ABSTRACT
Notwithstanding the fact that Ȧs, or Ȧst, i.e., Isis, is one of the goddesses most frequently mentioned in the hieroglyphic texts, nothing is known with certainty about the attributes which were ascribed to her in the earliest times. From the fact that she was regarded as the female counterpart of Osiris in the dynastic period, we may assume that she was also associated with the god in this capacity in the predynastic period, and if he was originally a water spirit or a river-god, she must have possessed the same characteristics. The name Ȧst has, like Ȧsar, up to the present defied all explanation, and it is clear from the punning derivations to which the Egyptians themselves had recourse, that they knew no more about the meaning of her name than we do. The probability is that Ȧs, or Ȧst, is a Libyan name originally, and that it is to be classed with the names of the other Libyan deities, e.g., Net, Bast, etc., who were worshipped by the predynastic Egyptians, and the sounds of whose names were expressed by hieroglyphic symbols as nearly as possible when the people of the country borrowed or invented the art of writing. The symbol of the name of Isis in Egyptian is a seat, or throne, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page202_01.tif"/>, but we have no means of connecting it with the attributes of the goddess in such a way as to give a rational explanation of her name, and all the derivations hitherto proposed must be regarded as mere guesses. Isis is usually depicted in the form of a woman who wears on her head a vulture head-dress, and holds in her hand a papyrus sceptre. The usual ornament or crown on her head consists of a pair of horns, between which is a solar disk, and this is sometimes surmounted by https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page202_01.tif"/>, the symbol of the sound of her name. Sometimes she wears the double crowns 203of the South and the North, to the back of which is attached the feather of Maāt, and sometimes she wears with the pair of horns and the solar disk two plumes. 1 Her horns are usually those of the cow of Hathor, or of one of the sister forms of this goddess, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page203_01.tif"/>, but occasionally 2 she wears a pair of ram’s horns, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page203_02.tif"/>, under her double crown; since, however, Osiris was represented by the Ram of Mendes, and was identified with Khnemu, it is only to be expected that his female counterpart Isis should appear sometimes with the horns which are the peculiar characteristic of the great Ram-god. Isis, as a woman, and not as a goddess, is depicted in the ordinary head-dress of a woman, but even so she has the uraeus over her forehead, for the Egyptians wished it never to be forgotten that she was of divine origin; of the forms which she had the power to take in her character of the “lady of words of power” mention will be made further on. The Goddess ISIS. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/pagew-1_01.tif"/>
