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Wife of Osiris, who was god of renewed life.
Isis was a principal deity throughout Egyptian mythology
and adopted by the Greeks to whom she represented many qualities in
their own goddesses. She was also a teacher of spinning, weaving, healing,
and many other arts.
When the chief god, Ra, became old, lsls tricked
him into telling her his secret name through which he held his power.
She fashioned a snake which bit the ageing Ra so badly none of the gods
were able to help him. Knowing the nature of the venom, Isis offered
to cure him in return for the knowledge of his secret name.
Despite this, lsls was principally worshipped as
a mother goddess and, with her sister Nephthys, their outstretched wings
encompass and protected the dead inside their coffin lids and tombs.
There are many stories relating to lsis, Osiris and Horus, their son,
who formed a powerful trinity in Egyptian religion and art.
After Osiris was murdered by Seth, their evil brother,
and his a dismembered remains scattered, Isis gathers them up and, with
the aid of Anubis, Nephthys, Thoth and many spells, restores Osiris
sufficiently for him to father Horus.
Isis is sometimes depicted with a cow’s head,
though the cow was also strongly identified with another goddess, Hathor.
More usually Isis is shown wearing a disc set between two cow horns
or two feathers and often represented seated, holding the infant Horus.
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