Isis and the Seven Scorpions

Isis in a scorpion form

Afterwards the death of Osiris, Isis was confronted with many hard knocks. Her evil brother Set held Isis and the infant Horus captive in a house (See [Conflict between Horus and Set (Mythology)]). Thoth, the great god of wisdom and magic,  came  to  Isis  and  pepped up  her  to  escape  from Set and to hide her child in a papyrus brushwood in the fens of the Delta. Seven scorpions, who were a demonstration of Selket the scorpion goddess, guided Isis as she fled her vicious brother Set. As she traveled to the Delta, Isis sought shelter one night with the wife of  the  township  official,  but  when  the  woman  saw  the seven scorpions accompanying Isis, she shut her door and  rejected  them  refuge.  Angered  because  Isis had been treated so badly, six scorpions abandoned their poison on the tip of the tail of the seventh scorpion, and the seventh entered the house of the inhospitable woman and burned her son. The excited woman ran through the town crying and bitter, for she did not know if her child would live or die. Upon hearing the screams of the mother, Isis felt sad, for the child had done nothing wrong, and she visited to the woman, Come to me, for my speech has the power to pro-tect, and it has life. Isis settled her hand upon the child and radius, O poison of Tefen, come forth, and come out on the ground! For I am Isis the goddess, and I am the lady of language of power, and I know how to  work  with  words  of  power,  and  strong  are  my words! The poison left the child and he lived.

Then Isis said to the seven scorpions, I speak to you, for I am unique and my regret is greater than that of anyone in all the Nomes of Egypt. . . . Turn your faces down to the ground and lead me to the swamps and the occult places.

Isis as a Mother of Horus

Goddess Isis nursing Horus

It is in this  aspect that the goddess was regarded as the vital link between gods and royalty, since the king was the living Horus on  the  throne  of  Egypt.  In  the Pyramid Texts  it  is  stated  that  the  rule drinks divine milk from the boobs of his mother Isis.  This  is  the  mental imagery  of  the plethora of statuettes of Isis sat on a throne,  suckling  the  young  Horus  who sits on her lap. The goddess was thought to have given birth to her son at Khemmis in  the  Delta,  rewarding  the  connexion with the monarchy since the place name in its ancient Egyptian form of Akh-bity substance papyrus  thicket  of  the  king  of Lower Egypt. Her part as a goddess protective royal births is got in the Middle Kingdom account  in  the  Papyrus Westcar promising a dynastic change: Isis takes into  her  arms  all  of  the  first  three pharaohs of the Dynasty V as Ruddedet makes them birth.

Isis  intends  to  bring  up  Horus  in secret so that he might eventually avenge the character assassination of his father. This close holding of Horus from danger gets a  frequent  point  of  reference  in  magical texts  concerning  cures  for  children's ailments  leading  from  hazards  like scorpion  bites,  or  accidental  scalds.  Isis visited great of magic is evoked to come to the child's aid as if it were Horus himself.  A  spell  against  a  fire,  e.g.  is recited over a concoction of human milk, gum  and  cat  hairs,  to  be applied  to the separated child: in it Isis, narrated that her son lies  in  the  desert  hurt  from  a burn with no water to clear him, gives the assurances that her saliva and piss (which she euphemistically addresses  the River Nile flood between my thighs) feature the power to ease the pain.

Isis and Nephthys

Goddess Isis and her sister Nephthys mourned  the  death  of  Osiris, and while they shown their grief, the sisters cautiously made the body of Osiris for divine mummification.  As  protectors  of  Osiris,  they  became  the protectors  of  all  mummies.  Their  images  look  on coffins  and  on  canopic jar  boxes,  where  they  guard the mummified variety meats of the passed. Sometimes the sisters are represented as hucksters wearing their respective symbols on their heads: 8 Isis and 3 Nephthys, their  extended  wings  protecting  the  broken. In the Book of the Dead, Isis and Nephthys  come along with the sun God Ra when he checks for his annual  journey through the Netherworld.