The Goddess Isis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Goddess Isis - Essay Example She was widely worshipped by people in Egypt as well as other countries of the Mediterranean Region during ancient times. The Legend of Isis is one of the oldest myths in Egyptian history. It was the foundation of the old Egyptian state religion. The first written records about her appeared in the hieroglyphics in the Pyramid Texts during the period 2350 – 2100 BC (Goddess.ws). In the beginning there existed the Sun god named Ra and his wife called Nut. Nut fell in love with another God named Geb. When Ra discovered his wife’s infidelity, he became very angry and punished Nut by cursing her that she could not give birth on any child during any of the then 360 days that comprised a calendar year. In her sadness and desperation to have children, Nut turned to Thoth, the god of knowledge, for help. Thoth, who knew that there was no way to evade Ra’s curse, formulated a plan. The plan involved the Moon goddess Silene primarily because at that time the intensity of her moonlight was equal to the sunlight of Ra. Thoth challenged Silene to a wager whereby she would surrender one seventh of her moonlight if she lost. Thoth won the wager and won one seventh of Silene’s light {this is the reason why the moon wanes every month}. Thoth used his part of moonlight to add 5 days to the calendar year, thereby increasing the number of days in a year fr om 360 to 365. The success of Thoth’s plan provided Nut with a span of 5 days during which she could give birth to five children fathered by Geb while at the same time not evading Ra’s curse on her. Nut gave birth to Osiris on the first day. Horus was born on the second day followed by Seth, Isis and Nephthys on the third, fourth and fifth days respectively (Crystalinks.com). Osiris grew up and became Pharaoh of Egypt. He married his sister Isis. Osiris was a good and conscientious ruler who devoted all his time and energy towards civilizing his people (Crystalinks.com). He was