Considered by many to be the Great Mother Goddess, Isis, the goddess of healing and magic, was crucial to ancient Egyptian religious beliefs. She is known today by her Greek name Isis; however, the ancient Egyptians called her Aset. Her name translates to “Queen of the Throne” which is reflected in her headdress, which is typically a throne.
She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife as she had helped her mate, Osiris, and she was considered the divine mother of the pharaoh, who was likened to her son, Horus. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people.
The sistrum is a shaker rattle, and is a funerary instrument, only played by the Goddess and her priestesses.
The original of this magnificent statue, carved from black basalt, was recovered off the coast of Alexandria.
When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in the 4th century B.C.E., Egyptian art took a decidedly Hellenistic turn. This beautiful reproduction of one of the statues recently recovered from the Mediterranean Sea is the classical Lady whose “divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many names.”
As Apuleius describes Her speech:
“I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements,
the initial progeny of worlds,
chief of the powers divine,
queen of all that are in hell,
the principal of them that dwell in heaven,
manifested alone and under one form
of all the gods and goddesses.”
9 1/4″ statue, black antique stone color finish, made of a combination of resin and clay from the Ganges River.
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