Next speaker meeting April 26, 2026
In person and via Zoom
NEW LOCATION
Sulzer Branch of Chicago Public Library
4455 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago
Doors open at 2:00 pm
Zoom opens at 2:15pm CST
Announcements then Program start at 2:30pm CST
Our CAS Sunday meetings are free and open to the Public
supported by our paid membership and other donations
Passcode: 965923
Isis as an Archetype for Women
in the Old to Middle Kingdom in Pharaonic Egypt
by
Megan Sands
Graduate Student at University of Chicag
Isis is a prominent Egyptian deity, a goddess who has been associated with motherhood, magic, and funerary rituals. Despite her prominence throughout pharaonic Egypt, research on Isis has focused primarily on the later periods of Egyptian history. This research fills this gap by examining textual and artistic evidence from the Old to Middle Kingdom (ca.2686 BCE-1773 BCE) detailing Isis. Aspects of Isis examined include: her role as a mourner, wife, and mother. To see her influence on Egyptian society, specifically women, artistic representations, such as statuary, funerary reliefs, stelae, and tomb wall scenes are examined. Comparisons will then be made to combat the notion that Isis was only crucial to women during the later periods. Sources on Isis will include the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, artistic representations, and placement of her name on funerary items such as coffins, sarcophagi, and the wall reliefs of tombs. Thereby, the study questions if Isis was an archetype for women in the Old and Middle Kingdom. The results indicate that it is inconclusive if she was an archetype for women in the Old Kingdom, but that she may have been a role model for women in the Middle Kingdom, notably in her motherly role.
