THE GODDESS ISIS

The worship of Isis reached its peak in the 4^th century BC.A large temple was built on Philae, an island in the Nile where the original colour can still be seen on the columns in the hall there. After this time, the Isis cult spread through the Hellenistic world, appearing in Greece in combination with the cults of her son, Horus and father Osiris - Or Serapis in Greek. In the 1^st century BC Egypt became a province of Rome under Augustus and thus was used as a source of money and resources. The Roman domination strengthened the worship of Egyptian Gods throughout the Mediterranean world with easily identifiable gods and goddesses whose mythology provided a central belief of Life after death for a hard pressed population.

Isis was traditionally portrayed as wearing a headdress representing a throne (one of the hieroglyphs of her name) and carrying the ankh or symbol of life in her left hand and the sceptre in her right. This was drawn in the typical Egyptian manner with the head and the body from the breasts down at right angles to the viewer while the upper torso of the breasts and shoulders turned to face the audience. She was also frequently shown wearing the vulture headdress with a royal serpent on the brown. It is interesting here that the vulture is associated with the excarnation aspect of many earlier time periods and we thus have another reminder of the rebirth and regeneration aspects of Isis. In both of these forms Isis occasionally carried a lotus bud or the glyph of the sycamore tree giving aspects of regeneration again

Although Isis was one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses, her origins are uncertain. It is possible that she originated in Sinai, but she also may have been worshipped in Lower Egypt in the Delta area around Busiris which was one of the oldest known centres of Osiris worship. The cult of Isis became prominent throughout Egypt where she became a Goddess of virtually limitless attributes. Isis was known to the ancient Egyptians as Aset (or Ast, Iset or Uset) which can be translated as ‘Queen of the Throne’ or ‘female of throne’ hence the original headdress. However Plutarch suggested ‘knowledge’ was one meaning of her name, but a possible translation of a female of the flesh suggests that although she was now Queen of the Gods, she had once been mortal. Again we can trace the regeneration theme here and certainly this gives a very easy lead on to the Virgin Mary concept.

According to Martin Bernal in Black Athena there was a dominant Egyptian Priesthood which revolved around the symbolism involved with the murder of Osiris by his brother Seth. Isis carried the body back to Egypt for burial whereupon the enraged Seth or God of Destruction cut Osiris into 14 pieces. After retrieving the parts Isis performed the rite of embalming, by magically binding them with cloth strips, turned herself into a bird and by wrapping her wings around Osiris brought him to life. So we have a connection with the bird element as a symbol of life or the soul and the concept of eternal life or regeneration.

After the reincarnation of Osiris, he and Isis conceived Horus, the sun God. There is imagery of Isis suckling her son and she also guided women in childbirth with qualities of compassion and tenderness. It is interesting to note that without Osiris, it is possible that Isis would have no major significance and similarly with Dionysus and Demeter. Coming forward into our times the Virgin Mary would be insignificant without Jesus. So it could be argued that the matrilineal line of goddesses is already on the decline in its pure form. Mythological concepts and artistic improvements might be the reason for this. But something other than the Goddess, virgin or otherwise is now necessary for the regeneration of humanity.

Many links can be traced to the Greek traditions with Demeter and Dionysus showing a possibility that the Eleusinian cult of Archaic Greece was the descendant of Egyptian foundations. Egyptian faïence plaques of the style placed under the corners of temples have been found at Mycenae. According to Paul Foucart ‘there is no doubt that the centre of mystery traditions is the search for immortality and that this can only be achieved through dying.’ Ancient writers such Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and the like would have learned of the concept of immortality from Egypt.

When the Egyptian pyramids and tombs were re opened by explorers in the 1900s, much interest was created in both symbolism and artefacts. The god and goddess connections and metaphors became very prominent in modern Hermetic mystery traditions. The regeneration through death imagery became a tool of ceremonial initiation. The candidate became Osiris who gave up his normal physical life to pass through various mental trials, often using the symbolism of a vault to communicate with higher forces and faced the equivalent of his own ‘dark night of the soul’. He would then be awakened by Isis. During the ceremony the neophyte would often assume poses representative of the various Gods as taken from scenes in the Book of the Dead. For instance, the sign of Osiris Slain (Standing with feet together, arms extended at shoulder height in the form of a cross), The Sign of the Mourning Isis (The right arm is pointed upwards keeping the elbow square and the lower arm pointed downwards, again keeping the elbow square, turning the head over the left shoulder looking down so that the eyes follow the left forearm), were particularly relevant. This particular posture is reminiscent of classical poses as, for instance, that of the Capitoline Aphrodite

Technically we are dealing with a similar process to the Christian rites of crucifixion and rebirth, but the rich imagery of the Isis, Horus and Osiris story is far easier to associate with in a symbolic and ritual form.

Isis is closely associated with Nephys, her sister, and together were often used to represent Upper and Lower Egypt and also acted jointly to protect both living and dead. So we have the Isis image revolving around life through death and rebirth over the entire period of its supremacy. But finally in 535 AD Emperor Justinian closed the Temple of Isis on the Island Philae and her image there gave place to that of The Virgin Mary.

N.B. This was originally written as a final essay task for a course at Keele University extra mural department to do with the Goddess in Art: The History of an Image.