# Isis Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/isis Language: en # Isis The wife who put Osiris back together and the mother who hid Horus — protector of the dead. **Also written**: Aset · Ese · إيزة · أست Useful clues to take into the temple. ## How to recognise them The reliable sign is a small stepped throne worn on her head — a seat drawn in profile, which is literally how her name is written. From the New Kingdom on she also wears cow’s horns with a sun disc between them, and that is exactly Hathor’s crown, so the two become genuinely hard to separate: if there is a throne, it is Isis; if there is only horns-and-disc, read the caption or the context, and remember that in a tomb the two goddesses flanking a coffin are usually Isis and her sister Nephthys. The other giveaway is the pose. In funerary painting Isis very often kneels at one end of a shrine, a coffin or a scene with her arms stretched out and long feathered wings hanging from them, mirrored by Nephthys at the other end. ## Who they were Isis is the sister and wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus, and in Egyptian terms she is above all effective: the one who knows the words that work. She searches for her murdered husband, revives him long enough to conceive their son, hides and heals that son in the marshes, and argues his case before the gods. Because of that she became the standard protector of anyone in danger, living or dead. Her cult (the worship and rituals devoted to a deity or royal figure) long outlived pharaonic Egypt and spread across the Roman world, and hers was among the last functioning temples in Egypt. ## Where you meet them She is at her clearest in QV66 in the Valley of the Queens, where she takes Nefertari by the hand and leads her forward — one of the most quoted images in Egyptian painting. She recurs on the walls and shrines of the royal tombs, and she is one of the two winged goddesses on the ends of coffins and canopic (connected with the storage of organs removed during mummification) shrines. God ## Who they are shown with [ God ### Osiris Osiris often appears wrapped as a mummy, holding a crook and flail. His atef crown has a tall central element flanked by feathers. The djed is a pillar-shaped symbol with stacked crossbars, associated with stability. Use these clues together with the inscription. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris)[ God ### Horus A falcon or falcon-headed figure may represent Horus, but several deities use falcon imagery. Crown, accompanying text and the action in the scene provide the more reliable identification. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/horus)[ God ### Hathor Cow horns around a sun disc can point to Hathor. A sistrum is a hand-held ritual rattle; a menat is a beaded necklace with a counterweight at the back. Both are associated with her worship. Isis and other deities can share attributes, so check the inscription too. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/hathor)[ God ### Anubis Anubis commonly appears as a black canid or a man with a canid head, associated with embalming and protection of the dead. Black has symbolic significance here; use captions and context to distinguish him from other canid deities. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/anubis) Continue reading ## Where to look 1–1 / 2 [Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Queens A royal cemetery whose tombs vary greatly in decoration and access. Check which are open before deciding how it fits your day. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-queens)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings) Sources & further reading 3 Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 2 Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch Oxford University Press Tier 1 [The conservation of the wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari](https://www.getty.edu/news/processing-the-material-record-of-the-tomb-of-nefertari-project/) Getty Conservation Institute Online source checked 2026-09-19 Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Gods](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods)