A prominent Egyptian deity is Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris, god of the dead, and mother of Horus, the god associated with pharaohs. She herself has been associated with motherhood, magic, and funerary rituals. Her worship reached its peak during later periods, where she would also take on aspects of other deities, but Isis has been a long-standing aspect of Egyptian religion. However, research on Isis and her impact on the population have focused primarily on the later periods of Egyptian history, noticeably after the invasion of the Greek and Romans. This research fills in this gap by examining textual and artistic evidence from the Old to Middle Kingdom (ca.2686 BCE-1773 BCE) detailing Isis. Three roles of Isis were examined: her role as a mourner, wife, and mother. Roles found that did not fit into these three categories were included in the study, such as her role as protector. To see her influence on Egyptian society, specifically women, artistic representations of royal and upper-class women will be examined, such as statuary, funerary reliefs and stelae, and tomb wall scenes. Comparisons will then be made to combat the notion that Isis was only crucial to women during the later periods. Sources on Isis will include the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, artistic representations, and placement of her name on funerary items such as coffins, sarcophagi, and the walls of tombs. Thereby, the study questions if Isis was an archetype for women in the Old and Middle Kingdom. The results indicate that it is inconclusive if she was an archetype for women in the Old Kingdom. However, the evidence indicates that she was potentially a role model for women in the Middle Kingdom, notably in her role as a mother.
Megan Sands (Sun,) studied this question.