ISIS, the name of an Egyptian deity, the sister and wife of Osiris, called by that people Iles, daughter of Seb or Chronos, and Nu or Rhea; according to other versions. of Hermes and Rhea, born on the 4th day of the Epagomenm, or five days added to the Egyptian year of 360 days. After the murder of Osiris by Typhon, and the throwing of him in a coffin into the Tanitic mouth of the Nile on the 17th Athyr, Isis was informed of the deed by thd Pans and Satyrs, and went into mourning at Coptos; and hearing from some children where the chest had been thrown, proceeded to seek for it in company with Anubis, and discovered it inclosed in a tamarisk column in the palace of Maleander. at Byblos; and sitting down at a fountain in grief, was discovered by the ambrosial scent of her hair, and invited to the court by the queen Astarte, to nurse her children. One of these she fed with her linger, and endeavored to render immortal by placing him in flames, while she herself, under the form of a swallow, flew round the column and bemoaned her fate. Having obtained the column Isis took out the chest of Osiris, wrapped it in linen, and lamented so deeply that the youngest of the queen's sous died of fright. She then set forth with the chest and eldest son to Egypt, dried up the river Phmdrus on her way, and killed with her glances the eldest son, named Maneros, who had spied her secret grief in the desert. Having deposited the chest in a secret place she pro ceeded to Buto to horns; but Typhon discovered the chest, and divided the body into 23 or 26 portions, and scattered it over the country. These the goddess again sought,. and found, except the phallus, which had been eaten by fish; and wherever she found any of the limbs, she set up a tablet, or sent an embalmed portion, deposited in a figure, of the god, to the principal cities of Egypt, each of which subsequently claimed to be the true birthplace of Osiris. After the battle of Horus and Typhon, Isis liberated Typhon, and had her diadem torn off, and .replaced by one in the shape of a cow. She was the mother of Haroris by Osiris before her birth, and of Harpocrates after the death of Osiris. She buried Osiris at Philm. The monarch, Rhampsinitus played at dice with her in Hades. Her soul was supposed to have passed into the star Sothis or Sirius. Her worship was universal throughout Egypt; she was particularly worshiped at Philte and at Bubastis, where a special festival was celebrated to her; and her tears were supposed to cause the inundation of the Nile. Another festival was celebrated to her at the harvest.
In the monuments she is called the goddess-mother, the mistress of heaven, sister and wife of Osiris, and nurse of Horus, the mourner of her brother, the eye of the sun, and regent of the gods. In her terrestrial character, she wears upon her bead the throne which represented her name; in her celestial, the disk and horns, or tall plumes. She is often seen suckling Horus; sometimes she has the head of a cow, indicating her identity with the cow Athor, of whom the sun was born. Occasionally she is identified with other female deities, such as Pasht. On her head she wears the vulture symbol of maternity. Her attributes were assumed by the queens of Egypt, and Cleopatra sat and gave responses in the character of the youthful Isis.
The worship of Isis was introduced into Rome by Sulla (86 n.c.) front Tithorea, and shared the fate of that of other Egyptian deities, being associated with that of Serapis, Anubis, and others, and the temples from time to time destroyed. It flourished under the Flavians and Hadrian. At this time Isis was represented with a sistrum or rattle, a bucket, and a dress with a fringed border, knotted at the chest. On the Alex andrian coins, Isis appears as Pharia, before the Pharos, holding a full sail. The festi vals, seclusion, rules of chastity, attracted many followers, but the worship was not altogether considered reputable by the Romans. It was more extended and respected in Asia Minor and the provinces, but fell before Christianity (891 A.D.). Isis was wor shiped as the giver of dreams, and in the twofold character of restorer of health and inflicter of diseases. ' The myth of Isis, as given by Plutarch, appears to be a fusion of Egyptian and Phe nician traditions, and the esoterical explanations offered by that writer and others show the high antiquity and unintelligibility of her name. She was thought to mean the cause, seat, or the earth, to be the same as the Egyptian Neith or Minerva, and Athor or Venus; to be the Greek Demeter or Ceres, Hecate, or even Io. Many monuments have been found of this goddess: and a temple at Pompeii, and a hymn in her honor at Antioch. The representations of her under the Roman empire are most numerous, Isis having, in the pantheistic spirit of the age, been compared with and figured as all the prin cmal goddesses of the Pantheon.—Plutarch, De [side; Herod. ii. c. 59; Ovid, Met. ix. 776; Bunsen, Egypt's Place, i. p. 413; Wilkinson, sir G., Mann. and Oust., iii. 276, iv. 366; Birch, Gall. Ant. p. 31.