Isis
In the beginning Isis was a
protective mother goddess of birth, life and death, later transformed into the Highest of
All with the Throne as Her symbol. Her worship flourished in Egypt for all of its three
thousand years. 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.
First 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. Her cult was later introduced (86 BCE) into Rome and became
one of the most popular branches of Roman religion. After the institution of Christianity,
and the last remaining Egyptian temples to Isis were closed in the middle of the 6th
century AD, leaving behind "secret knowledge" to Gnostic groups, leading to her
revival in the form of the Madonna devotion - Black Virgin and the Shrine Madonna -
respectively...
Hymns to Isis
(From the Temple of Isis at Philae--translations
by Louis Zabkar in Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae):
Praise to you, Isis, the Great One,
God’s mother, Lady of Heaven, Mistress and Queen of the gods.
You are the First Royal Spouse of Wennefer/Osiris,
The Bull, The Lion who overthrows all his enemies, The
Lord and ruler of eternity.
Praise to you, Isis, the Great One, God’s mother,
Lady of Heaven, Mistress and Queen of the gods.
You are the First Royal Spouse of Wennefer/Osiris,
One who protects her brother and watches over the weary-of
heart.
Praise to you, Isis, the Great One, God’s mother,
Lady of Heaven, Mistress and Queen of the gods.
O Isis, the Great, God’s mother, lady of Philae,
God’s Wife, God’s Adorer and God’s Hand,
God’s mother and Great Royal Spouse, Adornment and
Lady of the Ornaments of the Palace.
Lady and desire of the green fields, Nursling who fills
the palace with her beauty,
Fragrance of the palace, mistress of joy, Who completes
her course in the Divine Place.
Rain-cloud that makes green the fields when it descends,
Maiden, sweet of love, Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Who issues orders among the divine Ennead, According to
whose command one rules.
Princess, great of praise, lady of charm, Whose face
enjoys the trickling of fresh myrrh.
*
Isis, giver of life, residing in the Sacred Mound, Satis,
Lady of Biggeh:
She is the one who pours out the Inundation That makes all
people live and green plants grow,
Who provides divine offerings for the gods, And
invocation-offerings for the Transfigured Ones.
Because she is lady of Heaven, Her spouse is Lord of the
Netherworld,
Her son is Lord of the Land, Her spouse is the pure water,
rejuvenating himself at Biggeh at his time.
She is lady of Heaven, Earth, and the Netherworld, Having
brought them into existence through what her heart conceived and her hands created,
She is the Bai that is in every city, Watching over her
son Horus and her brother Osiris.
*
May Isis come to her House to join her
Image, Her radiance underlying the faces,
Like the radiance of Ra when he shows himself in the
morning.
The female Horus, beloved of the Great Horus, Mother of
Horus, created by Atum,
Great Royal Spouse, united with Ra, Who protects her
brother Osiris.
Mistress of flame who assaults the rebels, Who slays
Apep/Apophis in an instant,
Uraeus of Ra, the Coiled One upon his head, Who gives
orders in the barque of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt.
From the Stela of Amenmose and the
Great Hymn of Osiris:
translations in Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol II by Miriam Lichtheim
*
[Isis] served as his
protector,drove off the enemies, put a stop to the misdeed;
Removed the Enemy by power of her
spell—golden-tongued, her speech cannot fail, Skilled in command, beneficent Isis,
who rescued her brother.
She searched for him, would not give in to
her weariness,wandered about this land in mourning,
Would not take rest until she had found him.
She made him shade with her feathers, Made breeze by
fanning her wings;
Danced the Dance of Last Mooring for her brother, Tempered
the weakness of him who was weary of heart;
She received his seed, produced an heir; Brought up the
child in solitude
(the place could not be known);
Introduced him, with his arm grown sturdy, Into the court
of Geb.
*
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