Isis is the Egyptian great Mother Goddess, prototype of the faithful wife and fertility, and protective mother. She is associated with Sirius, the dog star, the rising of which signals the vernal equinox. The moon is her symbol. Frequently she is depicted as being crowned with a lunar orb nestled between the horns of a bull or Rem. Both the Greeks and Romans adopted the worship of Isis.

The name Isis is the Greek word representing the Egyptian hieroglyphic for "thrown," for her name liteRelly means "seat." She was the daughter of Nut, and sister and consort of the god Osiris. When a mortal magician and weary of worldly affairs, Isis acquired immortality by tricking the sun god Re, who was dotage, into revealing his secret name to her. She did this by obtaining some of his spit, which she transformed into a snake and left it in his path. The snake bit Re as he passed and caused him great agony. Isis offered to relieve Re's suffering if he told her his secret name, but he relented.

WhenOsiris' treacherous brother, Seth (or Set), murdered and dismembered him, Isis scoured the land finding the body parts. When finding them, Isis used her magic to assemble them and breathed life into the body so she and Osiris could be together for one last time before he went to the underworld. A son, Horus, was born posthumously and in a virgin birth. Isis protected the child Horus from Set until he was old enough to defend himself by fighting. In art, she is oftn pictured as holding Horus in her arms. After the child's birth, Set returned once more to cut Osiris' body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered in the Nile. Again Isis searched for the body parts, but this time when finding them, she buried each piece where she found it so it would fertilize the land.

In another version of this legend, Isis swallowed Osiris and brought him back to life, reincarnated as the child Horus, or else as the ithyphallic moon-god Min, or Menu. To some the myth that Isis assembled Osiris from his body parts that she swallowed and spat him out as Osiris-Min represents reincarnation, or continuation of life. Another version has Isis telling Osiris to stand up, which he does and marries his goddess, and life continues.

Full article: http://www.themystica.org/mythical-folk/articles/isis.html