I thought you might enjoy a summary of the last lecture about Isis. I can’t upload all of the 118 slides so I chose the ones with the most relevant information, you can find links to free publications at the end of each section. Thank you for having joined me, and thank you for your ongoing support!
The Ennead Of Heliopolis
Isis was part of the Ennead of Heliopolis:
A paper you might find interesting: Massimiliano Nuzzolo, Jaromír Krejčí, Heliopolis And The Solar Cult In The Third Millennium Bc, in: Egypt and the Levant, Vol. 27 (2017), pp. 357-380.You can read the paper online for free at JSTOR once you created a free account (=> “Alternate Access Options for Independent Researchers” => Read Online”)
The Name of Isis
Link to Utterance 511: https://sacred-texts.com/egy/pyt/pyt27.htm => line 1153b, here translated as “great seat”.
Worship
Mythology
Seen here on the photo: Isis in the shape of a milvus. In front of the milvus: Isis’ name written in hieroglyphs.
Shapes
In the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts Isis occurs as a snake. Since the New Kingdom she wears the main symbols of Hathor: The horns of a cow and the sun disc together with the Uraeus snakes. One of the main roles of Isis referenced in her depictions starting in the NK is her role as the wife and protector of Osiris, standing behind him with raised or winged arms. In the Late Period Isis becomes a ruler over Scorpions, referred to as “Hedjedet”, which becomes a major topic in later magical texts.
The most popular depiction of Isis in the Late Period is Isis lactans, representing her role as the mother of a god. Isis was also depicted as a bird, referencing her role as a mourning wife. Less popular are her occurrences as a hippo, a white sow, and a tree.
Isis in Ancient Egyptian Textual Sources
- Raymond Oliver Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (1910): https://archive.org/details/ancientegyptianp0000raym => You need to create a free acount in order to online-borrow and read it.
- James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2005): https://archive.org/details/the-ancient-egyptian-pyramid-texts_202103/
- James P. Allen, A New Concordance of the Pyramid Texts (2013): https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-new-concordance-of-pyramid-texts.html
Papyrus Westcar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westcar_Papyrus
Transliteration and translation into English: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/isisandra.html
A post I wrote in German about this myth: https://www.vergleichende-mythologie.de/ueber-den-mythos-von-der-list-der-isis-die-macht-geheimer-namen-und-die-frage-wie-funktioniert-antike-magie/
Louis V. Žabkar, Hymns to Isis in her temple at Philae (1988): https://archive.org/details/hymnstoisisinher0000abka/ => here again you have to create a free account in order to being able to log in, borrow, and read the book online for free.
Louis V. Žabkar, Hymns to Isis in her temple at Philae (1988): https://archive.org/details/hymnstoisisinher0000abka/ => here again you have to create a free account in order to being able to log in, borrow, and read the book online for free.
You can read the full text here: B. P Grenfell, A. S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus papyri, part XI (1915), pp. 190 ff. https://archive.org/details/oxyrhynchuspapyr11gren/page/190/mode/2up?view=theater
Isis in the Greek and Egyptian Magical Papyri
Ritual aims in the Magical Papyri where Isis is mentioned or addressed:
Examples from the Greek Magical Papyri:
I made a video about this Magic Ring of Hermes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhzn-77GSkc
Isis in the Demotic Magical Papyri
Examples
Isis in the Coptic Magical Papyri
Examples:
More literature:
- Barbara Lesko, The great goddesses of Egypt (1999): https://archive.org/details/greatgoddessesof0000lesk
- Martin Bommas, “I Am Isis”: The Role of Speech in the Cult of Isis (2022): https://www.getty.edu/publications/egypt-classical-world/03/#fnref:13
- Svenja Nagel, Isis im Römischen Reich, 2 vols., (2019) => Not avalable for free