
| ==External Links== | |||
| ===Modern worship=== | |||
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| ===Ancient worship=== | |||
| *[http://www.touregypt.net/ISIS.HTM Egypt:Gods - Isis | |||
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Revision as of 04:24, 15 March 2004
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