Episode 395: Isis
/We’re talking this week about Isis, the Egyptian Head Queen in Charge! She’s out there doing magic, bringing people back from the dead, controlling scorpions, all sorts of things. If you’re not impressed, you’re not listening.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of colonialism, death, grieving, xenophobia, religious persecution, pregnancy and birth, drowning, dismemberment, fire, animal attacks, poisoning, child endangerment, and genitals.
Housekeeping
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Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
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About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. And we're finally at, Amanda, one of my favorite goddesses. One that we've been making reference to many times at this point, but finally, we get to dive into the stories of the Egyptian head bitch in charge herself, Isis.
AMANDA: Oh, I'm so ready. This is definitely the goddess I have heard the most about, I would say, in Egyptian mythology. And she's, obviously, played a role in so many of the stories we've already covered, so I'm stoked to learn more about her.
JULIA: Yes. So over the course of Egyptian history as Egyptian mythology has evolved, she has played a series of important roles among the cosmology. She's out there restoring human souls back to life. She is welcoming the dead into the afterlife. She is giving birth to kings and getting revenge on those who wronged her. She is clever, she is powerful, she is important. So let's get to it.
AMANDA: I love it. She is the moment. She's Isis.
JULIA: So first things first, we'll be using the name Isis because that is her most well-known name, but this is also like kind of her— her Greek name, her colonizer name rather than her Egyptian name, which is Eset, which means she of the throne.
AMANDA: Incredible. Great name.
JULIA: Yes, she also has a couple of other titles like Woman of the Lotus and Devoted Mother and Wife, which is quite important to a lot of her stories. But we'll be calling her Isis because, as I said in previous episodes, where this has been the case, while it is the, like, colonizer name for her. It is also the one that we know best in modernity.
AMANDA: That makes sense.
JULIA: If you are looking for art of her, which we— we typically kind of go through like, "Hey, what does she look like? If we were looking at some Egyptian art, would we be able to recognize Isis as Isis?" The thing is she is typically represented in the form of like a human woman. She is usually wearing a long sheath dress. She is typically wearing a crown, specifically one that is like the hieroglyphic sign for throne as her name kind of suggests.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: But sometimes it isn't a crown, but rather a set of cow horns or the solar disc.
AMANDA: Very cool.
JULIA: So a lot of this is because of her association with the goddess Hathor, who we'll be talking about in a future episode. Don't worry about it. But she is the Egyptian ideal of beauty. She's got this long black hair. She's always wearing very intricate jewelry, and so like she's kind of the embodiment of, like, what femininity and beauty is for the ancient Egyptian.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: So like most of the other gods and goddesses, she's usually seen holding items that are kind of attributed to her, again, just so you can know like, "Oh, this is Isis." One of them is a sistrum rattle, which is a type of kind of percussive instrument, which was used in worship a lot of the times. It kind of looks like a— a wishbone almost, and then has wire or sticks kind of going across it, and then a bunch of like either shells or rocks or like, you know, metal so that when you shake it, it makes it look like, "Tss, tss, tss, tss, tss, tss, tss" noise.
AMANDA: That sounds great. And also like the gentle tinkling of like a goddess walking toward me.
JULIA: Exactly. The other thing is the monet necklace, which is sort of like— it's a necklace with a upside down keyhole shape.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And this was a talisman that was used for protection in the afterlife. Both of these are also associated with Hathor, but specifically, we'll talk a little bit about how Isis took on a lot of different forms of other goddesses as her worship increased.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: She's also typically seen holding the generic ankh, which represents life and something that we've talked about in previous episodes. And then finally, she is associated with the symbol that is known as the Isis knot or the tyet, which is T-Y-ET, which was when laid upon a person in amulet form was another form of protection, particularly in the afterlife.
AMANDA: Love it. So some beautification, some tools of worship, and some tools of protection. It sounds very worth the woman who personifies the throne.
JULIA: Yes. Exactly. And so we talked about how she is usually shown in human form. She's also associated with the bird, the kite, which we talked about in the Osiris episode. But you might remember that this is a bird of prey that has a shrill, piercing cry that is associated with mourning.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Mourning is, indeed, the thing you do when you're grieving, not the— the time of day.
AMANDA: Does that have to do with the fact that her husband famously dies?
JULIA: Yes, yes. Yes, it does.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: So Isis is sometimes portrayed as being in mourning, meaning like kind of kneeling down, hands in front of her face. And this is because of her association with Osiris and his death, and her role in that. And when she's usually shown in mourning, or at least seated beside Osiris, her arms are shown to be winged, again, a reference to the kite.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Besides the form of the kite, she is also sometimes represented in the form of a scorpion.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Which we'll talk a little bit about later in this episode.
AMANDA: Okay, good. That's surprised me.
JULIA: And in her role as the mother goddess, she is depicted as either like a sow or, you know, some kind of bovine form, cow-like.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Lastly, she is sometimes in the form of a tree goddess, which is actually pretty rare for Egyptian mythology. I mean, like, usually, we're seeing them either their people or their animals, and that's about it. But this one, a tree, specifically, she's associated with the sycamore tree.
AMANDA: I'm sure Egypt is a huge country that includes forests. I— I know it. In fact, I've seen pictures. But I— especially when thinking about ancient Egyptian mythology, I'm— I think so clearly of like reeds, and grasses, and plants no taller than your waist. So—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —the tree surprised me as well to hear it evoked here.
JULIA: Yeah, you kind of think of like the desert and the—
AMANDA: Yeah. A burning bush. You know—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —like a smaller— a smaller plant.
JULIA: Yeah. You think of the pyramids and stuff like that, but this is—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —a very fertile land as well, so there is a lot of, like, greenery and growth there.
AMANDA: Of course.
JULIA: So we know that based on the Pyramid Texts, Isis kind of grew in importance after the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. She is mentioned over 80 times in the Pyramid Texts, as someone who's basically assisting the deceased king on his journey through the afterlife. Which is a lot. That is like— in terms of how the gods and goddesses are mentioned in things like the funerary texts, and specifically the Pyramid Texts, that is a high number ranking in there, just for mentions.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And in later funerary texts, she is not only protective of royalty, like deceased kings and stuff like that, but her role is extended to nobility and then to the common people as well, which is very cool. And by this time, her worship and power and appeal are growing to the point where she is being worshipped even more than her husband, Osiris.
AMANDA: Now, is this dangerous? Does this upset the balance of power? Is someone pissed about this?
JULIA: It does not.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Because, again, a lot of times worship is being dictated by the people who are in power already. So the king is kind of determining like, "Oh, well, I am the person who says who we worship and why we're worshipping them." And you'll see why that is as we kind of get into her role in society and the cosmology of Egypt.
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: So as she's being worshipped even more than Osiris, time is passing her importance in Egypt is growing. And she's— because of that merged with many other goddesses that kind of existed separately from her before that, including goddesses like Astarte, Bastet, Nut, Sothis, but most importantly and perhaps most powerfully is her kind of, like, native syncretism with Hathor, who— Hathor, she gains a lot of those like iconography attributes from— that I mentioned earlier. And Hathor is very much like a goddess of like motherhood and stuff like that. And we see—
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: —there's a shift here where Isis becomes this mother goddess, and it becomes extremely important in her worship and her role in society.
AMANDA: Interesting.
JULIA: So by the height of her worship, she is a goddess of great power, with a relationship with her followers that existed not only in their life, but more importantly, in their death.
AMANDA: Sounds very Egyptian mythology from what we've learned so far.
JULIA: Absolutely. So let's talk about that role in not only society, but her role among the cosmology of ancient Egypt. First things first, and this is probably why she becomes so important to the kings of Egypt, she is the mother of kings.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: So as the wife of Osiris, as the mother of Horus, she is the symbol of the Mother of the King, just as Horus becomes the symbol of the current ruler. So this is a very like— and you're gonna see a lot of this and I'll mention it later on. There's a lot of kind of, like, Mary, Jesus parallels—
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: —in the story of Isis and Horus. And we'll be seeing that a lot to the point where they do kind of become a little synchronized later on, where Christianity is spreading.
AMANDA: Fascinating. And I also have this image in my mind of like— you know, I'm imagining like village ladies kind of like discussing, you know, the new king and the new monarch, and being like, you know, "He— he treats Isis really well. He really loves his mom. What— what a nice young man." and that feels like Got a great attribute for a ruler.
JULIA: Yeah, exactly. Like, to the point, Amanda, where it was said that the kings would drink from the metaphorical breasts of Isis, just like she fed her son, Horus, which made them symbolically her sons. Like they're— they're literally like, "Yeah, I have this mom, this mortal mom, but also like, Isis, she's my mom, too."
AMANDA: I mean, if you're gonna be a god king, you gotta be a god king mama's boy. Like, that sounds like an excellent way to, you know, cement your relationship to the holy and the divine.
JULIA: Yes. And it also becomes even more so when you think about how her hieroglyphic sign, not only means her name, but it's also used for the word throne.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: So it's thought that she was originally the personification of the power of the throne.
AMANDA: Yeah. And it also makes all the sense in the world, like you were saying earlier, that she is— she's decorated, right? She's beautiful. She's—
JULIA: Ornate.
AMANDA: You're making beautiful, exactly, and making holy the— the representation of divine power.
JULIA: Speaking of divine power, like we're talking about divine power on Earth in terms of the rulers, but also extremely important to Isis is her association with divine magic. And you'll see why magic is kind of really important as we tell the stories of her in the back half of the episode. But we see that the magic of Isis is invoked in many spells for protection and healing. And her worshipers often implore her in these kinds of, like, rituals, these like incantations, basically, to come to the aid of a child or an individual, as if they were Horus, aka like, "This person is a stand-in for your love for your son and that is why I'm asking you to come and heal them or protect."
AMANDA: Again, all the sons in the world, when I am feeling sick, there is nothing I want than to be, you know, scooped up and cared for. And the way that I, you know, remember being held by my own parents.
JULIA: Exactly. We move on from magic. There is, perhaps, the most important aspect of Isis— the most important aspect of Isis for humanity, at least, which is Isis is kind of unlike the other Egyptian gods because in many stories, she spends time with the people.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: She is a— she is a goddess among the people. She hangs out among the mortals, usually in disguise, in the same way that, like, we see a lot of the Greek gods do that, where it's like, "I'm just an old lady trying to cross the river. Will you help me?" That kind of thing.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: But she is said to be the one who taught women how to grind corn, to make bread, to spin flax—
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: —to weave cloth. This one is a little funny tidbit. She was said to be the one who taught women how to tame men enough to live with them.
AMANDA: Okay. So all of the, like, capital C, civilizing, you know, behaviors, but also the— the real labor that makes it home and make society. It makes— it makes me happy to kind of think about Isis as like the mother of mothers and the one who teaches you these things.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. Like, she taught humanity how to read. She taught them the art of agriculture. And because of all this, she's worship not only is like a mother goddess and stuff, but also a goddess of medicine and wisdom.
AMANDA: Hell yeah. I mean, if I could be a goddess of stuff, that will be high up there.
JULIA: Medicine and wisdom? Yeah. Yeah. I know it.
AMANDA: Yeah. No, but also breadmaking. Like, you know—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —she's a— she's the mom who bakes. She's a mom who makes cookies. The mom who you went over to a friend's house and you're like, "Damn. Like, your mom makes cookies? Like, that's amazing."
JULIA: Is Isis a real PTA mom? Is that we're kind of getting at here?
AMANDA: Yeah, but, like, maybe like the actually nurturing one.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: You know? Instead of like a performative kind of bureaucratic appearance of power. She's the one being like, "No, sweetie, let me show you. You can— you can spit on blood and get the stain out." You know, like, the— just those kinds of little like mom things.
JULIA: Yeah. Not an almond mom.
AMANDA: Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
JULIA: So the role of Isis kind of shifts after Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, though, the Greeks really kind of embrace the cult of Isis. They really like her a lot. They associate her with a variety of Greek goddesses such as meter, Aphrodite, Artemis, even Io, who, if you remember correctly, is that mortal woman who got turned into a cow by Hera?
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Yeah. The bovine connection.
JULIA: Bovine connection, exactly.
AMANDA: Ooh, bovine connection sounds like a really good, like, queer folk band, you know?
JULIA: Yes. Yes, it does. I think it's like a queer folk band with, like, a little tang of country in there. You know what I mean?
AMANDA: Yes, yes. There was a queer klezmer band at my synagogue pride the other day and I was like, "Yes. Whatever this is, I just— I'm all into it."
JULIA: So the Greeks kind of embrace her as this goddess, and by the time that the Romans sort of took control of Egypt about 300 years later, they also wanted to kind of spread her worship through the Roman Empire, but found that for a lot of the Romans, Isis was too like, quote-unquote, "foreign" of a goddess.
AMANDA: Hmm. Interesting.
JULIA: And so they kind of try to soften her image a bit. They make her a little bit more subservient, a little bit more like— I don't know if toxic femininity is the right word for it.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: But, like, they basically kind of knock her down a few pegs in terms of worship, which sucks.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: But it is this version of the kind of like— I will call her the Roman-ied Isis that spreads through the Empire until its fall. And in fact, Amanda, one of the best preserved temples of Isis is actually in the city of Pompeii.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: There are these like extremely vivid murals that depict the goddess and they were very influential ever since they were unearthed during the 18th century. So, like, for example, Mozart was said to have visited Pompeii and the temple in 1769, and was so inspired that it helped, like, basically be the inspiration for his most well-known opera, The Magic Flute.
AMANDA: Wow. That's amazing.
JULIA: Isn't that cool?
AMANDA: As a non-classical girly, classical music, at least, I— I— even I've heard of Magic Flute.
JULIA: Yeah. And The Magic Flute is like kind of his most, like, mystical show, I would say.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: So it is very cool that he's like, "You know what? This Isis chick that I saw in Italy, pretty cool. Gonna write a whole opera about it."
AMANDA: That's great.
JULIA: So what I find interesting is the kind of systematic worship of Isis probably outlasted any of the other Egyptian gods and goddesses. And when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about, like, the societal structured worship as opposed to, like, individual worship among like Wiccan and modern pagan communities, right? So as Christianity began to spread through the Roman Empire and displace the worship of the ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, the cult of Isis kind of endured, because of the worship of her by Nubian royalty.
AMANDA: Huh.
JULIA: So we have sources as late as 452 CE, that the Nubian people basically were like demanding of the Romans that they be allowed to continue the worship of Isis at temples within their lands, as well as the right to transport a sacred statue of Isis from Egypt to Nubia once a year.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: Which is really, really cool. I love that it's like the fact that we have these resources is so interesting and so cool.
AMANDA: And it sounds like it was pretty long lasting, too.
JULIA: Yes. And so this really lasted until 536 CE, which was when the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Justinian I, sent forces to Nubia to arrest the priests of Isis, pillage the city of Philae, as well as destroying the temples and attempt to kind of stamp out, quote- unquote, "pagan worship," you know?
AMANDA: Bummer.
JULIA: However, in a kind of true law, it's not pagan, it's fine, many archaeologists and scholars believe that a lot of the early images of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, kind of like the— the suckling images, like Jesus at the breast of Mary—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —were heavily influenced by depictions of Isis nursing the baby Horus.
AMANDA: Yeah. An exposed breast feels very unlike the Christianity I was raised in, so that— that absolutely clicks for me.
JULIA: Yes, yes. Gor sure. And kind of speaking of the baby Horus and Isis, I can't wait to kind of get into some familiar and not so familiar stories about Isis. But first, Amanda, let's go and grab our refill.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
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AMANDA: Hello, everybody, it's Amanda. And welcome to the midroll, where— oh, my gosh, I'm enjoying this episode so very much. And I am also enjoying our newest patrons, Beno Koto, Hadley, and Jackie. Thank you so much for becoming patrons, for becoming, for one of you special cuties, annual patrons, which we highly recommend. It's a— a discount for you and helps us plan out our year a little bit better. We highly, highly appreciate it. And thank you as well as our supporting producer level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Arianna, Ginger Spurs Boi, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jeremiah, Kneazlekins, Lily, Matthew, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, and Scott. And our legend-level patrons, Audra, Bex, Chibi Yokai, Michael, Morgan H., Sarah, and Bea Me Up Scotty. You can join them and get access to things like Julia's and my monthly bonus urban legends, in both audio and video form. 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JULIA: Amanda, we are back. And I have been thinking, I was like, "What is a good thing for Isis? She's a mother figure. She's— she's got magic within her, all this different kinds of things. And I think one of the most magical cocktails that one can create is a clarified cocktail.
AMANDA: Hmm. What does clarification mean? I've only heard of, like, clarified butter.
JULIA: It's basically like when you add something to a cocktail, and usually— so, for example, we're gonna be talking about a milk punch here, a clarified milk punch.
AMANDA: Tight.
JULIA: And so when you do a milk punch, you— basically, you wash the alcohol that you're using as your primary alcohol in something that can be separated from it later. So for example, like you can wash a rum, for example, in like coconut milk.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And by freezing that, you can separate because they have different densities—
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: —the coconut milk from the alcohol, giving it the kind of flavor and consistency of the coconut milk without it being, like, milky in the way that coconut milk is.
AMANDA: Fascinating.
JULIA: Isn't that interesting?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And so the process of clarification is very similar, where you're basically like taking an alcohol and then, like, further distilling it almost, where it's like— all of a sudden, you're like, "Okay, well, we're gonna run it through a"— I think it's a distiller and basically it, like, drips slowly—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —until it is clarified. There's a bar near me that makes a clarified Margarita and it's like one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
AMANDA: Whoa.
JULIA: Because it just looks like—
AMANDA: Clear?
JULIA: —it looks like clear alcohol and then you're like, "That's a margarita. Wild."
AMANDA: Like, turning a broth into a consomme where it's like, "Oh, it's— it's like—"
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: "—see-through and— but has the flavors of a thing that is not see-through and that— that does—
JULIA: Exactly.
AMANDA: —blow my mind a little bit.
JULIA: It is pretty cool. So I recommend for your Isis cocktail this time around, a Thai milk tea punch.
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: Which is a clarified, like, kind of Thai milk tea with like— it's got pandan in it. It's got Thai tea leaves, got a little bit of— a little bit of cognac in there, a little bit of rum. I think it's really good.
AMANDA: It is— 'tis the season for— for drinks like that. And anything— anything like Thai flavor profile, you can sign me up for. No questions asked.
JULIA: Same, same. There's a really cool, like, Thai bar in the city, Amanda, that I really want to go to, so we— we should talk about that another day.
AMANDA: Girl, you know how to reach me.
JULIA: All right. If we're going to talk about Isis, we, of course, have to revisit the story of how Isis resurrected Osiris, since it is like so fundamental to, like, who she is and her role in the, like, greater cosmology of ancient Egypt. And, of course, we told the story in the Osiris episode, but I am going to go into, like, more detail in this episode and specifically focus on the actions of Isis rather than Osiris for this one.
AMANDA: I'm very excited, too, to think about the specific associations that her role as a mother to kings and a mother to gods has in this story, because I think the idea of like a mother not just like giving life but resurrecting life, giving you, like, twice is incredibly interesting.
JULIA: Yes. So think about that, think about her role as like the primary magic user in Egyptian mythology. Think about her role as like this wisdom and knowledge goddess, as well as the, like, motherhood and stuff like that.
AMANDA: Will do.
JULIA: And medicine. Medicine also very important for these stories.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So, as you may remember, Isis and Osiris were both the children of Geb and Nut, and they were married and became the rulers of the Egyptian people. Together, they brought the mortals new laws, they taught them how to farm, they brought peace to the lands of Egypt. And Osiris, as a wise and powerful king, was well-loved and respected by the Egyptian people, as was his wife. However, his brother Set was extremely jealous of him, and conspired to kill his brother, and take his throne. So there are a bunch of different versions of the story. And again, as I mentioned the Osiris episode, not a lot of them were written down, so we do have these kind of, like, post-Egyptian getting into the Greek and Roman periods where the— they kind of just, like, told the stories, and we don't know exactly what the original stories were, but we have these surviving ones.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So in this version of the story, Set came into Isis and Osiris' room one night, and careful not to wake either, kind of like tiptoeing through the room. He measures Osiris' body.
AMANDA: Creepy.
JULIA: Top to bottom side to side.
AMANDA: No. Julia, was— he was building him a coffin, I swear to God.
JULIA: So the next morning, Amanda, he takes these measurements to a carpenter, and he commissioned a beautiful wooden chest.
AMANDA: No, it's a coffin. No, it's a coffin.
JULIA: Decorated and gold. It's got bright paints. It's beautiful. It's the most beautiful chest you've ever seen in your whole life.
AMANDA: Beautiful coffin.
JULIA: When the chest is finished, Set threw a huge party and invited Osiris as the guest of honor.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Though, Isis was not invited, which in my opinion, red flag.
AMANDA: When, like, a relative or a person you know as a couple, invites only one of the couple.
JULIA: That is such a red flag for me. I'm like, "What is— what— why do you hate me? What's wrong with me? Why— what's going on? What are you going to do to my husband that I can't be there for?"
AMANDA: I'm predicting a real reverse Marilyn Monroe situation, where instead of Marilyn bursting out of the cake to wish JFK a happy birthday, they honor Osiris and then bury him in this beautiful chest.
JULIA: Interesting, interesting thought. So this is a night of feasting, Amanda. There's dancing, they're singing, and most importantly, there's the playing of games.
AMANDA: Uh-oh. Oh, no. Don't— don't hide and go box. Don't hide and go box.
JULIA: So when the time comes for the final game, Set brings out the beautiful wooden chest.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: The most beautiful chest you have ever seen in your goddamn life.
AMANDA: Nope.
JULIA: And says that the first person who could fit perfectly inside of the chest would be allowed to keep the beautiful item.
AMANDA: Nope. I hate this. It's like a reverse Cinderella. It's like you engineer a garment for the person to entrap them, and I hate that.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. So, each of the gods— these are all like Set's friends and stuff like that, too. Like, they're all like his buddies in his court and whatnot.
AMANDA: Oh, I'm sure his boys are really stoked about it. Yeah.
JULIA: So each of them takes their turn. None of them fit just right. And then after some cajoling and stuff like that, Osiris finally tries it out. Osiris steps into the chest, he lays down, and of course, because Set planned this whole thing, it fits him perfectly.
AMANDA: Okay. Go, carpenter.
JULIA: And it is then that Set slams the lid down, seals it shut, takes it with all of his buddies to the Nile, and drowns Osiris within the box.
AMANDA: Yeah. Saw that coming.
JULIA: So it wasn't until the next morning that Isis learned what Set had done. She rushes to the river, but the Nile is huge and large, and it takes several days of searching before she's able to find the box that holds her husband's body.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: So she is obviously very upset. She attempts to hide the body among the reeds so that she can return to it and perform the proper funerary rituals and rites. However, when she leaves, Set finds the chest, and finds it empty, becomes angered that the body is not within it, keeps on searching until he's able to find it. And angered that it has been moved, he cuts the body into 14 pieces and scatters them across all of Egypt.
AMANDA: Okay. So Se— he— Set didn't just want to kill Osiris. He wanted to, like, desecrate him. It's like, "I don't want— I just don't want to kill you. I want to spit on your body and stomp on your grave."
JULIA: Yes. He does not want Osiris to, like, have a safe voyage into the afterlife, basically.
AMANDA: Tough, man. This is like the worst boys night out of all-time.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, it's a really bad boys night. I would not suggest it for anyone.
AMANDA: Tough.
JULIA: So when Isis returns to the Nile to perform the rights on Osiris' body, along with her sister Nephthys, who we've talked about before. They, too, find it missing. And so she and Nephthys are obviously devastated that this body is gone. And obviously, there's like blood all over the place because Set basically chopped up a body there. So they quickly transform into kites, the bird, in order to use their sharp vision to find the pieces of the body.
AMANDA: Smart.
JULIA: And— yeah, smart. And again, like we— we talked about this in the Osiris episode that kites are also carrion birds, so they are—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —very good at finding already dead flesh, and— and usually feasting upon it, but not in this case.
AMANDA: Just finding it, like a— a sweet hunting dog.
JULIA: Yes, exactly. So eventually, with her sister's help, Isis finds all 14 pieces and with the help of Nephthys, Thoth, and Anubis, she performs her greatest act of magic. With the help of the other gods and goddesses, she sews Osiris' body together, kind of working tirelessly day in, day out, night after night. And once the body is whole again, they wrap him up, which turns him into the first mummy as we discussed, and they wait until the night of the full moon.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Using all of her power, Isis brings Osiris back to life, which reunites the couple together. But their reunion, as we've discussed, was a brief one, because Osiris tells her that he cannot stay in the world of the living but has to become the king of the afterlife because he has died and he can't just come back to life.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Isis obviously mourns again, but Osiris tells her not to worry, because she will soon give birth to his son, Horus, who is destined to defeat Set and become the greatest protector of the Egyptian people, reclaiming the throne from Set and restoring Ma'at, which is the order and balance of the cosmos.
AMANDA: The story is— was moving the first time, but is— is even more moving now focusing, like you said, on Isis' experience and how devastating that must have been over and over again, adding insult to injury— to injury.
JULIA: Yes. It— it's really like when you focus on the grief of it rather than like, "Oh, man, that's a shitty thing to happen to Osiris." It really does kind of—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —evoke a lot of emotions.
AMANDA: Yeah, just to go through like a frickin' trial to— to get this back. And then when she succeeds of a, like, impossible act, then they can't even stay together.
JULIA: And now, she's pregnant.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: There is another variation on this story, which you'll see has very clear Greek influence.
AMANDA: Oh, Julia, did someone stab at their mom's eyes? Wow. Never could have guessed that was Greek.
JULIA: No, no. No one stabs at anyone's eyes in this one, I promise. So in this version, Isis doesn't find the body of Osiris for a long time, like on the shores of the Nile. But instead the kind of casket that Set trapped him in is floating down the Nile, and it lodges itself in a tree on the shores of a city that is called Byblos.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Now, the tree grows around and encases the chest within it, but the body of Osiris, which apparently like smells really good.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: It's a nice— it's got a nice sench to it.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: It infuses with the tree and it catches the attention of the ruling couple of Byblos, which is Malcander and Astarte, who is a different Astarte from the goddess that we talked about earlier.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: So they cut down the tree and they have it brought to their palace. and they kind of place it in the center of their court as this beautiful ornamental pillar.
AMANDA: Low-key got a corpse in it. Okay.
JULIA: Well, they don't know that. They're just like, "This tree smells great. We gotta have it in our house."
AMANDA: I wish— I mean, I guess you can't really transplant a huge tree, but you know, I'm sad for the tree in this situation. Just graft it, graft it and propagate it.
JULIA: Yeah, you're right. You're right. So Isis, who's still in search of Osiris' body, arrives on the shores of Byblos and takes the disguise of an elderly woman. As we discussed, she likes to spend time among the mortal people. She's usually in disguise when she does that.
AMANDA: Julia, I'm not gonna lie to you, if I was an immortal goddess, I would do nothing except wear mortal disguises. I can't think— it's— it's like Undercover Boss to a theological degree, where you get to go down and be like, "These people are fascinating." And like run experiments. And— and there's no stakes because you're the god, and you can— you can like poof away, or you can solve their circumstances, or you can play pranks, I would do nothing but.
JULIA: You know what? I love that for you. There should be like a animated spin-off TV series of, like, Undercover Boss, but it is all gods.
AMANDA: I love it. I think— I can think of two people who would sign up to be, you know, appointment viewers every week.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Right?
JULIA: Workplace comedy. It's all I'm saying. So, in the disguise of this elderly woman, she meets and befriends the handmaidens of the Queen Astarte, who quickly, like, bring her back to the palace with them. They're, like, all about her. They're like, "Meet our cool new old lady friend, queen." So she becomes instantly loved by the court. She's quickly installed by Astarte to be the nursemaid for two of her young sons.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: She, of course, is still in mourning of Osiris, and in her grief, she becomes very fond of Astarte's young son whose name is Dictys. And Dictys is just a cute, sweet, young boy, for lack of a better phrase. Not a lot of personality on Dictys but—
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: —Isis freaking loves this kid. And wanting to spare Astarte the pain of losing someone that she loved, much like Isis had experienced, Isis decides to make him immortal by bathing him nightly in an eternal flame so that his mortality would burn away.
AMANDA: Wow. Damn.
JULIA: However— and this is something she has to do on a nightly basis. We're— we're engulfing a child in flames on a nightly basis here.
AMANDA: I mean, I— I know she's doing it for a purpose, but damn.
JULIA: So one night, Astarte stumbles on Isis performing this ritual and—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —seeing her son engulfed in flames, Astarte does what any parent I think would do and screams.
AMANDA: I bet that was not a good sight.
JULIA: No. This pisses Isis off, because she's like, "I'm doing a good thing here and you just don't understand it, because you're a mortal and I'm a cool god."
AMANDA: Oh, boy. Communication would really help this whole situation, as it would with most misunderstandings between gods and mortals.
JULIA: So the angry Isis takes off her disguise, reveals herself to be the goddess and demands as penance for doubting her, the tree that stands in the middle of the court.
AMANDA: I mean, I— I can't blame the queen here. She's like, "I thought you were an old lady that my handmaidens like. I didn't know you were Isis."
JULIA: "I didn't know. How was I to know?" The ruling couple quickly agrees to this, and Isis frees Osiris' body from the tree.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And in this version of the story, she travels to the kind of, like, Nile Delta swamps, and that is where they're going to perform this magic ritual that will bring Osiris back to life.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And— and one version of the story, she leaves Osiris' body with Nephthys while she goes to gather the herbs that were going to be used for the revival ritual. And Set comes across Nephthys, who you might remember is also his wife.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And he tricks her into revealing where the body is being hidden. And once he discovers it, that's when he chops it into the 14 pieces. And the story remains fairly the same, though it ends with a pregnant Isis giving birth to Horus in the swamps of the Nile Delta, as she has to, like, hide from Set basically, until Horus comes of age and fulfills his destiny.
AMANDA: Brutal.
JULIA: So the beats of the story, specifically the bit with the burning away of the mortality in a child is pretty much the same story as the story of Demeter and the child Demophon, who like— basically with her grief and her loss around her daughter, Persephone, it's almost a beat for beat copy of that story.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah.
JULIA: That one makes a little bit more sense because it's, you know, grief of a child, and so we're making a child immortal. But in this case, it's a husband and Isis.
AMANDA: But I— I totally understand the— you know, again, very, I think, human urge to— to, you know, displace that love and that care onto someone you can control and try to protect.
JULIA: Yeah, absolutely. And this idea of like, you know, grabbing control where you can is very much a thing that people nowadays even still do when it comes to grief, where it's just like, "I need to feel like I'm in control of some part of my life."
AMANDA: Very human.
JULIA: But this story, this version of the story kind of leads perfectly into our next story, which is titled Isis and the Seven Scorpions.
AMANDA: Ooh, yes. I've been waiting for the scorpion story.
JULIA: So one day a woman dressed in rags emerges from the Nile River, carrying a baby, and escorted by seven giant scorpions.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: So she goes to the nearest village to beg for food and goes first off to the largest house, which is a mansion, to beg for food for her and her child. When she approaches the house, the woman of the home sees her clothes and her, admittedly, terrifying companions and denies her entry.
AMANDA: She's like, "Here's the thing, I'd love to help you. The thing I'm struggling with is the seven giant scorpions, so I'm— I'm struggling here."
JULIA: It's like, "It's not just your terrible clothes, but—"
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "—it's also the giant scorpions."
AMANDA: "If it was one or the other, it would not be a problem, But like I'm— I'm gonna be honest, this is— this is tough for me."
JULIA: Denied help in the mansion, she continues to another house in the village and comes across a very like humble home, like a cottage kind of style house. The woman there sees the woman in her rags and with her child, and takes pity on her, basically, offering what she has and is able to offer, which is a simple meal, a bed made out of straw.
AMANDA: It's all you need.
JULIA: And basically says, "You can stay as long as you want."
AMANDA: Very nice.
JULIA: It is then that we, as the audience, are told that this is the goddess Isis, who as I mentioned before, hiding from her brother Set, the murderer of Osiris. He wants to make sure that he— because he's heard through the grapevine, this kind of prophecy that Horus is going to exact his revenge on him and kill him for killing Osiris.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: And so Isis, who can't really use her powers for fear of being caught, again, she's being chased by Set and she worries that if she uses her magic, the word will get out and Set will find her. But basically, she turned to, before going on this journey, the goddess Serket, who is the goddess of venomous creatures. And Serket gives her seven scorpions to protect her. Her, like, most loyal servants, the seven scorpions. They all have names.
AMANDA: Julia, new— new icon just dropped. I can't believe there is a goddess of— of poisonous creatures, incredible.
JULIA: I know. Venomous creatures, what a— what a great domain. I fucking love it.
AMANDA: I love it.
JULIA: So Isis and the baby Horus find comfort in this kind of humble home of this woman who has offered them safety, but the scorpions of Serket are angered by the treatment that she received from the home of the rich woman. They combine their venom into one of the seven, whose name is Tefen, who then sneaks into the mansion in the middle of the night. Tefen being a— a scorpion, sees the young son of the rich woman sleeping there peacefully and stings the child.
AMANDA: Oh, shit.
JULIA: Soon the village, including Isis and the woman who is harboring her, are awakened to the sound of wailing and keening. And when they look out the window, they see the rich woman who is weeping and holding her child and running through the street begging for help.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: Isis kind of, like, puts two and two together, realizes what the scorpions had done on her behalf, she is angered, she is mournful, she feels terrible for this woman. You know, again, this is the idea of a— a grieving wife who's now has a newborn child and very little support, except for seven scorpions.
AMANDA: Which, again, "Love you guys, love the scorpions, love that for you. You can't, like, help me with childcare, and so that is really the— the specific thing I need right now."
JULIA: It takes a village, but the village can't be seven scorpions.
AMANDA: The village can't be all scorpions, Julia. You're exactly right. You're exactly right.
JULIA: Isis steps out of the home. She takes the child from his mother and begins to recite a powerful spell, which basically removes the poison from his body and makes it fall away. She as the— another title that we haven't mentioned, she is the speaker of spells.
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: But she invokes each of the scorpion's names, and in doing so neutralizes their poisons and removes them from the child's body.
AMANDA: Speaker of spells is like shivery. I love it.
JULIA: I know, it's so good. So the child, obviously, recovers. The rich woman begs for forgiveness and offers her all of her wealth to Isis as repayment because now she realizes who she has just said, "Hey, sorry I couldn't help you."
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: The poor woman is kind of like left in awe to see, like, who she has brought into her home, is protecting under her roof. And as repayment for, one, the rich woman's humility and two, the help that was given to her by the poor woman, Isis teaches the people how to treat scorpion bites with a poultice.
AMANDA: Hey.
JULIA: And they learned a spell similar to what Isis herself had used.
AMANDA: Very useful. And I— I like this version of the story for many reasons, including the— the scorpion babysitter— the scorpion babysitters club, new drag name. Love that.
JULIA: Ooh.
AMANDA: But I love that this, you know, the woman without much was the one to— to be generous, and she gets rewarded, instead of people with plenty refusing and then being punished, which is like the other side of the same lesson, but you— you love to see the good one that ends in poultices. A very helpful thing to know about.
JULIA: Yes. And again, kind of solidifying that Isis is both the goddess of medicine and wisdom, as well as magic. So there's this idea that when you are applying medicine, you also would recite an incantation or a spell to kind of like solidify the medicine's potency.
AMANDA: Totally.
JULIA: Very cool, right?
AMANDA: Very cool.
JULIA: So the final story that I want to share is one that we already covered in the Ra episode, but I really want to highlight the Isis aspect of it again. And that is the true name of Ra.
AMANDA: Oh, yes.
JULIA: Yes. So as you remember, names have power in a lot of mythologies, but specifically in Egyptian mythology, as we just saw with the names of the scorpions and everything. And Ra had many names, but only one true name. Now, in this story, Isis wanted something from Ra. What it was, depends on the story, but we'll get to that. And so, in doing so, she created a magic serpent out of dust and some of Ra's spittle.
AMANDA: Okay.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Powerful spit.
JULIA: Powerful spit. Again, this was also the version of Ra where he's like a very dribbly old man.
AMANDA: I forgot. Okay.
JULIA: So she hides the snake, this dust and spit snake—
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: —by a path that she knew that Ra walked every day. And the serpent bit the god king and poisons him.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: Even though Ra is extremely powerful, because the snake is made out of his own spit, he can't cure himself.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: It's kind of like— a like, "Oh, this is from my own body. Why can I remove it? Because it is already part of my own body."
AMANDA: Yeah, brilliant.
JULIA: So Isis is like, "Whoa. That's totally crazy, that you got bit by a snake and can't cure yourself. That's wild."
AMANDA: "I can't believe that, man."
JULIA: "Well, you know, I'm good at medicine and magic, I'll cure you, but you have to reveal your true name to me first." And, you know, this is a big deal, because basically, if Ra was to give Isis his true name, basically, this would mean that they are equal power. You know, it brings them on the same level.
AMANDA: But I mean, she's— she's the one with the medicine. She's the one who's there. She's the one who maybe can save him. So, like, she really engineered a really unwinnable situation.
JULIA: Yes. So Ra, in his agony, agrees and he gives Isis this incredible power. And, of course, we— it kind of changes the story a little bit as Isis grows in prominence and as her stories— her other stories become more solidified. So there is a version of the tale, an early version of the tale, where Isis poisons Ra because Ra, being a kind of embodiment of the sun, is too close to the Earth and he is burning the world.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And so she has to trick him in order to save the mortals of Egypt.
AMANDA: Ooh, that's so interesting.
JULIA: I know, right? There is another version where Isis poisons him to get the power that she needs in order to revive Osiris. Again, that is an extremely powerful and potent spell that she does—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —and we don't see anything like it in Egyptian mythology outside of that. And then there is another version as well, where she uses the power she gains from Ra to kind of miraculously give birth to her son Horus when Osiris' genitals were destroyed by Set when he does the chopping up of Osiris' body.
AMANDA: Sure. I mean, all— really all reasons why you would need to, like, poison and extract power from a king.
JULIA: Yeah, all makes sense, really. And, like, especially someone who is extremely powerful in the way that Ra is. So regardless of what the reasoning is, however, it really establishes that Isis is incredibly gifted in magic as well as healing, and it also solidifies her as one of the most powerful deities in Egyptian mythology, if not the most powerful Egyptian deity.
AMANDA: Yeah. Because I mean, she turns to the other most powerful, takes power and then does something crazy with it, right? Like, I— I see the argument that she is the queen of queens.
JULIA: Yes, the, as I mentioned before, head bitch in charge.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: So not only is Isis powerful and has some of the most interesting stories of Egyptian mythology, but her story also lays the groundwork for another of the most important figures in the cosmology, which is Horus, who we'll be talking about very soon.
AMANDA: Hey, I'm very excited to learn about him. We know your mom, now, let's meet the son.
JULIA: There we go. So the next time that you are trying to get child care from a bunch of scorpions, remember to be like Isis and stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
[theme]