Oriental Antiquities

Isis nursing Horus , Virgin and Child and cult of mother goddesses

Isis nursing Horus              E 3637
Sully Room 18 showcase 1


Isis and the cult of mother goddesses
The cult of the Mother and Child
was widespread in Egypt.
It was often the mother goddess Isis wearing the crown of the Queen of Heaven and holding the child Horus on her lap.
This image is not unlike that of the Virgin
and Child of Christendom.
It is certain that in art, the figure of Isis nursing

Horus little resembles the Madonna and child.

Isis nursing Horus is a reminiscent image
of the Virgin and Child

"Ancient Egypt has perhaps contributed its share to lavish symbolism of the Catholic Church. And perhaps to Isis, where its function is later patron saint of sailors, the Virgin Mary is the charming epithet of Stella Maris, Star of the Sea "   J.G. Frazer AE54
There seem to be existing coincidences between the catholic church which are most disconcerting. According to the Egyptologist Desroches Noblecourt Ch, ' probably the successors of St. Peter did borrow the old Egyptian ritual '. AE58
In fact, many of the characteristics of different religions, Christian or not, can be explained by a common origin Babylonian. AE59

The Virgin 's Child             RF 3528
Hungary
first half of the fifteenth century
From the chapel in the vicinity of Uzgorod sub-Carpathian Ukraine
Lime multicolored H. 1 m.
The flowing folds and face are derived from the menu and rounded style of Beautiful Madonnas Austria around 1400.

Acquisition, 1981 Department of Sculptures
www.louvre.fr

The Virgin and the Child

Ephesus was the crucible in which the pagan worship of the goddess-mother was Christian and converted into a fervent devotion to Mary doomed made "Mother of God". AR16  This is the Ephesians the apostle Paul had announced such a drift (Acts 20:17-30, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, note). AR17 In 431 AD, the third ecumenical council held in this city gave Mary the title of ' Theotokos ’, a Greek word meaning ‘ God-bearer '. The use of this title by the Church was a determining factor in the development of the Doctrine of Mary.

Panel of the Virgin at the Annunciation

E 17118
Denon showcase M3 Mezzanine Room B
Dated the fifth century, the Annunciation,
carved and painted wooden fig-
is one of the first ever conducted.
Mary is depicted on a high stool spinning

the purple for the veil of the temple,

with the angel Gabriel’s presence
of which only one leg is visible.

The prototype of the Babylonian Ishtar is the source
of the worship of mother goddesses later

Vase of the goddess Ishtar     AO 17000
Richelieu
Room 3 showcase 5b
Babylonian worship of the Mother and Child
spread through the world.
The worshipers of Ishtar called

"the Holy Virgin" and they begged him to intercede when the gods were angry. A168
The symbolism of the Virgin and Child
strong presence in Egypt
and religions as opposed as
Catholicism and Buddhism


This could be explained by common origin.

This prototype is the source of the Babylonian worship of mother goddesses later.

Essential and ubiquitous in human history,
it is a major theme at the origin of religions and civilizations.  A169