Isis: An Egyptian Goddess Spreads Her Wings Across Europe

Isis, An Egyptian Goddess Who Spread Her Wings Across Europe

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...Isis-egypt.jpg

When the Romans entered Egypt they saw a land of magnificent temples, impressive and monumental statues, and symbolism they did not understand. The Greeks felt the same when they explored the country near the Nile. The beauty and mysterious smile of Isis stole the hearts of many non-Egyptian visitors, who decided to bring her idolization abroad and make her an important figure in many parts of Europe and Asia.

Isis was one of the most important deities of Ancient Egypt. She was Osiris’ wife and an archetype of the good wife and mother. The goddess was a patron of nature and magic and a helper who supported women and their families. Isis was one of the most embraced deities, and her cult was so open that almost every person could find a reason to follow her.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...les/Isis_0.jpg

The Goddess Expands Her Wings

Temples to Isis have been discovered in many parts of the Roman Empire, including Rome, Pompeii, Spain, and the Greek Islands. Most of them come from the 1st or 2nd century AD, suggesting that the goddess became popular outside Egypt after the collapse of the last Egyptian pharaoh – Cleopatra VII. The descriptions of the palace where the pharaoh lived contains some suggestions showing her as a queen-goddess associated with Isis. However, it is unclear if Cleopatra was responsible for bringing Isis to Rome.

The Roman Empire later became a conduit for the European fame of the goddess Isis.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...ue-of-Isis.jpg

Roman statue of Isis holding a sistrum and an oinochoe. Capitoline Museum. ( Public Domain )

Isis also became popular in Greco-Roman temples. Apart from the temples in Alexandria, including the Roman ones dedicated to the trinity of Isis: Isis, Serapis, and Herpocrates, there were temples dedicated to the goddess in other parts of the Mediterranean Sea, like on Delos, a Greek island. According to ancient mythology, Delos island is the birthplace of the Greek goddess Artemis and the god Apollo as well. The temple of Isis was built as the third of the most popular temples on the island.

The temple of Isis in Pompeii is famous for being well-preserved, and there are recordings in other places of a cult to the goddess in London too. One of the most surprising places of the Isis cult was an ancient Roman city called Iria Flavia, the current city of Padron, very close to Santiago de Compostela in Spanish Galicia. Researchers usually believe that it was an area dominated by the deities of Rome and pre-Roman cultures including the Celts.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...?itok=Iqu2wLCG

Mural showing Io being welcomed into Egypt by Isis. Roman fresco from the temple of Isis in Pompeii. ( Public Domain )

According to Francesco Tiraditti:

“Except for some slight changes added by popular tradition, the story of the death and resurrection of Osiris remained unchanged until the Roman Period and beyond it. The myth was rewritten by Plutarch (45 – 125 AD) n a book entitled ''De Iside et Osiride''. According to Plutarch, he had written this work when he was a priest in Delphes (around 100 AD). The introduction was dedicated to Clea, an Isiac priestess who was a friend of the author. The role of Isis, which had been consolidated by a long tradition, remained unchanged in Plutarch's narration. However, the episode in which the coffin containing Osiris's remains was thrown into the sea by Seth and reached Byblos is known only by Plutarch. The Plutarch's version of the myth of Osiris in the literary source had the greatest influence in the western world, especially during the Renessaince. For example Pinturicchio's decoration of the Sala dei Santi of the Borgia apartment in the Vatican Palace, was totally influenced by Plutarch's legend.”

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...?itok=mXDttL2z

It That Isis or Mary with Her Divine Child?

Researchers also unearthed a few artifacts related to the ancient Egyptian civilization in the territory of what is now Poland. The most unexpected items were the statuettes of the goddess Isis. According to different resources, researchers found two or even three examples like this during the 19th century. Unfortunately, these artifacts were lost during World War II. However, the descriptions and some photographs allow one to suppose that there was a fascinating story behind these artifacts. It seems that they were not just souvenirs which had arrived to central Europe from a faraway land.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...Isis-egypt.jpg

One of the bronze statues discovered in Western Poland had the horns and solar disc of Isis cut off in a very precise way. Why did someone cut off these characteristics? It's easy to explain. During the period of early Christianity in central Europe, people noticed a similarity between Isis with Horus- Hapocrates and Mary with Jesus.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...?itok=BLNiQ3ia

An 1888 drawing of a statue of Isis and Horus. ( Public Domain ) The Nursing Madonna by unknown master from Bruges, 16th century. Museu de Aveiro, Portugal. ( Public Domain )

It was also a period when a statuette was very costly to make, so those who sold such items started to recycle the ancient figurines. They began to cut off the horns with the solar disc of Isis, so they could receive a ready to sell product – a wonderful statuette of Mary with her child Jesus.

The “new” statue was perhaps described as an object which will bring good luck, peace, and blessings to one’s home. This process could have been common in other parts of Europe as well. However, some of the researchers before World War II wondered if it was possible that the cult of Isis arrived to the current territory of Poland on its own.
The Tale of the Goddess Holds Strong

The goddess Isis is one of the most mysterious and revered deities of ancient Egypt. There are some records which prove her cult also existed in Asia, for example traces of the goddess have been discovered in India. Moreover, her name remained in Europe – hidden in the name Isidor (Greek Isidoros and Isidora), meaning the ''gift of Isis''. It was the name of a few Christian saints, and a very popular name especially during the middle ages. It is actually still in use. Isis became an icon of pop culture and remains one of the symbols of Egypt even today.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites...?itok=6FTgxoaU

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancie...06377/page/0/1

After the birth of Epaphus Isis is associated with Io/Demeter because of her wanderings and her search for Epaphus.

Apoll. 2.1.3] Zeus seduced Io the daughter of Inachus while she held the priesthood of Hera, but being detected by Hera he by a touch turned Io into a white cow and swore that he had not known her; wherefore Hesiod remarks that lover's oaths do not draw down the anger of the gods. But Hera
requested the cow from Zeus for herself and set Argus the All-seeing to guard it. Pherecydes says that this Argus was a son of Arestor; but Asclepiades says that he was a son of Inachus, and Cercops says that he was a son of Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus; but Acusilaus says that he was earth-born. He tethered her to the olive tree which was in the grove of the Mycenaeans. But Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, and as Hermes could not do it secretly because Hierax had blabbed, he killed Argus by the cast of a stone; whence he was called Argiphontes. Hera next sent a gadfly to infest the cow, and the animal came first to what is called after her the Ionian gulf. Then she journeyed through Illyria and having traversed Mount Haemus she crossed what was then called the Thracian Straits but is now called after her the Bosphorus. And having gone away to Scythia and the Cimmerian land she wandered over great tracts of land and swam wide stretches of sea both in Europe and Asia until at last she came to Egypt, where she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son Epaphus beside the river Nile. Him Hera besought the Curetes to make away with, and make away with him they did. When Zeus learned of it, he slew the Curetes; but Io set out in search of the child. She roamed all over Syria, becaus there it was revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblus was nursing her son; and having found Epaphus she came to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who then reigned over the Egyptians. And she set up an image of Demeter, whom the Egyptians called Isis, and Io likewise they called by the name of Isis.

Io was the daughter of Inachus the king of Argos. She was taken to Assyria where she gave birth and then to Egypt in 1667 BC and became the wife of the Hyksos Pharaoh Telegonus, who in Hieroglyphic inscriptions which have been found in Crete, Egypt and Babylon is called Keyan. (In the time in question the Linear A letter for K also represented G). Her son Epaphus became Pharaoh of Egypt after Telegonus and according to Manetho and to Egyptians inscriptions was Apepi I.

I am almost entirely certain that it can be nuked.

Yes ISIS and the virgin mary and yes we've all seen the Zeitgeist film ect

This is the typical Roman way (adopting Gods and Goddesses used in other Religions from defeated populations)

In Pompeii:

https://holeinthedonut.com/wp-conten...le-of-Isis.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Isis_(Pompeii)

I like the Isis verion on Smite :amour101:

http://n-gamz.com/wp-content/uploads...smite-isis.jpg

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Originally Posted by MinervaItalica

This is the typical Roman way (adopting Gods and Goddesses used in other Religions from defeated populations)

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The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon because of the Trojans and Arcadians and because both Italy and Greece was ruled by Uranus and Cronos (Saturn).

Isis in Roman mythology is derived from Phrygia by Temaetes after the Tyrehennians colonized Northern Italy. It was they who brought the cult to Italy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeerBaron

I am almost entirely certain that it can be nuked.

Yes ISIS and the virgin mary and yes we've all seen the Zeitgeist film ect

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The Zeitgeist film does a disservice to the truth and to scholarship because most of the claims made in the religion portion of that film are erroneous. While Christianity is an amalgam of second temple Judaism (blood sacrifice to atone for sins) with Mediterranean dying and resurrecting god cults, the myths of those many god-men do not match the story of Christ exactly. Erroneous scholarship only serves as firepower for Christian apologist idiots.

The Greco-Roman pantheon borrowed heavily from the Phoenicians and Egyptians. The same deities were worshipped by many cultures. Often when these various cultures would clash they would assimilate all the various gods from the other culture. So the same goddess figure would end up being duplicated in a culture where two different versions were treated as distinct. Rinse and repeat until by the time of the Roman Empire they had a pantheon of several hundred gods, most of which were just dupes of each other.

The Egyptian deities on the other hand had all kinds of crazy connections to one another and didn't really exist in isolation. For example, Isis is a uraeus upon the brow of Ra. But she is also sister to Nephthys and Set (whose life she spared in spite of his apparent treachery), and the saviour of Osiris, all of which is bound up in an elaborate myth that touches on everything from the annual renewal of agriculture to kingly succession.

So the same goddess figure from ancient Levantine cultures, known as Isis to the Egyptians, Ashtoreth to the Assyrians, and Ishtar/Inana/Astarte to the Phoenicians. All the same as Venus, Diana and so on. If you trace it back there's just one. The scarlet lady on the back of the beast.

The early churches in Asia existed at the peak of Isis and/or Artemis worship, and a big part of the economy was selling statues of these goddesses. Every home was expected to have a goddess statue and it was a huge industry.

The Apostles were chased out of Ephesus when they condemned idolatry. Selling silver statues of a maternal goddess was a huge industry and a local silversmith formed a mob to drive out the Christians. Accepting Christianity would have crippled the local economy. This was accurately described in Acts 19 (Paul in Ephesus).

By accepting Mary and allowing statues of her to be sold as an alternative to the statues of Artemis solved this problem, but it took two centuries for the church to sort it out. This was the biggest economic obstacle for the church in Asia Minor in the 2nd through 4th centuries. Early Christianity had a significant goddess worship element in the form of Mary Magdalene as represented by the apocryphal gospels which were eventually suppressed and became non-canonical after the Council of Nicaea.

Even Judaism and Islam have a strong patriarchal "deity" that is opposed to the worship of Kore or Isis. The reason why pigs are forbidden in Semitic cultures is that they were the main animal used in sacrifices to the Goddess Kore or Persephone or Isis in ancient Palestine. Animal sacrifices, according to Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire were the heart and soul of ancient pagan religion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sean

The Greco-Roman pantheon borrowed heavily from the Phoenicians and Egyptians. The same deities were worshipped by many cultures. Often when these various cultures would clash they would assimilate all the various gods from the other culture. So the same goddess figure would end up being duplicated in a culture where two different versions were treated as distinct. Rinse and repeat until by the time of the Roman Empire they had a pantheon of several hundred gods, most of which were just dupes of each other.

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Only the structure of the Greek Pantheon was similar to that of Egypt's. But the Greek deities themselves had different qualities. Isis here for example is paralleled with Athena. But Isis is the deity of the afterlife, while Athena is the goddess of wisdom, handicraft and warfare. They're equalled according to their importance. Just that. Because their qualities are completely different. Even their appearance. The parallels are all about ranking in each Pantheon.