Egyptian Mythology, p 55.
It was told how, at a time when she was living on earth as a woman and was full of charm and persuasion, she tired of her existence among mankind and wished to be among the gods and stars. She wondered if she could not become sovereign over the earth and mistress of all the goddesses, and she hoped to extort this position from Ra by learning his secret name. Connected in the Egyptian mind with beliefs in magic incantations or spells was the idea that the knowledge of a person's name gave one power over that person--either because it revealed the key to his identity (indeed the person was inseparable from the name), or because it made it possible to recite spells against them.
Isis took advantage of the fact that Ra was now old and dribbled from the mouth. With the spittle that fell to the ground and the dust that adhered to it, she modelled a viper and place it across Ra's daily path through the Two Lands. Next day, when Ra strode by, the viper bit him. The fire departed from Ra and he let forth a great cry which brought all the gods to his side. The mighty god could not cure himself of a wound inflicted by a creature he had not made, and none of Ra's children could help him--they could only bewail his lot.
Isis now approached him, seemingly innocent, and asked him solicitously what had happened. "Has a snake poisoned you? Can it be that one of your own creatures has turned to strike at You? I shall conquer it with my spells! I shall make it recoil at the sight of your majesty!" Then Ra explained how he had been attacked by a serpent as he was making his usual daily journey, and told Isis what fearful pain he was in. 'It is not fire; it is not water. For I am colder than water and I am hotter than fire, and all my body sweats. I shiver and my eye trembles so that I cannot see the sky.' Isis replied, "Tell me your name, divine father, for a man lives when his name is pronounced.' So Ra answered: 'I am the creator of the earth and of the mountains and of all that is upon the earth. I made the water and I made the sky and I placed the soul of the gods therein. When I open my eyes daylight appears, and when I shut them the night falls. At my command the mysterious waters of the Nile burst forth. I created the hours and the days. I give the signal for the festivals of the year and make the river. I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at midday and Atum in the evening.' But this did not cure Ra, for he still had not told his secret name.
Isis insisted that she could do nothing until he confided his real name. As soon as he told her this she would be able to cure him. At last Ra realised that there was no alternative but to give in to Isis. Therefore, hiding himself from the other gods, he caused the secret name to pass directly from his own bosom into that of Isis, at the same time forbidding her to reveal it to anyone other than her son Horus. Isis then called her son, telling him that Ra had promised to give up his two eyes to him, and only then did she exorcise the poison.
Egyptian Mythology p 61-62.
Isis or (Eset) was also originally an independent and popular deity whose followers were established in pre-dynastic times in the northern Delta at Sebennytos. But like Osiris, and for the same reasons, Isis was brought mythologically into the Heliopolitan system. She too eventually absorbed deities of the Heliopolitan pantheon, and was ultimately to be identified or confused with all the goddesses as a great mother-goddess.
She was early said to be the wife of Osiris, god of the neighbouring western Delta, and her name, meaning 'seat' was taken to signify that she personified the throne of Osiris.Daughter of Geb and Nut and born on the fourth intercalary day, she was said to have borne Horus by union with Osiris either while still in the womb herself, or after the death of Osiris.
Isis was chiefly venerated for the part she played after the death of Osiris. Her role in the myth of Osiris during his reign on earth is small: we know simply that she married her brother,and helped him in his civilising mission by instituting marriage and teaching women the domestic arts of corn-grinding, flax-spinning and weaving. According to some, however, as mother-goddess she taught Osiris the practice of agriculture. Her early character as the Great Enchantress was reflected in her magic powers and in her knowledge of the arts of medicine, which with the help of Thoth she taught mankind. During her husband's absence on his civilising mission, she goverend Egypt wisely and kept close watch on her scheming brother Set.
Soon after the return of Osiris, Set invited him to a banquet at which he displayed a beautiful chest specially constructed to fit the king. As if for a joke, Set offered to give the chest to whichever guest could lie down in it. Several tried unsuccessfully, and then Osiris was persuaded to try. As soon as Osiris had climbed into it, Set and his fellow-conspirators closed the lid and nailed it down. They then weighted the chest with lead and cast it into the Nile.
When she heard the news, Isis put on widow's weeds, cut off half her hair and, weeping, set off to recover the chest and the body of her husband. She wandered through the land, asking everyone she met if they had seen the chest, and eventually came across some children who told her that they had seen it drifting towards the sea along the Tanitic branch of the Nile. Divine revelation now informed Isis that the chest had been carried across the sea to Byblos in Phoenicia where it had been washed ashore at the foot of a tamarisk tree. This tree had grown round the chest, enclosing it completely. The king of Byblos, Malacander, admiring the great size of the tree, had it cut down and used as a piller in his palace.
Isis went to Byblos. The queen, Astarte, had recently given birth to a son and Isis made friends with her maids. The maids returned to the palace imbued with the heavenly scent of Isis, and Astarte, noticing this, asked for her to be summoned. She appointed Isis to be nurse to her newborn son.
Isis attempted to use her powers to confer immortality on the child, sucking it with only her finger and, at night, singeing it with a sacred purifying flame in order to burn away the mortal qualities of his body. But one day the queen surprised her new nurse, who in the form of a swallow was flying round and round the great tree. Her cries of alarm broke he spell and the chance of immortality for her son was irretrievably lost.
The goddess now revealed her true identity, and the king gave her the pillar. She immediately cut away the tamarisk and revealed the chest; she then fell upon it, wailing so loudly that the newborn child died at the sound. The king nevertheless provided Isis with a ship in which to return with the chest to Egypt, and sent his elder son to accompany her. As soon as she was embarked she opened the chest and gave vent to a fresh access of grief. The boy, wondering, approached her, but she turned on his with such fury that he died of fright--or according to some, fell backwards into the sea.
One reason for the violence of her grief was the fact that Isis had borne Osiris no son, so that there was no heir to the throne to defeat the purposes of Set. By her magic, however, Isis was able to conceive by her dead husband, some said whileshe was perched in the form of a kite mourning over his body.{back}
On her return to Egypt, Isis hid in the Delta marshes near Buto, in order to conceal from Set both the recovery of Osiris's body and the fact that she was expecting a child. Set, however, discovered the coffer by chance while out hunting by moonlight in the marshes. He recognized the body of his dead brother, tore it into fourteen parts and scattered them throughtout the kingdom.
Isis patiently began another search for her husband's body and, finding the parts one by one, preserved them carefully. At the place where each was found she held a funeral and set up a stela, hoping that Set would believe that the parts had really been buried in separate places. She found them all exceptthe phallus, which Set had cast into the Nile, where it had been eaten by the Nile crab, which for this reason was accursed. But Isis modelled another and reconstituted the body of her husband, anointing it with precious oils. She thus performed the rites of embalmment for the first time, and thereby restored Osiris to eternal life, for it was always considered in Egypt that eternal life for the soul depended on the preservation intact of the physical body. She was assisted in her task by her sister Nephthys and, according to some versions, by Anubis, Thoth, Horus and even the four sons of Horus. (Such inconsistencies were of course due to la ter accretions and the growth in importance of Osirian beliefs.)
Egyptian Mythology, p 58-59.
ISIS Literally, she who weeps. Principal goddess of the Egyptian pantheon. Daughter of Qeb and Nut, sister of Nepthys; sister- wife of Osiris; virgin-mother of Horus, who was conceived after the death of his father Osiris. Thus Isis, the moon, was wife and mother of the sun. A faithful wife, she ruled over Egypt while he traveled abroad. When he was murdered and dismembered by Set she searched the land for the fourteen parts of his body that Set had scattered. She found and buried all the parts except the reproductive organs, and for this reason vegetation ceased to grow. She was doomed to wander cheerlessly on earth for the last fragments of her husbands body. On her search she was accompanied by seven scorpions, which protected her. Her first tears (dew) for the dead Osiris fell into the Nile to begin the inundation which brought about the food supply. In one legend she was a mortal, an enchantress and magician, who wished to become a deity. She obtained some spittle of Ra and mixed it with earth, which she molded into a snake and left in Ra's path. The snake bit Ra and in agony he called for help. Isis refused to help him unless he revealed his sacred or secret name. He tried to deceive her but the pain continued until he yielded to her request. This knowledge gave her the power to demand immortality. See Name. The soul of Isis was believed to reside in Sirius, the dog star. She was revered as the Great Mother; giver of barley and wheat and teacher of agriculture; goddess of medicine and wisdom; lady of the waters, patroness of sailors. Among her many titles were: Lady of the Beginning, Lady of the Emerald, Lady of the Turquoise, Mother of God, Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea. At Bubastes she was worshiped under the name of Sekhet; at Dendera she absorbed the attributes of Hathor the Cow; at Thebes she was called Mut. Her emblems were the ankh, crescent, disk, ear of wheat, horns of a cow, staff, pear, sistrum, thet, vase. Sacred to her were the duck, scorpion, sow, swallow, white heifer. The hieroglyph of her name was a throne, indicating she originally personified the throne from which the king arose or was born. In art she appears as a mother suckling her son Horus, who is on her lap; with a crown surmounted by a disk and cow's horns; as a queen standing on a crescent moon surrounded by twelve stars; as a hippopotamus; as a white heifer; as a serpent. Isis and Nephthys, the sisters and wives of Osiris, who mourned his death, were represented by two women at actual funeral services in ancient Egypt. The name Isis is from the same root as Ursa, and Plutarch interpreted it1 to mean knowledge. Isis has been identified with Ashtoreth, lo, Ishtar and other virgin mothers. Milton in Paradise Lost places her among the fallen angels.