The House of Aset

This is a short introduction to a site which tries to outline the ancient Egyptian goddess Aset - Ast - Isis. On this first page I have tried to briefly point at some differences between the early goddess as she appears in myth and textual material, and the interpretations of her which appears in the Greco-Roman period. On following pages I have tried to take a deeper look at the many aspects, names, functions and myths which surround the ancient Egyptian Aset.

ISIS or her more ancient Egyptian name ASET, seems like two different deities if you take a closer look. When the worship of ISIS rose in Greek and Roman days, ASET had already been forgotten for hundreds of years. At this time only a small group of priests still knew how to read the ancient hieroglyphs of the temple walls. The Greek and Roman way of superimposing their cultural values on Egyptian culture affected the interpretation of the original ASET, depriving her of her Egyptian origin and turning her into Roman deity. The most outstanding differences between them are:

1: Her fierceness which we find in the myths.
2: Her role as Divine sister-spouse and mourner to Wesir
3: Her role as a funerary deity.
4: Her function as Mother to the King.

This is not so with Isis who is a much more pronounced mother deity for everyone, benevolent and nourishing. It is true that Aset is nourishing and protective - but these efforts were from the beginning directed exclusively at Heru, her son, the King-to-be.

This image shows an almost schematic picture of how Aset merged with Isis.
To the far left she has Her original hieroglyph, the throne, above her head.
In the middle she wears the horned solar disc combined with the throne,
now she shares traits with Het-hert.
Finally she is pictured as a Great Mother in the shape of a cowheaded female
crowned with the horned solar disc and two plumes.

includes in her name the hieroglyph for "throne" or "seat". She is first mentioned in Dynasty IV and known in myth as daughter of Geb and Nut, part of the Ennead of Heliopolis. Already in early times she was the personification and symbol of the Throne of Egypt, who "made the king" and therefore the symbolical mother of the King, who was seen as the 'Living Heru'. At this period she was not a great mother deity for the people but linked to, and reserved for, Royalty. It would be thousands of years until she became a Great Mother deity.

Funerary Deity

In Myth

In myth Aset appears ruthless, strongwilled and quick to forward her motifs. The ancient Egyptians called her the 'Eye of Re', giving her an association with the sun. She was also called "Great of Heka"; Weret-Hekau, as she managed to trick Ra into telling her his secret name, thus getting access to great knowledge.

Solar Deity

The most wellknown myth about Aset is the story of how, when her husband Wesir (Osiris) was murdered by his brother Set and his body thrown into the Nile, she mourned him and went searching for his body, accompanied by her sister Nebt-Het. After many adventures, she finally found him and managed to bring him back to life and beget his son Heru who would in time win the throne back from his uncle Set. This, her role as mother, is what probably lies as a basis for the Greco-Roman interpretations of her, which caused her earlier aspects and functions to fade in the background.

More about the Kemetic Aset.

The Roman Isis is the deity called the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names, a Great Mother Goddess. It is not the purpose of this site to explore the Roman Isis, but some words might be in order to differentiate her from the Egyptian Aset. Isis is the preferred goddess by women, the protector at childbirth, for nurturing and caring of children and for everyone who is in need in any way of her. This is not at all to say that the ancient Egyptian female deities did not fill these functions. Het-Hert (Gr: Hathor) is the one that comes most easily to mind here and whom Aset merged with. But already long before the Roman period, Aset absorbed most of the properties and abilities of the main Egyptian goddesses (Het-Hert, Mut, Neith, Serket). This might have prepared the path for finding a likeness of her with deities like Hera and Aphrodite. Her popularity spread far beyond Egypt, all around the Mediterranean. She was even considered a Creator Goddess, as can be read in the 'Aretalogy of Isis'. Plutharch, who elaborated on the myth of Isis and Osiris, associated her with the moon, which is to be considered a sign of Roman influence, since the older form, the Egyptian Aset was associated with the sun and even called the 'Eye of Re'. However, since ancient days it was Djehuty (Thoth) who was associated with the moon. So this is another aspect where the imported, adapted deity Isis can be differed the most clearly form the original Kemetic Aset.

The cult of ISIS grew and became widely spread, probably because her traits as a mother goddess for everybody, and because her image as a widow and 'single mother' evoked compassion and recognition. Temples were built to her far beyond Egypt, although the old temples of ASET long since had been destroyed.

Traces of the Roman ISIS has come down to us through Apuleius´ story "The Golden Ass" where one Lucius tells about his experiences of Isis.