| Isis Biography |
| Isis is the first daughter of Nut
and Geb and was born in the swamps of the Delta on the fourth intercalary
day. Osiris, her eldest brother, chose her as his consort and she mounted
the throne of Egypt with him. She helped him in his great work of
civilizing Egypt by teaching women to grind corn, spin flax and weave cloth. She also
taught men the art of curing disease and, by instituting marriage, accustomed them to
domestic life. When Isis's husband departed on his pacific conquest, she remained in Egypt as regent. Upon his return he was assassinated by their brother. The violent Set trapped him in an ornate chest and cast it into the Nile which took it out to sea (see story of Osiris). Overcome with grief Isis cut off her hair, tore her robes, and set forth in search of the chest. After some time Isis discovered that the chest containing Osiris had floated to the coast of Byblos. There it had lodged in the branches of a tree which had quickly grown around the chest. The King of Byblos was so amazed by the tree that he had it cut down and made into a pillar for his royal palace. Isis went to the King and persuaded him to let her have the body of Osiris. She bore it back to Egypt where, fearful of Set, she hid in the swamps of Buto. The goddess then used her magic to bring the body of Osiris back to life. It was during this brief restoration to life that they conceived their son Horus. Unfortunately, Set discovered them and in order to annihilate Osiris forever cut him into fourteen pieces which he scatter far and wide. Isis, undiscouraged, searched for the precious fragments and found them all except the phallus which had been greedily devoured by a Nile Crab. She reproduced the fourteenth part (the phallus) in gold and with the help of Thoth, her sister Nephthys, and her nephew Anubis reconstituted the body of Osiris. She then performed, for the first time in history, the rites of embalmment which restored the murdered god to eternal life. Afterwards she retired to the swamps of Buto to escape the wrath of Set and to bring up her son Horus until the day when he should be of an age to avenge his father. Thanks to her magic powers Horus was able to overcome every danger which threatened him. Isis is normally represented as a woman who bears on her head a throne, the ideogram of her name. Occasionally, but later, her headdress is a disk, set between cow’s horns, occasionally flanked with two feathers. She is often represented with the winged arms of Sistrum who helps and protects Osiris. In a famous inscription carved on a column at Nysa, Isis described herself as follows: "I am Isis, mistress of the whole land. I was instructed by Hermes, and with Hermes I invented the writings of the nations … I am the wife and sister of the King Osiris. I am she who rises in the dog star. I am she who is called the goddess of women … I am she who separated the heaven from the earth. I have pointed out their paths to the stars. I have invented seamanship … I first made known to mortals the use of wheat … With my brother Osiris I made an end of cannibalism… I have caused man to love woman. I have made justice more powerful than silver and gold. I have caused the truth to be considered beautiful …" |
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