I am Isis, the mistress of every land, and I was taught by Hermes, and with Hermes I devised letters, both the sacred [hieroglyphics] and the demotic, that all things might not be written with the same letter. I gave and ordained laws for human beings, which no one is able to change. I am eldest daughter of Kronos. I am wife and sister of King Osiris. I am she who finds fruit for humans. I am mother of King Horus. I am she that is called goddess by women. For me was the city of Bubastis built. I divided the earth from the heaven. I showed the paths of the stars. I ordered the course of the sun and the moon. I made strong the right. I brought together woman and man. I appointed to women to bring their infants to birth in the tenth month. I ordained that parents should be loved by children. I laid punishment upon those disposed without natural affection toward their parents. I made with my brother Osiris an end to the eating of human beings. I revealed mysteries unto human beings. I taught humans to honor images of the gods. I consecrated the precincts of the gods. I broke down the governments of tyrants. I made an end to murders. I compelled women to be loved by men. I made the right to stronger than gold and silver. I ordained that the true should be thought good. I devised marriage contracts. I assigned to Greeks and barbarians their languages. I made the beautiful and the shameful to be distinguished by nature. I ordained that nothing should be more feared than an oath. I have delivered the plotter of evil against other humans into the hands of the one he plotted against. I established penalties for those who practice injustice. I decreed mercy to suppliants. I protect righteous guards. With me the right prevails. I am the Queen of rivets and winds and sea. No one is held in honor without my knowing it. I am the Queen of war. I am the Queen of the thunderbolt. I stir up the sea and I calm it. I am in the rays of the sun. I inspect the courses of the sun. Whatever I please, this too shall come to an end. With me everything is reasonable. I set free those in bonds. I am the Queen of seamanship. I make the navigable unnavigable when it pleases me. I created walls of cities. I am called the Lawgiver. I brought up islands out of the depths into the light. I am Lord of rainstorms. I overcome Fate. Fate hearkens to me. Hail, O Egypt, that nourished me!
an aretalogy














