The extent of this variation may be gathered from the two forms of Neith or Nit given on page 290.
ISIS NURSING HORUS. (The last form is Serk-t-Isis, the scorpion goddess.)
4. Many of the goddesses are represented as Isis nursing Horus.—It is very important not to forget that stars were chiefly observed rising in the dawn, and that mythologically such an event was represented by the Egyptians as Isis (the rising star-goddess) nursing Horus (the rising sun-god). The sun was supposed to be a youth in the morning, to be very young therefore at the moment of rising, and the goddess Isis was supposed to be then nursing him. Many of the goddesses are thus portrayed. I may mention Renen-t, Serk-t, Rā-t, Amen-t, as instances. Thus I hold that we get in this series of goddesses the statement, put mythologically, that certain stars to which the goddesses were sacred rose heliacally at some time of the year or another. Of course the record is far from complete, and probably it will become more complete when inquiries are made from this point of view. The original symbolism is that Isis or Hathor is a star rising in the dawn, watching over the sun or taking him from his cradle; and the young Horus, the rising sun, is, of course, the son of Isis. The emblem of the mother and child is thus shown to have been in established use for the expression of high religious thought at least 5000 years ago.
These and other facts may be brought together in a tabular form, to show what apparently the complete mythology of Isis meant.
ISIS = Anything Luminous to the Eastward heralding Sunrise.
| Dawn. | Moon. | γ Draconis. (3000 B.C.) | Antares. (3700 B.C.) | α Columbæ. (Before 3000 B.C.) | Sirius. (After 3000 B.C.) | Doubtful. (Probably late.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isis | Isis | Isis | Serk-t | Teχi | Isis | Anuqa | |
| Hathor (hawk | (N. Egypt) | Amen-t | Hathor (cow) | Hak |  | ||
| and hippopotamus) | Rā-t | Haka | |||||
| Mut (vulture) | Hak-t | ||||||
| Sechet} Lion or | α Centauri | Hequet | |||||
| Bast } cat | 3700 B.C. | Maloul | |||||
| Menkh | (S. Egypt) | ||||||
| Tafnet | |||||||
| Apet | |||||||
| Nebun | |||||||
It will be seen that in the case of Isis we are not dealing merely with a rising star, while, so far as I know, Hathor is limited to stars.
If we accept the general statement regarding Isis, namely, that it was a term applied to anything appearing to the eastward and heralding sunrise, many of our difficulties at once disappear. The Isis of the pyramid-temples and of the smaller temple of Denderah symbolised different celestial bodies, though they served the same purpose. The Hathor of the greater temple of Denderah, and the Hathor of Dêr el-Bahari, symbolised different celestial bodies, but their function was the same. On the other hand, the Hathor of Denderah and the Mut of Thebes were neither different divinities, nor did they personify different stars; they were simply local names of γ Draconis.
We are thus enabled to understand the doubling of the symbolism in the case of Hathor. The hippopotamus and the cow generically are dealt with as rising stars; specifically we deal with γ Draconis in one case, and Sirius in the other.