PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 332-32 B.C.

The impressively sized goddess is represented seated with her feet resting on a trapezoidal plinth, clad in a tightly-fitted dress, with broad gold inlaid collar and eyes, her tripartite wig with finely echeloned curls, and vulture headdress crowned with a modius of uraei supporting cow horns framing a sun-disc. She is shown offering her left breast to her separately-cast divine son Horus seated on her lap, wearing a cap-crown fronted by a uraeus and the side lock of youth.

Her large eyes with round pupils, squared chin, and full round breasts reflect the style of Ptolemaic portraiture of queens. In particular, the treatment of the echeloned wig, with each curl in almost a teardrop shape, is reminiscent of royal statuary in stone of 1st century B.C. date, especially portraits attributed to the famous Cleopatra VII (compare Turin Museo Egizio 1385, Walker and Higgs, Cleopatra of Egypt from History to Myth, British Museum 2001, p. 168; see also Mariemont E 49, op. cit. fig. 5.6, also featuring a circle of uraei).  Similar curls and treatment of the vulture crown may also be noted in a slightly earlier faience statuette of Isis (British Museum EA 20549, Walker and Higgs pp. 104-5).  The face and wig of Isis are stylistically comparable to a slightly larger Ptolemaic silver cult statue of Isis-Hathor found in 1918 near the Sacred Lake at Dendera, while the treatment of the rounded, plump body of the of Horus sitting on his mother’s lap resembles that of the silver statuette of the child god Ihy from the same cache (Sylvie Cauville, “Les statues cultuelles de Denderah d’après les inscriptions parietals.”  BIFAO 87 (1987): 73-117). 

According to the myth Isis was the sister-wife of Osiris. After his defeat and murder at the hands of his enemy Seth, Isis uses her magic to revive his sexual member and becoming pregnant. She then flees to the marshes of the Delta where she gives birth to her son Horus, the rightful heir to the kingdom of Egypt. Representations of Isis nursing her son Horus were hugely popular in Egypt, from votive bronze figures to small amulets, showing how important her cult was in particular during the Late Period. Even when new religions are introduced to Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, her popularity continues to grow and with time she becomes assimilated with Aphrodite / Venus, also arguably the most popular female deity of the Greek and Roman pantheon.