Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [43]
Based on the seemingly timeless, crucial, and annual pattern of the flooding of the Nile, this was an elemental myth in Egyptian history. Osiris represented growth and life, and Seth represented death. The forces of vegetation and creation—symbolized by Osiris, Isis, and Horus—triumphed over the evil forces of the desert, symbolized by Seth. But, more significant, with the help of Isis, Osiris had cheated death. The Egyptians believed that if Osiris could triumph over death, so could human beings.
Over the centuries, the beguiling Isis became the most significant goddess in the Egyptian pantheon—mother of god, healer, the powerful goddess with deep knowledge of magical arts and sexual power. In one legend, Isis tricked the aging Re into confiding his secret names to her. Using magic to create a snake that bit Re, Isis healed the god only after he revealed all of these names to her. With this knowledge, Isis acquired unmatched skills in magic and healing. In Egyptian, her name is related to the word for “throne,” and she is often depicted in Egyptian art as a throne for the king. In Greece, Isis would become identified with Demeter—the Mother Earth, or Grain Mother of Greek myth (see chapter 4)—and she became even more popular in Imperial Rome. Temples devoted to the worship of Isis were built in every corner of the Roman Empire, including one discovered beneath the streets of modern London. The image of Isis suckling the infant Horus, one of the most familiar themes in Egyptian art, was later adopted by early Christians to represent the Virgin Mary. The traditional blue dress of the Virgin Mary, the title Stella Maris (Star of the Sea), the reference to Mother of God, and the symbol of the crescent moon associated with Mary were all borrowed from the Roman cult of Isis.
While very ancient Egyptian papyruses and other works of art serve as sources for the Isis-Osiris myth, it was best known to the Greeks and Romans as it was recorded in a volume called Concerning Isis and Osiris by Plutarch (c. 40–120 CE), a Greek biographer and essayist best known for his work Parallel Lives of Illustrious Greeks and Romans. Born in Greece, Plutarch studied philosophy in Athens and later lectured on this subject in Rome. After travels through Greece, Italy, and Egypt, he returned to Greece as a priest of Apollo at Delphi, and it is believed that he wrote his great works there. Drawing on earlier sources, Plutarch retold the Isis story, giving Greek names to the Egyptian gods. In his version, Horus became the Greek Apollo and Seth became the Greek Typhon, a serpentlike monster who appears in Greek myth (and the source of the word “typhoon”).
What did Christians think of Isis?
The story of Isis and Osiris—which shares some features with the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna and Dumuzi (see chapter 3) and may even be historically related to it—eventually reached far beyond Egypt. First adopted by the Greeks and later the Romans, it evolved into a significant story of a resurrected deity who promised salvation, and Isis and Osiris became the central figures in the “mystery religions” that flourished in the first century before the rise of Christianity. In A History of God, Karen Armstrong describes how these “Oriental cults” found a ready audience in the international empire that Rome had become by the first century. “The old gods seem petty and inadequate,” Armstrong writes in a description that almost seems befitting modern times and fascination with so-called New Age religions of our times. “They were looking for new spiritual solutions, [and] deities like Isis…were worshipped alongside the traditional