Folklore & Mythology, Egypt & the Nile Valley - Ancient History, History of Religion

Isis and Osiris

Name: Isis and Osiris
Author: Jonathan Cott
ISBN: 9780385512435

by Jonathan Cott

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Overview

The ancient Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris - the story of a goddess's search for and reassembling of her brother/husband's dismembered body has haunted humanity's imagination since the dawn of time. Over the centuries this tale of love and betrayal, of death and resurrection, has made its way from the fertile Nile valley to affect cultures throughout the world. The Cult of Isis flourishes even to this day in many corners of the globe, five thousand years after its first mention in ancient Egyptian tents. This myth's significance as an archetype is undeniable. As books like Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth and Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women Who Run with the Wolves have taught us, the retelling of a myth over scores of generations serves to fertilize the deepest levels of our imagination, and few myths have appeared over the last fifty centuries in as many different forms as this one. Isis's journey to find and awaken Osiris echoes Psyche's quest for Eros and Orpheus's search for Eurydice, and direct parallels exist between the worship of the Madonna in early Christianity and the Cult of Isis and her many devotees in Greece and Rome. From Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, from Ishmael Reed to Sam Shepard, from D. H. Lawrence and Norman Mailer to a Saturday-morning animated children's cartoon called "Isis," modern reworkings of the myth are legion. The story of Isis and Osiris has become inextricably linked to the way we think about loss and love, forgetting and remembering, suffering and healing. How does one explain this story's enduring power and far-reaching influence? Acclaimed author Jonathan Cott has journeyed around the world and visited scores of worshipers, philosophers, historians, Egyptologists, artists, and psychologists in an effort to answer this question. He visits Clonegal Castle, Ireland, where Archpriestess Olivia Robertson holds court over the Fellowship of Isis, a group with more than 15,000 followers in sixty countries whose membership roll has

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this exotic piece of reportage, Cott ( The Search for Omm Sety ) first retells the Egyptian myth of Isis, goddess of fertility and healing, who restored to life her murdered twin brother and lover Osiris. Cott then investigates the myth's continuing appeal to contemporary devotees, some of whom strain credulity. In Ireland he met Olivia Robertson, archpriestess and founder of the Fellowship of Isis, who, with her brother, an Anglican clergyman, performs mystery plays and rites in their castle's basement temple. In Cairo, Cott talked with Sekhmet Montu, leader of the Ammonites, a secret sect which claims to be a direct branch of ancient Egypt's religion; she maintains that her nine-year-old son Heru is an incarnation of the god-being Horus. Through interviews with Egyptologists, a New York artist steeped in Egyptian symbolism and a Canadian couple who are both psychologists and conduct Isis/Osiris workshops, Cott fathoms the myth's appeal to modern wisdom seekers. Illustrated. (Feb.)

Library Journal

According to ancient Egyptian mythology, Isis and Osiris were not only wife and husband, goddess and god, but also sister and brother. In this work, Cott ( Wander ing Ghost , Random, 1991) interviews some of the people associated with the neopagan movement embracing these ancient dieties. Cott talks with Olivia Robertson and her brother Lawrence, the cofounders of the Fellowship of Isis in the Temple of Isis at Clonegal Castle, Ireland. Archpriestess Robertson leads an eclectic group of more than 11,000 members worldwide in veneration of Isis. Cott also visits with Her Grace Sekhmet Montu and her son Neb Heru, who claims to be Osiris's son Horus, and their sect, known as Ammonites. This book is more of a recruiting manual than an investigative work and overall lacks a sense of integrity. Not recommended.-- Jacqueline Garlesky, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Pa.

Booknews

Cott recounts the Egyptian myth and then examines it via interviews with the archpriestess of the Fellowship of Isis (a worldwide organization of over 15,000 members in 60 countries); the spiritual leader of the Ammonites and her nine-year-old son who is believed to be the incarnation of Isis and Osiris' son; and two psychologists who run workshops in which patients reenact the Isis/Osiris story as a means of therapy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)