By Barbara Waterson
Last updated 2011-02-17

Isis was one of the great goddesses, the most popular member of the Egyptian pantheon, revered for her magical powers and for her devotion to her husband, Osiris, and to their son, Horus.
Isis and her sister, Nephthys, acted as divine mourners of the dead. Together with the goddesses Neith and Selket they protected coffins and Canopic jars - Isis had the task of protecting the jar containing the liver.
In the Late Period her chief cult centre was at Philae, but she was universally revered for many centuries. The cult of this divine mother was eventually superseded only by that of the Virgin Mary.
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