LATE PERIOD - PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 664-32 B.C.

The impressively large statue depicts the seated goddess Isis, wearing a tightly fitted sheath dress, tripartite wig and uraeus headdress, fronted by a larger central uraeus, her eyes inlaid. On her lap she would have held a separately made figure of her divine son Horus suckling at her breast.

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 become 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.