Category Archives: Koptos

The Magical Hair of Isis

We are not immune to the charms of a beautiful head of hair—and the ancient Egyptians weren’t either.

But they took appreciation for hair, especially feminine hair, to a whole new level of magnitude. For them, hair was magical. And, of course, Who would have the most magical hair of all? The Goddess of Magic: Isis Herself.

A beautiful woman with beautiful hair — The charm of beautiful hair

I have always understood that the long hair of Isis in Egyptian tradition—disarrayed and covering Her face in mourning or falling in heavy, dark locks over Her shoulders—to be the predecessor of the famous Veil of Isis of later tradition. Ah, but there is so much more.

In ancient Egypt, it was a mourning custom for Egyptian women to dishevel their hair. They wore it long and unkempt, letting it fall across their tear-stained faces, blinding them in sympathy with the blindness first experienced by the dead. As the Ultimate Divine Mourner, this was particularly true of Isis. At Koptos, where Isis was notably worshipped as a Mourning Goddess, a healing prayer made “near the hair at Koptos” is recorded. Scholars consider this a reference to Mourning Isis with Her disheveled and powerfully magical hair.

Mourners use various mourning gestures and dishevel their hair

It is in Her disheveled, mourning state, that Isis finally finds Osiris. She reassembles Him, fans life into Him, and makes love with Him. As She mounts His prone form, Her long hair falls over Their faces, concealing Them like a veil and providing at least some perceived privacy for Their final lovemaking. As the Goddess and God make love, the meaning of Isis’ hair turns from death to life. It becomes sexy—remember those big-haired “paddle doll” fertility symbols?

A mourning woman with her hair over her face from the tomb of Minnakht

This pairing of love and death is both natural and eternal. How many stories have you heard—or perhaps you have a personal one—about couples making love after a funeral? It’s so common that it’s cliché. But it makes perfect sense: in the face of death, we human beings must affirm life. We do so through the mutual pleasure of sex and, for some couples, the possibility of engendering new life that sex provides. The lovemaking of Isis and Osiris is the ultimate expression of this. Chapter 17 of the Book of Coming Forth by Day (aka the Book of the Dead), describes the disheveled hair of Isis when She comes to Osiris:

“I am Isis, you found me when I had my hair disordered over my face, and my crown was disheveled. I have conceived as Isis, I have procreated as Nephthys.” (Chapter 17; translation by Rosa Valdesogo Martín, who has extensively studied the connection of hair to funerary customs in ancient Egypt.)

There is also a variant of this chapter that has Isis apparently straightening up Her “bed head” following lovemaking:

“Isis dispels my bothers (?) [The Allen translation has “Isis does away with my guard; Nephthys puts an end to my troubles.]. My crown is disheveled; Isis has been over her secret, she has stood up and has cleaned her hair.” (Chapter 17 variant, translation by Martín, above.)

This lovemaking of Goddess and God has cosmic implications for its result is a powerful and important new life: Horus. As the new pharaoh, Horus restores order to both kingdom and cosmos following the chaos brought on by the death of the old pharaoh, Osiris.

Not only is hair symbolic of the blindness of death and the new life of lovemaking; the hair of the Goddesses is actually part of the magic of rebirth. Isis and Her sister, Nephthys, are specifically called the Two Long Haired Ones. The long hair of the Goddesses is associated with the knotting, tying, wrapping, weaving, knitting, and general assembling necessary to bring about the great Mystery of rebirth. Hair-like threads of magic are woven about the deceased who has returned to the womb of the Great Mother. The Coffin Texts give the name of part of the sacred boat of the deceased (itself a symbolic womb) as the Braided Tress of Isis.

Mourners, probably Isis and Nephthys, throw Their hair over the Osiris

In some Egyptian iconography, we see mourning women, as well as the Goddesses Isis and Nephthys, with hair thrown forward in what is known as the nwn gesture. Sometimes they/They actually pull a lock of hair forward, especially toward the deceased, which is called the nwn m gesture. It may be that this gesture, especially when done by Goddesses, is meant to transfer new life to the deceased, just as Isis’ bed-head hair brought new life to Osiris. It is interesting to note that the Egyptians called vegetation “the hair of the earth” and that bare land was called “bald” land, which simply reiterates the idea of hair is an expression of life.

Spell 562 of the Coffin Texts notes the ability of the hair of Isis and Nephthys to unite things, saying that the hair of the Goddesses is knotted together and that the deceased wishes to “be joined to the Two Sisters and be merged in the Two Sisters, for they will never die.”

Isis and Nephthys pull a lock of hair toward the deceased

The Pyramid Texts instruct the resurrected dead to loosen their bonds, “for they are not bonds, they are the tresses of Nephthys.” Thus the magical hair of the Goddesses is only an illusory bond. Their hair is not a bond of restraint but rather the bonding agent needed for rebirth. Like the placenta that contains and feeds the child but is no longer necessary when the child is born, the reborn one throws off the tresses of the Goddesses that had previously wrapped her or him in safety.

The Egyptian idea of Isis as the Long-Haired One carried over into Her later Roman cult, too. In Apuleius’ account of the Mysteries of Isis, he describes the Goddess as having long and beautiful hair. Her statues often show Her with long hair, and Her priestesses were known to wear their hair long in honor of their Goddess.

This is sketched from a coffin from Gebelein, 13th dynasty where either a long-haired female image or a long-haired female is spreading her hair over the deceased.

This little bit of research has inspired me to want experiment with the magic of hair in ritual. In Isis Magic, the binding and unbinding of the hair is part of the “Lamentations of Isis” rite (where it is very powerful, I can tell you from experience), but I want to try using it in some solitary ritual, too. I have longish hair, so that will work, but if you don’t and are, like me, inspired to experiment, try using a veil. It is most certainly in Her tradition. (See “Veil” in my Offering to Isis.)

If you want to learn more about the traditions around hair and death, please visit Rosa Valdesogo Martín’s amazing and extensive site here. That’s where most of these images come from…many of which I had not seen before. Thank you, Rosa!

I have her book on the subject on order, but the publisher has postponed its release several times. Here’s hoping it arrives sometime soonish.

Who is Aperet-Iset?

The last few weeks have led me to several new connections with Isis that I hadn’t known about previously. I’m sharing the second one with you today. Admittedly, the associations do get a bit obscure, but that’s okay with me. I love teasing out those threads of connection to and for Her.

Today we meet a Goddess named Aperetiset, Aperet-Iset, or Aperet-Isis. She is, apparently, a local Goddess from Akhmim, aka Khemmis, aka Panopolis, in Upper Egypt. There, Her consort is the God of the Upright Phallus, Min, and Their child is Horus the Child. She is also in evidence in Osiris’ cult center of Abydos and at Athribis in Upper Egypt near the edge of the western desert. Great Isis was worshiped with Min at Koptos, not too far from both Upper Egyptian locations. Aperet-Isis is known as far back as the New Kingdom, and then we find Her more frequently throughout the Ptolemaic and later periods.

We have maybe a couple dozen references to Her, and the ones we do have seem rather colorless. She is called the Lady of Akhmim, Mother of the God, Lady of the Two Lands, and The Great—fairly common epithets. But there are two other, more interesting, epithets that I’ll get to in a moment.

This map shows all the locations we’re discussing

First, let’s see if we can color outside the lines a bit and bring some additional tinting to our Lady Aperet-Isis.

Aperet Iset

First of all, Her name. The word “aper” means “to equip.” Aper-et is just “aper” with the feminine ending appropriate for a Goddess or a woman. And so, in the article I’m reading, it is translated as “She Who Equips the Throne,” (remembering that Iset means Throne). With what does She equip the throne? We don’t know. The article doesn’t speculate on that.

Perhaps with sovereignty? Sovereignty is always part of the discussion when it comes to the name of Isis Herself. If Isis IS the Goddess Throne, then to rightly rule, the king must sit in Her lap, on the throne, as Her child. That’s okay, as far as it goes. But Isis is far too expansive a Goddess to be confined to such a limited role. And, as all of you who have been reading along with this blog well know, She never was so confined. In fact, She eventually became The Goddess, the Encompassing All-Goddess, for so many, many of Her worshipers.

The king offering to Horus the Child, Min, and Aperet-Iset

I happen to be studying something right now that I believe can shed some light on Aperet-Isis.

You might be familiar with some of the forms of the human being, especially prominent after death, such as the ka and the ba. There’s another one called the akh. The dead “become akh” when they have successfully passed through the weighing of the heart during the Judgment of Osiris. You might see them described as “transfigured spirits.” When you’re akh, you have, in essence, become divine. You have all your powers and may travel between the worlds—heaven, earth, or underworld—at will, dwelling with the Goddesses and Gods. Naturally, the Deities are Akh, too, and have even more akh-power than humans who are akh.

There are two adjectives that are almost always used to describe akhs: iqer and aper. In the briefest of definitions, iqer is “effective” and aper is “equipped.”

The king offering to Min, Aperet-Iset, and Repyt

And with what are the divine akhs equipped? This we do know specifically. They are equipped with magical knowledge and power. Because they are aper—equipped—they are also iqer—effective—in doing whatever it is they wish to accomplish.

So, I think Aperet-Iset is not “She Who Equips the Throne,” but is instead the “Equipped Throne” or—taking Iset as a name rather than an object—”Equipped Isis.” To confirm that, some scholars have indeed understood Aperet-Isis as a form of Great Isis. As we know, being equipped with powerful magic is entirely within the natural purview of the Great Magician Goddess Isis. As Great of Magic, Our Goddess is incredibly competent and fully equipped with all Her magic. In tombs, we sometimes see human akhs describe themselves as “a lector priest who knows his spells.” And we know that Isis the Magician is perfect in casting Her spells, never hesitating or stumbling over a word. So I think we can take Aperet-Isis as a form of Isis that focuses particularly on Her magical strengths.

Equipped Isis may use Her magic in service to “the throne,” that is, the kingship. Under Her epithet of Lady of the Two Lands, this makes sense. And Great Isis was always concerned with maintaining the legitimate rule of Her son Horus over Egypt.

While usually shown in woman-form with horns-and-disk crown, vulture headdress, and sometimes two plumes, Aperet-Isis is also occasionally shown as a lioness-headed Goddess. She is usually in the company of other Deities, such as Min, Osiris, Horus, Isis, and Nephthys. In the mammisi, or birthhouse, at Edfu, She is shown with 13 other Goddesses, including two Isises and three Hathors. In Egyptian theology, it is no contradiction to have duplicates of the same Deities shown together, nor is it a contradiction to have a minor form of Isis, Aperet-Isis, shown with other forms of Isis.

We also find Aperet-Isis at Abydos, where Her powerful magic would be needed to resurrect and maintain Osiris. In the area around Akhmim, Her name is listed on funerary stelae, as well as being included in the offering formulae for tombs. This again connects Equipped Isis with the afterlife, where Her magic is required for renewal. And this is where the first of those more interesting epithets come in. One says, “Aperet-Isis, Her Face Coming Forth from the Land of God.” The Land of God, in this case, is the otherworld, the land of the dead, as well as the land of the Deities. As She emerges from this place, She is able to assist the dead in their transition to the next life. It is very valuable to have a Goddess Who is equipped with magic and knowledge available to help us in that great change.

The second of our more interesting epithets is “Aperet-Isis in the Temple of the Moon.” This is through Her connection to Min, Who is considered a Moon God. He is called Defender of the Moon and He Who Dwells in the Temple of the Moon. Generally, His sanctuaries were known as the Hwt I’ah, the House or Temple of the Moon—and this included Akhmim. As the Lady of Akhmim then, Aperet-Isis is also a Moon Goddess. So if you’re looking for a particularly lunar (and magical) form of Isis, Aperet-Isis may be the one for you. (More on Isis as a Moon Goddess here.)

At Athribis and Akhmim, Aperet-Isis is connected with the Goddess Repyt, known to the Greeks as Triphis (which sounds like an epithet of Hekate, but isn’t). More likely, this Greek rendition comes from combining the Egyptian feminine article, ta, with the Egyptian term rpyt, meaning “lady” and adding the Greek grammatical ending. So, the Goddess Repyt is simply The Lady. Repyt is often lioness-headed, too, and is paired with Min as consort. All three Deities, Min, Aperet-Isis, and Repyt, might be represented together. If Repyt is The Lady and Aperet-Isis is The Lady of Akhmim—and both are mothers of a Child God, Horus or Kolanthes (the Greek version of a little-known Child God)—we begin to see how the Goddesses come together. Ah, the glorious mess that is Egyptian Deities and how They refuse to have impermeable borders!

But now, I think we have at least a bit more color for our Goddess, “Equipped Isis.” She is a magically powerful Mother Goddess, a Queenly Goddess of the Two Lands, a Goddess of Magical Renewal, and a mystic Goddess of the Moon. She is most known from the New Kingdom onward, which is the same period when the worship of Great Isis was growing and spreading throughout the Mediterranean and further. It was, no doubt, inevitable that these two Goddesses would meet and unite.

Isis & Min

I’m so used to thinking of Isis with Osiris that I can forget She is also paired with other Gods. Today, we’ll look at one of Them: the God of the Upright Phallus, Min.

ancient-egypt-map1

Isis and Min shared a temple complex at Koptos (Gebtu in ancient Egyptian, Qift in modern). It is in Upper Egypt, near Denderah and Thebes. The site is connected to the Red Sea by the Wadi Hammamat (meaning “Valley of Many Baths), a dry riverbed. The wadi contains important 3,000-year-old petroglyphs; in ancient times, it led to major Egyptian mining areas and was a key trade route.

Koptos is also just across the Nile from Naqada, the site of the pre-dynastic culture that takes its name from the site. What is known as Naqada II (3500-3400 BCE) is the period to which the beautiful statuettes of the “Nile Goddess” or “Dancing Woman” are dated.

These statues are usually identified as Nile Goddesses, but she may be a dancing priestess with her arms upraised...perhaps in the Wings of Isis — The Nile Goddess or dancing woman of Naqada. More on Her here.

Koptos is an ancient, ancient sacred site and probably originally belonged to Min alone. Herodotus reports that the Egyptians considered Him their oldest Deity. Yet by at least the time of the New Kingdom, Isis is prominent there as well and Min becomes assimilated with Osiris. The temple to Isis and Min, the ruins of which we see today, was built under Ptolemy II, with additions made under succeeding pharaohs. There are remains of two more temples on the site. One is the Ptolemaic “middle temple” or “Osiris temple.” The other is a temple dedicated to Geb and Isis, probably begun under Nectanebo II and continued under the Ptolemies. There is literary evidence for a temple of Isis and Harpokrates, but its remains have not yet been found.

One of the interesting things about Koptos is that it was a popular oracular site. You can still see the small chamber to the rear of the Isis and Geb temple in which the entranced priest would sit to deliver the words of the Deity. This oracular chapel was built by Kleopatra VII (the famous one). The tradition of oracles at Koptos did not cease with the coming of Christianity. In a work called Theosophia, we have record of an oracle from Koptos that is ostensibly an Egyptian Pagan oracle, but since it discusses the unity of the Logos and the Father, a number of scholars think it was likely a Christian retrofit. Be that as it may, the point is that the tradition of oracles at Koptos was well established.

The so-called Colossus of Koptos...a predynastic form of Min — The so-called Colossus of Koptos…a predynastic form of Min; they found three of these at Koptos

A particular Isiac relic at Koptos seems to have been a lock of Her hair. A Greek dedication to Her says it is “to the Great Goddess, Isis of the Hair.” We also have a record of a healing prayer made “near the hair at Koptos.” Plutarch explains the tradition for us, relating that when Isis first heard of the death of Osiris, She cut off a lock of Her hair and donned mourning dress. He notes that this is why the city there is called Koptos for some derive the name from Greek koptein, meaning “to deprive.” The cutting of hair is a Greek mourning tradition; Egyptian women simply wore theirs long and unkempt. (Read more about that tradition here.) Nevertheless, among both Greeks and Egyptians, Isis of Koptos was particularly known a Mourning Goddess.

The ancient Greek travel writer, Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, mentions Koptos as the site of a tragedy that befell a man who rashly entered Isis’ sanctuary there without a specific invitation from the Goddess:

I have heard a similar story from a man of Phoenicia that the Egyptians hold the feast for Isis at a time when they say she is mourning for Osiris. At this time the Nile begins to rise, and it is a saying among many of the natives that what makes the river rise and water their fields is the tears of Isis. At that time then, so said my Phoenician, the Roman governor of Egypt bribed a man to go down into the shrine of Isis in Koptos. The man dispatched into the shrine returned indeed out of it, but after relating what he had seen, he too, so I was told, died immediately. So it appears that Homer’s verse speaks the truth when it says that it bodes no good to man to see godhead face to face. (Pausanias, Book X, 32, 10-17.)

Koptos must have had strong magical connections as well. If you recall the story of Setna and the magic book, you may remember that the magic book so coveted by Naneferkaptah was to be found at the bottom of the Nile by Koptos.

At Koptos, Isis is sometimes the mother of Min or Min-Hor, sometimes His consort. When Isis and Min are consorts, Min is the father of Hor-pa-khred, Horus the Child. Min is very much a God of male sexual prowess and thus, of course, fertility. Images of Him almost invariably show Him with an erect penis jutting out at an impressive right angle to His body. In the Coffin Texts, the deceased identified himself with “Woman-Hunting” Min to partake of His potent sexuality.

By the 18th dynasty, Min became associated with Amun and was incorporated into the festivals that were intended to revitalize the king. There is an ancient rite of Min called The Going Forth of Min and sometimes The Going Forth of Min to the Khedju, which may mean a type of ritual garden. During these festivals, the sacred image of the God was carried to a symbolic garden so that the God could bless the fields. This blessing was extended to the pharaoh; he took part in the procession as Horus, while the queen participated as Isis.

Although Min is usually shown in anthropomorphic form as a beautiful black man, at Koptos, He was also worshipped in the form of a white bull. Min is called the Beautiful Bull, the Strong Bull, and the Powerful Bull for the bull has always been a symbol of male strength and fertility.

He, Amun, and Horus are also known by the epithet, Kamutef, Bull of His Mother. The epithet has clear sexual connotations. Originally, it seems to have been an epithet of Horus, which was extended to Min when the two Gods were assimilated. It was further extended to Amun when He and Min were assimilated. It points to a primordial conception of the Divine in which the God is both son and lover of the Goddess. In a hymn to Min, a passage says:

Hail to Thee, Min, fecundating Thy mother; secret are Thy dealings with Her when the heavens are dark.

On a 13th dynasty stela, there is a similar inscription about Horus Kamutef:

Thy heart joins with the king as the heart of Horus joined with His mother Isis when He coupled with Her, flank to flank.

This ancient conception perfectly encapsulates the relationship between Isis and Min at Koptos. They are mother and son (sometimes Min is simply called “Min, Son of Isis” just as Horus is Harsiesis, “Horus, Son of Isis”) and They are lovers.

Min is usually shown with His legs tightly mummy-wrapped together but His penis exposed and ready. A flail is shown over His upraised right arm. The flail forms a “V” over His shoulder into the center of which the God places His upraised hand. Some have seen this as a sexual emblem: the vulva-triangle of the flail penetrated by the God’s penis-forearm. Sure, why not? I like it.

In addition to His bull epithets, Min is also known as Lord of Awe and Great of Love, just as Isis can be called Sweet of Love. (Perhaps She calls Him Lord of Awe at times when He has been particularly Great of Love.) In a hymn to Min from Koptos, He is said to love humankind and therefore He made youths (for fertile sex, of course). He is called Fair of Face and Sweet of Love. He is said to abominate the cutting short of the breath of life. He heals the sick and is “beautiful beyond the Gods.” He is also a Lunar God and Protector of the Moon.

I will admit that I have not, to date, done much to honor Min, perhaps because for me, that type of energy comes from Dionysos, to Whom I am also dedicated. Nevertheless, Isis and Min at Koptos make an intriguing pair. Isis is the Beautiful Mourner, the Goddess of the Disheveled Hair. Min is the Lord of Life Who invigorates human beings and agricultural fields alike. As Death and Life, They make a complete cycle. The Bull of His Mother brings renewal to Her in the form of Their Child. She, in turn, nurtures Him as Min, Son of Isis.

The Goddess of Willendorf

In Search of the Feminine Divine

Category Archives: Koptos

The Magical Hair of Isis

Who is Aperet-Iset?

Isis & Min

Simon Magus is coming to