Who is Isis, the Egyptian goddess of magic and motherhood?

Isis (Egyptian Aset) was one of the greatest goddesses of ancient Egypt: the wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus, and a goddess of magic and protection. When her husband was murdered by his brother Set, Isis searched for his body, mourned him and brought him back to life long enough to conceive their son. She hid the child Horus in the marshes of the Delta until he was grown and could claim his father’s throne. Her worship later spread across the Roman world.

Who she was in Egypt: Isis was a daughter of Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky, and a sister of Osiris, Set and Nephthys. Her magic was famous: one story tells how she learned the secret name of the sun god Ra and so gained power over him. Spells called on her to protect children, as she had protected Horus, and with Nephthys she watched over the dead. Because each king was a living Horus, Isis was the divine mother of every king.
Her signs: Her name is written with the sign of a throne, and in art she often wears that sign on her head. Later she also wears cow’s horns around a sun disk, a crown she shares with Hathor. She can spread protecting wings over Osiris or the dead, and with Nephthys she appears as a pair of kites, birds of prey, mourning him. Her amulet was the tyet, the Knot of Isis, often made of red stone.
How Gerald Massey read her in 1907: Massey mostly writes Isis, and sometimes Hesi or Hes, as in Har-si-Hesi, Horus son of Isis. He reads her as the virgin mother and the blood-mother, paired with Nephthys the nurse as the two mothers of Horus, and he reads the red Knot of Isis as her blood, the source of life. In Book XII and his list of parallels he argues that the gospel story grew from the Egyptian one: Isis with the child Horus becomes Mary with Jesus, and Isis and Nephthys become Mary and Martha of Bethany.
What scholars say now: Massey’s Isis, the wife who mourns Osiris and the mother whose magic protects Horus, is the Isis of the Egyptian texts. His virgin mother is not: in the Egyptian accounts she conceives Horus by Osiris. Images of Isis nursing Horus were made for centuries, and some scholars see them as one source for later pictures of Mary nursing Jesus, while others doubt a deliberate link. A direct borrowing is not established, and his matching of Isis and Nephthys with Mary and Martha is not accepted.
Where you meet her today: Her temple at Philae, near Aswan, where the last known inscription in hieroglyphs was carved, was rebuilt on a nearby island to save it from the waters of the Aswan dams. The Metternich Stela in the Metropolitan Museum of Art carries spells against scorpions and snakes, with the story of Isis and the child Horus in the marshes.
In Massey’s words: “Urt-Hekau, great in magical words of power, is a title of Isis, who was considered the very great mistress of spells and magical incantations.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book II, p. 114)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Knot of Isis. In the app, the Symbol Trainer explains the Knot of Isis, the Word Trainer sets Massey’s Hesi beside Isis, and the Read the hieroglyphs course teaches you to read her name.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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