Isis was originally an independent Egyptian goddess in the predynastic era in the Nile Delta, prior to 3100 BCE. She was daughter of Geb (Father Earth) and Nut (Mother Sky). She was brought into the Heliopolitan tradition with Osiris, Set, and Horus. She was a great Mother Goddess and Savior. She is portrayed with her brother-husband Osiris, or having large wings and a crown of a disc between cow’s horns, or seated as a mother suckling her infant son Horus, the archetypal origin of all Pharaohs. She protected children and could appear as a kite bird (Fig. 1). There are various versions of their mythology, and this is a condensed one.
Isis with wings of one of her forms, a kite bird. (Art courtesy of the author, 2002. Public Domain)
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Ions, V. (1965). Egyptian mythology. London: Hamlyn Publishing.
Isis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis. Accessed 8 Jun 2012.
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Bailey, L.W. (2020). Isis. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_9067
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