It is said that the annual Nile flood was caused by a teardrop from the eye of Isis as she mourned the death of Osiris. So powerful was this festival that it is still held sacred by Moslems and called Lelat al-Nuktah. In honor of the upcoming Night of the Teardrop, (June 16) here are 13 of the many names and attributes of the goddess Isis.
1. Queen of Heaven2. Giver of all life
3. Mother of the Gods
4. Star of the Sea
5. Great Lady of Magic
6. Oldest of the Old
7. the One who is All
8. Mata-Meri or Mari (yes Mother Mary is a manifestation of Isis!)
9. Destiny
10. Lady of Green Crops
11. Lady of the Words of Power
12. She Who Knows How to Make Right Use of the Heart
13. and lastly an ancient hymn to Isis from V. F. Vanderlip's The Four Greek Hymns of Isidorus and the Cult of Isis
Giver of wealth, Queen of the gods, Lady Hermouthis,
Ruler of All, Good Fortune, Isis of the Great Name,
exalted Deo, Discoverer of all life,
You put Your hand to mighty works of all kinds, so as to give
life and an ordered society to all mankind,
You introduced laws so that there might be a measure of justice,
You revealed sciences so that men might live decently,
You discovered the flowering nature of all fruitful plants.
For You the sky came into being, the whole earth,
the breath of the breezes, the Sun with its welcome radiance.
By Your power the streams of the Nile are all filled full
at the summer season, and its water pours turbulent
over the whole land so that the crop may never fail.
All mortals who live on the limitless earth,
Thracians, Greeks, and foreigners as well,
utter Your Glorious Name which all honor,
each in his own language, each in his own land.
Syrians call You Astarte, Artemis, Nanaea,
the tribes of Lycia call you Queen Leto,
men in Thrace call you Mother of the Gods,
Greeks call you Hera of the lofty throne, and Aphrodite,
kindly Hestia, Rheia, and Demeter.
Egyptians call you Thiouis because You, being One, are all
the other goddesses named by all peoples.
My Lady, I shall not stop hymning your Mighty Power,
Immortal Saviour, goddess of the many names, almighty Isis,
rescuing from war cities and all of their citizens,
men, their wives, possessions and dear children.
All who are held in the destiny of Death, all in bondage,
all who are racked with pain which will not let them sleep,
all men journeying in a foreign country,
all who sail on the great sea in stormy weather,
when ships are wrecked and men lose their lives
all these find salvation if they pray for Your present help.
Hear my prayers, You whose Name has Mighty Power,
be propitious to me and free me from all affliction.
A postscript to this post - thanks to a comment by MeritAset
I was enlightened by the information that the photo above is of Hathor. The traditional Isis (Aset) is crowned with a throne as illustrated in photo on left.
Photo from www.africawithin.com
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5 comments:
Hi Lexa- thought you might like a chuckle...i have a silly Friday post. just so you know, its all in fun-I actually have deep respect for those with the gift. Hope you enjoy the humor of Dr Wang's summit.
have a good weekend!
Rick
Interesting post! We're going to be studying Ancient Egypt next year in our homeschool & I always found the subject fascinating :-)
Very interesting!
Would love to know more.
Have a good weekend.
Your picture is of HetHert (Hathor) not Aset (Isis). Aset has a throne as a headdress and HetHert has the cow horns. Aset and Hethert were syncretized by the Romans when the Ptolemies took over Egypt in the Late Kingdom.
From a Shemsu of Aset and another Lexa.
another Lexa! Well that's most interesting. Thank you for the clarification and in a way, the photo goes along with the theme of my post, which was that the Goddess has many names and many manifestations all fused together. Here is a quote from Barbara Walker's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: "Isis and her dark twin sister Nephthys were Egyptian versions of the familiar creating-and-destroying Goddess, Mother of Life and Crone of Death. Egyptians called her by many names: Mut, Hathor, Bast, Maat, Heqit, Sekhmet, Sati, Neith, etc." I do however appreciate your knowledge of the sacred details and differences between the aspects of the Goddess. Blessed Be. Lexa
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