The Isia, ancient Egypt (Oct 28 - Nov 3)

Today is the first day of the ancient Egyptian Isia festival. This was a week-long Autumn festival commemorating the mythological search of Isis for her son/lover Osiris in order to restore life on earth. The festival has a connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, rites of ancient Greece centuries later.

Isis and Osiris are archetypes bearing a similarity to other divine dualities such as Ishtar and Tammuz (Damuzi), Venus and Adonis, Mary and Jesus Christ. The Egyptian myth is believed to have influenced Christianity.

According to one legend, Isis, mother and consort of God, Lady of Heaven (Heq) collected the dismembered parts of her husband's body and united the fragments by magic powers. On the last day of the Isia, after an enactment of the story of the death of Osiris at the hands of his brother Set (Seth), the people followed the mourning cortege of Isis, to her temple ...

Deities of many cultures in the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

Categories: ancient-egypt, mythology, calendar-customs