This Is a Short Introduction to a Site Which Tries to Outline the Ancient Egyptian Goddess

ASET (Isis)

An Introduction

This is a short introduction to a site which tries to outline the ancient Egyptian goddess Aset - Ast - Isis. On this first page I have tried to briefly point at some differences between the early goddess as she appears in myth and textual material, and the interpretations of her which appears in the Greco-Roman period. On following pages I have tried to take a deeper look at the many aspects, names, functions and myths which surround the ancient Egyptian Aset.

ISIS or her more ancient Egyptian name ASET, seems like two different deities if you take a closer look. When the worship of ISIS rose in Greek and Roman days, ASET had already been forgotten for hundreds of years. At this time only a small group of priests still knew how to read the ancient hieroglyphs of the temple walls. The Greek and Roman way of superimposing their cultural values on Egyptian culture affected the interpretation of the original ASET, depriving her of her Egyptian origin and turning her into Roman deity. The most outstanding differences between them are:

1: Her fierceness which we find in the myths.
2: Her role as Divine sister-spouse and mourner to Wesir
3: Her role as a funerary deity.
4: Her function as Mother to the King.

This is not so with Isis who is a much more pronounced mother deity for everyone, benevolent and nourishing. It is true that Aset is nourishing and protective - but these efforts were from the beginning directed exclusively at Heru, her son, the King-to-be.

This image shows an almost schematic picture of how Aset merged with Isis.
To the far left she has Her original hieroglyph, the throne, above her head.
In the middle she wears the horned solar disc combined with the throne,
now she shares traits with Het-hert.
Finally she is pictured as a Great Mother in the shape of a cowheaded female
crowned with the horned solar disc and two plumes.

THE EGYPTIAN ASET

includes in her name the hieroglyph for "throne" or "seat". She is first mentioned in Dynasty IV and known in myth as daughter of Geb and Nut, part of the Ennead of Heliopolis. Already in early times she was the personification and symbol of the Throne of Egypt, who "made the king" and therefore the symbolical mother of the King, who was seen as the 'Living Heru'. At this period she was not a great mother deity for the people but linked to, and reserved for, Royalty. It would be thousands of years until she became a Great Mother deity.

Funerary Deity

Aset was a funerary deity, which the Roman Isis never was; together with her sister Nebt-Het (Gr: Nephtys) she is depicted on coffins in the form of a kite with outstretched wings, protecting the deceased. She also appeared in the Hall of Judgment, standing protectively behind the throne of Wesir (Osiris). It is also these two deities who supervise Wesirs rebirth at the yearly Mysteries of Wesir at Abedjou.

In Myth

The myth cycle of Aset, Wesir and Heru is hinted at already in the Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom). It was heavily rewritten and added to by Plutharch (ca 46- ca 120). If he did this from what he had heard as oral tradition, is impossible to tell, suffice it to say that during this period there were elements added to the myth which are not found elsewhere or earlier.

In myth Aset appears ruthless, strongwilled and quick to forward her motifs. The ancient Egyptians called her the 'Eye of Re', giving her an association with the sun. She was also called "Great of Heka"; Weret-Hekau, as she managed to trick Ra into telling her his secret name, thus getting access to great knowledge.

Solar Deity

There are those who want to link her to the moon and while this might fit in with the Roman Isis, in ancient Egyptian religion Djehuty (Thoth), and later Khonsu, was the moon deity, not Aset. Aset was through her association with the sungod Re, a solar deity.

The most wellknownmyth about Aset is the story of how, when her husband Wesir (Osiris) was murdered by his brother Set and his body thrown into the Nile, she mourned him and went searching for his body, accompanied by her sister Nebt-Het. After many adventures, she finally found him and managed to bring him back to life and beget his son Heru who would in time win the throne back from his uncle Set. This, her role as mother, is what probably lies as a basis for the Greco-Roman interpretations of her, which caused her earlier aspects and functions to fade in the background.

More about the KemeticAset.

The Roman Isis

The Roman Isis is the deity called the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names, a Great Mother Goddess. It is not the purpose of this site to explore the Roman Isis, but some words might be in order to differentiate her from the Egyptian Aset. Isis is the preferred goddess by women, the protector at childbirth, for nurturing and caring of children and for everyone who is in need in any way of her. This is not at all to say that the ancient Egyptian female deities did not fill these functions. Het-Hert (Gr: Hathor) is the one that comes most easily to mind here and whom Aset merged with. But already long before the Roman period, Aset absorbed most of the properties and abilities of the main Egyptian goddesses (Het-Hert,Mut,Neith,Serket). This might have prepared the path for finding a likeness of her with deities like Hera and Aphrodite. Her popularity spread far beyond Egypt, all around the Mediterranean. She was even considered a Creator Goddess, as can be read in the 'Aretalogy of Isis'. Plutharch, who elaborated on the myth of Isis and Osiris, associated her with the moon, which is to be considered a sign of Roman influence, since the older form, the Egyptian Aset was associated with the sun and even called the 'Eye of Re'. However, since ancient days it was Djehuty (Thoth) who was associated with the moon. So this is another aspect where the imported, adapted deity Isis can be differed the most clearly form the original KemeticAset.

The cult of ISIS grew and became widely spread, probably because her traits as a mother goddess for everybody, and because her image as a widow and 'single mother' evoked compassion and recognition. Temples were built to her far beyond Egypt, although the old temples of ASET long since had been destroyed.

Traces of the Roman ISIS has come down to us through Apuleius´ story "The Golden Ass" where one Lucius tells about his experiences of Isis.

The Myths of Aset

Aset and the Secret Name of Re

This myth is preserved as a spell to 'ward off poison' in Papyrus 1993 from Dyn 12 (c. 1200B.C.) in the Turin Museum. A fragmentary version also exists in Papyrus Chester Beatty 15 in the British Museum. Besides giving the spell, it also shows the importance of knowing the true name of someone or something in ancient Egypt.

The first words say:

'Aset was a clever woman... more intelligent than countless gods... she was ignorant of nothing in heaven or on earth'

Aset had decided that she would find out the secret name of her father Re, the sungod. (In this myth she was the daughter to Re. Often same deities appear in different contexts, mixing and sharing traits and aspects.) To know his name would bring her equal power to him, and it would also rank her and her son Horus beside him among the gods.

As Re refused giving away his name freely to her, she set out to find a way to coerce him to reveal it. As the sungod was traveling across the horizon in his 'Boat of Millions of Years', he was aging as he approached the end of the day. He began to be feeble and nodding off. As he did so, his mouth drooped and let out a drop of saliva which fell to the ground. Aset now mixed his saliva with the earth and uttered her magic to create a living venomous serpent from the mixture. Then she placed the serpent across the path where the sungod would travel the next day, and waited.

Sure enough, Re trods on the snake which bites him and he feels a great pain, which causes him to cry out, and his whole Ennead comes to find out what has happened. Re feels the poison invade his veins:

'You gods who originated from me... something painful has attacked me but I do not know its nature. I did not see it with my eyes. I did not create it with my hand... There is no agony to match this'.

But no matter their wisdom and knowledge, none of the other gods can help the supreme deity and they all despair.

Then enters Aset whose sympathetic presence gives Re some hope although he shivers and burns at the same time and loses his vision. Aset then promises to work her magic - in exchange for the knowledge of Re's secret name. This is the last thing Re wants to do, as he will loses a lot of prestige. Instead he tries to give many of his other names:

Creator of the heavens and the earth
Moulder of the Mountains
Creator of the water for the Great flood' [primeval cow goddess]
Maker of the bull for the cow in order to bring sexual pleasure into being
Controller of the Inundation
Khepri in the morning
Re at noon
Atum in the evening

But Aset only notes that his secret name was not included, and as the pain increases, the Supreme God is finally forced to agree to her demand but asks her to lay it upon her son Horus not to divulge it to anyone else.

The secret name of Re remains hidden for us since it is not included on the papyrus. Personally I tend to think that is as it should be, the ancient Egyptians would hardly dare the audacity to pretend to know this powerful name. Instead, the spell which Aset gave the sungod is included, and it was said to heal anyone who got a venomous bite.

The Murder of Wesir

Already in the Old Kingdom fragments of the story of how Wesir was drowned and his body found by his sister-wife Aset, were known. By the Middle Kingdom it is stated that Set is the murderer, and Aset´ impregnated with Heru, the son of Wesir. During the New Kingdom the funerary texts tell of a close connection between the deceased and Wesir, outlining the parts of the story of Wesir.

The most coherent recounting of the myth comes from the Greek historian Plutharch. Please note that in this version, there are many additives to the original Egyptian myth, which are impossible to retrace from Egyptian sources. There are also Greek deities mixed into the story. Below is a version based on Plutharch, for reasons of continuity.

The Golden Casket

Wesir, the king of Egypt, and Aset, his queen, was beloved by all his people. He was kind and just and taught them to plow the earth, how to honor the gods and he gave them laws to live by. But his brother Set was jealous and plotted against him to take over the throne. Queen Aset was constantly on her guard when Wesir traveled around his kingdom, she never felt safe from Set´s scheming.

One day Wesir held a big banquet for his court and as he was kind and just Set was also invited. This was the moment he had long waited for. Together with his accomplices he could set his plan in motion. He began to describe a wonderful coffin that he had been given, and soon enough he was asked to have it brought in for people to see. It was indeed beautiful, made of the finest wood and gilded and painted. He promised to give it as a gift to whomever fitted exactly into it. And as he already had acquired Wesir´measures, the king was the only one that fitted into the coffin, and when he was persuaded into taking place in it, Set´s accomplices quickly nailed the lid to it and while the rest of the court was held back, it was taken away and thrown into the Nile where the current carried it away.

Aset was overcome with grief and cut off a length of her hair, dressed herself in mourning clothes and went on her way to look for the coffin with her husband´s body. She wandered everywhere and searched all over Kemet and beyond without finding a trace, until she heard some children saying that they had seen the golden coffin being thrown into the waters.

The Wonderful Tree

She wandered for a long time, weeping and searching for the casket, and often she heard rumours that a golden casket had been seen floating by some village. So she kept following after until she left Egypt and came into the land of Byblos. Here the rumours spoke about a wonderful tree that suddenly had started to grow on the shore. Aset understood then that the coffin had floaten ashore and gotten stuck in a bush. Nurtured by the divine presence of Wesir´ body, the bush had sprouted and grown into a large tree which the king of Byblos had let cut down and used in the buildings of a palace. When Aset reached the place, she was shown to the palace by the villagers.

The Burning Prince

Aset waited outside the palace until she met the Queen´s maidens. She told them she was an Egyptian headdresser and pleated their hair and breathed on them so that a divine scent surrounded them. And they brought her before the queen who took a liking to her and asked her to take care of her young son, the prince. Soon enough she found the treetrunk that enclosed her husband´s coffin. Aset stayed there, and every night while the little prince slept, she went into the room where the pillar enclosing the coffin with her husband´s body was and she wept and mourned for him. And every day she looked after the little prince, and shortly she became so fond of him, that she decided to make him immortal.

In the night she brought him to the pillar where the casket was hidden. There she lit a fire and speaking the magic words she laid down the sleeping boy in the flames. The fire started to burn away all that was human in him, but she did not watch over him, she turned herself into a swallow and began to fly around the pillar, wailing and mourning over her dead husband. The queen, who slept nearby, was woken up by the sound of the flames, and hastened to the room. When she saw her child surrounded with flames, she raised a cry of horror and the swallow turned into woman again and the magical fire died. Aset then revealed herself to the queen and told her that now it was impossible for the prince to become immortal. The queen then regretted her ignorance and asked how she could repay Aset. And Aset asked for the pillar with the coffin. She instantly cut it into pieces so that the coffin could be taken out, then she drenched the bits of wood in oil, wrapped them in fine linen and asked the queen to keep them in the temple of Byblos. Then she left Byblos by boat and headed for Egypt.

Lost Again

But that one night Set and his men were out hunting nearby. When he happened upon the casket, he recognized it, realized his treachery had been found out and feared that Aset would punish him. While she slept he broke into it and tore Wesir´ body into several pieces which he spread out all over the land. Only then did he feel safe that Aset would not be able to find them.

When Aset saw the empty casket, her cry of anguish shook heaven and earth. She called out to her sister Nebt-Het who came to console her and once more she went on her way, now with Nebt-Het by her side. For many long, sorrowful years they searched the lands together. Wherever they found a piece of Wesir´ body, they erected an altar, giving thanks to the gods. Plutharch mentions 14 pieces altogether. When at last all the parts had been assembled, Aset made Wesir into the first mummy. She then proceeded to use her powerful magic and breathed new life into Wesir and so she was able to conceive the child Heru. Then Wesir became the King of the Land of the Dead, while Asethed herself in the marshland of Chemmis, where she gave birth to Heru and nursed and cared for him until he grew up. Heru then fought against his uncle Set and won his father´s throne and became the Living King of Egypt.