Isis

Isis / Demeter / Ceres / Ishtar / Astarte

Isis

In Egyptian mythology, Isis was the daughter of the god Keb ("Earth") and the goddess Nut ("Sky"). To the Egyptians, Sirius was the star of Isis. After the 4th century BC the cult of Isis spread from its centre at the great temple in her honour on Philae, an island in the River Nile throughout the ancient world. Herodotus, the Greek scholar, identified Isis with Demeter (Roman - Ceres), the Greek goddess of agriculture, earth, and of fertility. The cult of Isis spread with that of Horus, her son, and Serapis, as the Greeks called Osiris.

Ancient Romans Participate in a Morning Ritual in Honor of Isis

The combined cult spread to Rome circa 86 BC. and disappeared after the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD.

"It is known in literature as that of Venus and Adonis, or, to use the traditional Phoenician names, Astarte and Eshmun, the same pair in Babylonia appearing as Ishtar and Tammuz, and in Egypt as Isis and Osiris." - Donald Harden, The Phoenicians