Relief depicting Isis nursing Horus,

664–610 BCE

These objects depict the Egyptian goddess Isis, sister and wife of the underworld god Osiris. First worshipped in the Fifth Dynasty (ca. 2465–2323 BCE) and associated with funerary rituals, fertility, maternal protection, healing, and magic, Isis is shown wearing a throne or a cow-horn headdress, and often nurses her son Horus. Her ability to sing healing prayers appealed to worshippers. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods (ca. 330 BCE–476 CE), her cult expanded beyond northern Africa to the Greek mainland, Asia Minor, and Italy. Her widespread popularity is evident in texts from this period, in which she says, “I am Isis, the queen of every land.” Artists adapted her representation to suit their cultural contexts. Isis’s popularity across diverse social and cultural groups was likely responsible for the continued worship of her into late antiquity and attests to the many historical connections between Africa and the wider Mediterranean world.