Geb and Nut bore five children during the epagomenal days won by Thoth: Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys, who became the central figures of Egyptian mythology.
Isis and Horus the Elder are the parents of Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef, the four funerary deities who guard the canopic jars holding the viscera of the dead.
⚠ Pyramid Texts attribute the Four Sons to Horus alone. Later Coffin Texts name Isis as mother. The 'Horus' in question is generally understood as Horus the Elder (Haroeris), not Horus son of Isis.
Isis conceived Horus posthumously with the reassembled body of Osiris, then raised him in secret in the Delta marshes to one day avenge his father and reclaim the throne.
Isis found the infant Anubis after Nephthys abandoned him and raised him as her own son, forging a bond of fierce loyalty between adoptive mother and child.
Isis absorbed Hathor's iconography and maternal roles from the New Kingdom onward, adopting the cow-horn and solar disc headdress as the two goddesses became increasingly syncretized.
Renenutet was syncretized with Isis as Isis-Thermouthis during the Ptolemaic period, merging the harvest goddess's agricultural powers with the great enchantress's universal appeal.
Sopdet, the deified star Sirius, was absorbed into Isis from the Old Kingdom onward, her heliacal rising becoming an epiphany of the great goddess and a harbinger of the Nile flood that renewed the land.
In the Westcar Papyrus, Ra sends Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Heket to attend the birth of the future Fifth Dynasty kings, with Heket hastening each delivery while Isis receives the child.
Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serket stood at the four corners of Osiris's bier during his resurrection, each goddess shielding one side from the forces of chaos, a vigil repeated for every pharaoh's passage into the afterlife.
Thoth provided Isis and Nephthys with magical knowledge and sacred spells to resurrect Osiris from the dead.
Isis championed Horus before the Ennead during the Contendings, using disguise and cunning to trick Set into condemning himself and securing the divine tribunal's verdict in her son's favor.
Isis and Nephthys searched together for the dismembered body of Osiris and jointly mourned over him, their lamentations becoming a model for Egyptian funerary ritual.
Sobek aided Isis in recovering the dismembered body of Osiris from the Nile, and Isis rewarded the crocodile god with sacred status for his service.
Isis hid and raised the infant Horus in the papyrus marshes of the Nile Delta, protecting him from Set's agents until he was old enough to claim the throne.
Isis guards the canopic jar of Imsety, one of the Four Sons of Horus, protecting the preserved liver of the deceased in funerary rites.
Isis and Nephthys stand as mourning kites at the head and foot of Osiris's bier, spreading their wings over his body to protect and revive him with the breath of life.
The Seven Scorpions escorted and guarded Isis during her flight from Set, as recounted on the Metternich Stela, stinging those who refused her shelter.
Isis opposed Set after he murdered her husband Osiris, and she championed her son Horus's claim to the throne during the Contendings of Horus and Set.
The Great Ennead of Heliopolis comprises Atum and his eight descendants — Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys — forming the principal divine family of Egyptian theology.
Isis was actively syncretized with Demeter during the Ptolemaic period, their cults merging around shared themes of maternal grief and the search for a lost loved one, with Isis-Demeter worshipped at mystery rites modeled on the Eleusinian pattern.
Isis recovered the body of Osiris at Byblos, where his coffin had been encased within a great pillar. The djed pillar thereafter symbolized Osiris's resurrection and the stability she restored.
Isis rides aboard Ra's solar barque through the Duat, her magic shielding the sun god from the serpents and demons that assail the vessel during its nightly passage through the underworld.
Isis used her healing magic to help restore the Eye of Horus after Set tore it out during their conflict, her divine power contributing to the Eye's return to wholeness.
⚠ The Contendings of Horus and Set primarily credits Thoth with the restoration; Isis's role appears in some Coffin Text variants.
Isis wept so bitterly for murdered Osiris that her tears swelled the Nile, and the annual flood that Hapi brought from his cavern was said to begin with the goddess's grief.
Isis searched all of Egypt and beyond for Osiris's dismembered body, reassembled him, and used her magic to conceive Horus from his restored corpse.
Isis tricked the aging Ra into revealing his secret true name by fashioning a serpent that bit him, gaining power over the sun god through knowledge of his hidden identity.
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