She taught women how to grind corn and make bread, spin flax and weave cloth…
and how to tame men enough to live with them…
She may be the most important Goddess in the pantheon of ancient Gods. The Legend of Osiris tells about her:
She was a sister to the two opposite Gods – Osiris and Seth. And she was a loving wife to Osiris the same time. Their brother Seth, immensely jealous, murdered Osiris by tricking him into stepping into a beautiful box made of cedar, ebony and ivory. Seth then sealed it up to become a coffin and threw it into the river. The river carried the box out to sea; it washed up in another country, resting in the upper boughs of a tamarisk tree when the waters receded. As time passed, the branches covered the box, encapsulating the god in his coffin in the trunk of the tree...
She found the coffin and brought it for the proper burial. But Seth murdered Osiris once again...this time hacking his body into 14 pieces and throwing them in different directions knowing that they would be eaten by the crocodiles… She searched and searched, accompanied by seven scorpions who assisted and protected her. Each time she found new pieces, she rejoined them to re-form his body…But she could only recover thirteen of the pieces, so she made the fourteen one from clay…She changed herself into a bird and flew about his body, singing a song of mourning. Then she perched upon him and cast a spell with the help of Toth, the God of Wizdom and Magic…the spirit of dead Osiris then entered her and she conceived a son. She called the child Horus…
Together with Toth she taught man the secrets of magic and medicine. She may have been even more powerful than Ra and Osiris. She tricked Ra's secret name out of him to gain his power…
Yet she is never shown as selfish or cruel, except to those who would harm those she loves. Power and compassion, crafty but merciful, she represents all the qualities of women…
Her name is – Isis.
Many beautiful myths exist about this amazing Goddess…Her cult was widely spread in ancient Egypt. Many temples built to worship her. But one of the biggest Temple of Isis would be undoubtedly the Philae Temple in Aswan. According to the myth, this was the place, where Isis found the heart of the murdered Osiris. The Temple is on an island in the middle of a Nile. Although that wasn’t its original location – when the Aswan dam was built, the Philae Island submerged into waters. Luckily Egyptians managed to move the Ancient Temple to another island nearby.
The site is beautiful. Magnificent colonnade around the huge courtyard, leading to the main Temple…Small shrines dedicated to various Gods and Kings…The strange feeling of peace and serenity, despite of the crowds of tourists…I don’t know if it was for the fact, that this was my first cult Temple, that I entered, or because of that special aura around the place, where illusions of ancient processions for cult offerings, soundless footsteps of the priestess moving around, were so "real", it seemed like you’ve been taken back in time…Isis Temple in Philae impressed me with her simple yet majestic structures, strongly geometrical shapes and yet refined mouldings and paintings on the walls…
Unfortunately, there is no an easy way to it from Aswan. Since the temple located on an island, you need to take a boat and it takes time to find one and to bargain the price. We went to Philae twice. First time we were with a small group that we shared the minibus with, when went to the Abu Simbel the same morning (a story for later) and on our way back we had only one hour left to spend in the Temple. That’s the drawback of being with a tour group – never enough time for the site.
So next morning we just took a taxi and went to Philae again, just ourselves this time. And we’ve spent there all morning. Doing what exactly? Well, just walking in the halls and chambers of the main temple, accidentally finding spots where there were no wondering fellow tourists…Just sat in a coolness under the shade of gigantic columns…thinking?...dreaming?...absorbing the atmosphere…Isn’t this how one should really enjoy the sightseeing? Not in a marathon of a guided tour, not in a hurry, not jumping over few main features only…
Temple of Isis…Sitting there, I’ve been thinking about her strange contradictory characters…I thought of how tangly she represents such a different values of Death and Life…and - Love…And I wondered, what was the Goddess thinking, watching me?...
