The tiet in many respects resembles an ankh, except that its arms curve down, and in all these cases seems to represent the idea of eternal life/resurrection. By the Graeco-Roman era, many of them were healers, and were said to have many other special powers, including dream interpretation and the ability to control the weather by braiding or combing their hair, the latter of which was believed because the Egyptians considered knots to have magical powers.īecause of the association between knots and magical power, a symbol of Isis was the tiet/ tyet (meaning welfare/ life), also called the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis, or the Blood of Isis. Little information on Egyptian priests of Isis survives however it is clear there were both male and female priests of her cult throughout her history. Priestess of Isis, Roman statue 2nd Century C.E. At Philae her worship persisted until the 6th century, long after the wide acceptance of Christianity- this was the last of the ancient Egyptian temples to be closed, and its fall is generally accepted to mark the end of ancient Egypt. Temples to Isis were built in Iraq, Greece, Rome, even as far north as England where the remains of a temple were discovered at Hadrian's Wall. Throughout the Graeco-Roman world, Isis becomes one of the most significant of the mystery religions, and many classical writers refer to her temples, cults and rites. During the Hellenic era, due to her attributes as a protector, and mother, and the lusty aspect originally from Hathor, she was also made the patron goddess of sailors. In many locations, particularly Byblos, her cult takes over that of worship to the Semitic goddess Astarte, apparently due to the similarity of names and associations. Temples dedicated specifically to Isis become wide-spread only in the Roman times.īy this period, temples to Isis begin to spread outside of Egypt.
However, even then Isis is not worshipped individually, but rather together with Horus and Osiris- the latter of whom being both her brother and husband, as they fell deeply in love within their mother's womb. Individual worship of Isis does not begin until as late as the 30th dynasty until that time Isis was depicted and apparently worshipped in temples of other deities. However, no traces of local Isis cults are found throughout her early history there are also no known temples dedicated to her. Most Egyptian deities started off as strictly local, and throughout their history retained local centers of worship, with most major cities and towns widely known as the hometowns to their deities. Sometimes they may also say ee-sa because the final 't' in her name was a feminine suffix which is known to have been dropped in speech during the last stages of the Egyptian language. Later, the name survived into Coptic dialects as Ēse or Ēsi, as well as in compound words surviving in names of later people like Har-si-Ese, literally "Horus, son of Isis".įor convenience and arbitrarily, Egyptologists choose to pronounce the word as ee-set. Based on recent studies which present us with approximations based on contemporary languages and Coptic evidence, the reconstructed pronunciation of her name is * ʔŪsat (ooh-saht). However the true Egyptian pronunciation remains uncertain because their writing system omitted vowels. The Egyptian name was recorded as ỉs.t or ȝs.t and meant '(She of the) Throne'. The English pronunciation used for this deity, /ˈaɪ.sɪs/), is an anglicized pronunciation of the Greek name, Ίσις, which itself changed the original Egyptian name by the addition of a final -s because of the grammatical requirements of Greek noun endings. Pockets of her worship remained in Christian Europe as late as the 6th century. It eventually spread outside Egypt throughout the Middle East and Europe, with temples dedicated to her built as far away as the British Isles. First mentions of Isis date back to the Fifth dynasty of Egypt which is when the first literary inscriptions are found, but her cult became prominent late in Egyptian history, when it began to absorb the cults of many other goddesses. Her origins are uncertain but are believed to have come from the Nile Delta however, unlike other Egyptian deities, she did not have a centralised cult at any point throughout her worship. mortal, and she may simply have represented deified, historical queens.
However, the hieroglyph for her name originally meant (female) of flesh, i.e. Queen of the throne, which was portrayed by the emblem worn on her head, that of a throne. Her name literally means (female) of throne, i.e. She was most prominent mythologically as the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, and was worshipped as the archetypical wife and mother.