Isis
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Jorge Pedia October 6, 2003
Women and Art
Isis is the feminine archetype for creation and is the goddess of fertility and motherhood. She has gone by many names and played many roles in history and mythology as a goddess and female creator. Isis is a nature goddess whose worship, originating in Egypt, gradually extended throughout the lands of the Mediterranean world during the Hellenistic period. She was also the goddess of magic, and legends tell of her ability to counteract evil by casting spells.
There are two prevalent depictions of Isis that appear in sculpture, murals, and sarcophagus art. The first shows her kneeling or hovering with her green wings outspread and the Egyptian hieroglyph for the throne on her head. Sometimes her skin is also blue in these images. The second depiction is of her wearing a headdress of cow horns and a solar disk as well as a girdle bound by a tyet, a magic knot that gives life. In this depiction, she is usually either seated on a throne, suckling Horus or she is standing with a sistrum in her hand.
Hathor, the goddess love and mirth, also wears a crown of cow horns and a solar disk...