Isis With Horus is Madonna & Child Isis with Osiris is the Pieta (holding the slain God) Isis holding baby Horus, origin of Madonna and Child in christian artWHO is ISIS? At the apex of her influence, this Mother Goddess of Rebirth was worshiped throughout the Greco-Roman world. Her temples were finally closed in the 4th century AD, but her role as Mother of God, as well as many other Christian borrowings from her mythos, were assumed by the Virgin Mary. She and the baby Horus are the icons that were converted into the Madonna and Child by the early Christians. It is said that the worship and love for Isis, the goddess of the home and hearth, was so great she was literally absorbed into Christian iconography. She was loved and adored for her compassion, loyalty, and healing ability. Isis is pictured in ancient art holding the slain body of her beloved Osiris across her lap, just as Christianity portrayed Mary holding the slain Jesus across her lap, -- called the Pieta. Isis is also the first winged female to appear in earths ancient artwork. Middle Eastern / Mediterranean goddesses Astarte and Anat as well as Lilith and Athena Nike were shown as winged women, too. Christianity is full of winged women images these days, they call them angels. We have to remind those artists that most biblical angels were male warrior types with no mention of wings! In the beginning there was Isis, Oldest of the Old, the Goddess from whom all becoming arose. -- Egyptian scriptures The mother of the stars, the parent of seasons, and the mistress of all the world. -- Lucius Apuleius Isis origins: Originally Isis was known as Au Set, a predynastic Egyptian Goddess dating from 3000 BCE. She laid upon the dead body of her husband-brother, Osiris (whose annual death symbolized the fertilizing of fields by Nile floodwaters), and conceived Horus, the falcon-headed deity who is the original son of God(ess). The name Isis means throne woman, and she was venerated as the inventor of agriculture, law and medicine, and as the Mother who placed the Sun God Ra in the sky. Isis was called She of Ten Thousand Names, and in Europe one of her names was Zisa, the wife of Zio who was also the sky god Tiu, Tiw or Tyr -- the god to whom our Teutonic ancestors dedicated the third day of the week: Tuesday. Book suggestion: The Mysteries of Isis by DeTraci Regul
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 11:13:42 +0000