Isis she was an important goddess of religion in Ancient Egypt, recognized as one of the most important. She was the mother of all pharaohs and was responsible, along with her husband, for having taught humanity the basic knowledge of medicine and agriculture.
Married to Osiris, she was the protagonist of a of the most important myths in Egyptian mythology:the murder of Osiris by his brother Set. The cult of Isis spread throughout Egypt and reached Greece and Rome, becoming an important deity also for these ancient peoples.
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Isis Summary
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Isis was known to the Egyptians as Eset.
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she was the wife of Osiris, and together they ruled the Earth in a period of peace and prosperity.
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she Rescued and resurrected Osiris after he was murdered by Set.
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she was considered the mother of all pharaohs.
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Her cult was very strong in Egypt and reached Greece and Rome as well.
Who was the goddess Isis
Isis was a deity d Egyptian religiosity , but not only, being an important figure also in the religiosity of Greeks and Romans in Antiquity. She was the most important Egyptian deity and regarded as the mother of all pharaohs .
Isis is believed to have emerged sometime in the Old Kingdom (2686 BC to 2181 BC), but the cult of her became popular, to the point of being the most important in Egypt , only in the first millennium BC. The Egyptians associated it with the annual flood that took place on the Nile River and guaranteed the fertility of the soil.
She was seen as a protective goddess, who gave herself for the good of people, and also associated with maintaining a full and happy afterlife. In addition, she had a strong relationship with the Egyptian throne and the power of the pharaohs. She was depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne , a reference to Osiris.
she was known as Eset ("seat", in free translation), and the name by which we know it today was the way the Greeks called it. She was also given epithets, used to define some of her qualities, according to Egyptian belief. One of them was Mut-Netjer, the mother of the gods.
She was part of theAbydos Triad , a group of three gods greatly venerated in Egypt:Isis, Osiris and Horus. The Egyptians believed that Isis and Osiris had taught humanity the knowledge of agriculture and medicine. Furthermore, she was held responsible for instituting the marriage by marrying Osiris.
she was also recognized as a goddess protector of merchants and sailors , and it was quite common for people of both trades to have amulets in reference to her. These objects were for anyone who needed her protection.
Finally, Isis was part of theEnnead of Heliopolis , that is, a set of nine Egyptian gods descended from Atum or Ra. She was the daughter of Geb, god of Earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky, and was the sister of Osiris (also her husband), Set, Nephthys, and Horus (a variation of the myth presents her as the mother of that god).
Marriage of Isis to Osiris
One of the most important mentions of Isis is about her marriage to Osiris and her journey to recover the body of her husband, murdered by Set, their brother.
Osiris and Isis were married, and together they were the first rulers of the Earth . They taught men how to cultivate the land, and the planet lived years of much peace and prosperity, as the couple's government was fair and prosperous. Set was envious of all the power and respect that the brother received , and that envy turned to deadly hatred when Osiris lay with Nephthys by mistake. Nephthys was the wife of Set.
Set so devised a trap to imprison Osiris and get rid of him . After imprisoning him, Set threw his body into the Nile River, but another version says he murdered him. The disappearance of Osiris madeIsis start a quest for him , finding him at Byblos, Phoenicia.
She took the body of Osiris back to Egypt, but Set discovered and tore his brother into several pieces, scattering them across Egypt. Isis found them all except the penis, then performed a ritual to resuscitate him , and soon after received the seed of Osiris, becoming pregnant with their son, the god Horus.
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Worship of Isis
Isis was one of the most worshiped deities of Egyptian religiosity, and, at a certain point in the history of this people, the veneration was such that all the gods were related to her in some way. Her cult was practiced all over Egypt , and the place that centered it was a shrine in Behbeit and l-Hagar .
The cult of Isis accepted priests and priestesses, who acted in the maintenance of the temple. Inside the temples dedicated to her, there was a shrine that could only be attended by a priest. Your rite of hers was full of secrets , as initiates were encouraged to keep the details of worshiping this goddess hidden.
The practice penetrated Greek culture , around the 4th century BC, with the rule of Alexander the Great over Egypt. Thus, Isis was directly associated with Demeter, goddess of agriculture for the Greeks, because the rituals performed for her had a secret character as well as the Mysteries of Eleusis, the main festival held for Demeter.
By the 1st century BC, the cult of Isis was also assimilated into Roman religiosity, becoming very traditional. However, the growth of Christianity contributed to weakening of him, and places that still worshiped this goddess in Egypt were definitively closed in the 6th century AD.