Originally, she is simply the mother of Horus and the details surrounding his conception are more obscure. 2660-2190 BCE) but only later does she take on her most famous role of being a sister-wife of Osiris. Isis first appears during the period of Old Kingdom (ca. Unsurprisingly, then, the ancient Egyptian gods permeated every aspect of existence. Giving a phenomenon a story made it less horrifying, and it also helped them make sense of the world around them. In order to make sense of such an existence, they resorted to teleological stories. To the ancient Egyptians, as was the case with any society made up of inquiring humans, the world was a confusing and often terrifying place of destruction, death and unexplained phenomena. With world-famous leaders like King Tut and Cleopatra, it's no wonder that today's world has so many Egyptologists. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world's first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world.
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further readingĪfrica may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later.
