Teresa Reese-johnson Isis is the most well-known Egyptian Deity. Isis was the daughter of Nut, wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus. She was sometimes called Aset. When Osiris was killed by his brother Set, his body was set adrift in the Nile and Isis began her search for him. When she found him, Set learned of it and stole his body, chopped it into pieces, and threw it into the water again. Isis retrieved her husband and reassembled him. Isis assumed, during the course of Egyptian history, the attributes and functions of virtually every other important goddess in the land. Her most important functions, however, were those of motherhood, marital devotion, healing the sick, and the working of magical spells and charms. She was believed to be the most powerful magician in the universe, owing to the fact that she had learned the Secret Name of Ra from the god himself. Her sacred instrument: the Sistrum Her worship flourished in Egypt for all of its three thousand years. In the beginning she was a protective mother goddess of birth, life and death and later transformed into the Highest of All. Her faith eventually spread throughout the Near East and Mediterranean. In later Rome her cult became very important: the roads and ships of the Roman Empire carried Isis to ancient France, Germany and Britain. Symbol: The throne sign. The cult of Isis spread from Alexandria throughout the Hellenistic world after the 4th century BC. It appeared in Greece in combination with the cults of Horus, her son, and Serapis, the Greek name for Osiris. The Greek historian Herodotus identified Isis with Demeter, the Greek goddess of earth, agriculture, and fertility. The tripartite cult of Isis, Horus, and Serapis was later introduced (86BC) into Rome in the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and became one of the most popular branches of Roman religion. It later received a bad reputation through the licentiousness of some of its priestly rites, and subsequent consuls made efforts to suppress or limit Isis worship. The cult died out in Rome after the institution of Christianity, and the last remaining Egyptian temples to Isis were closed in the middle of the 6th century AD.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:20:11 +0000
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