I am Isis, the mistress of every land, and I was taught by Hermes, and with Hermes I devised letters, both the sacred and the demotic, so that all things might be written with the same letters.

I gave and ordained laws for men, which no one is able to change.

I am the eldest daughter of Kronos.  I am the wife and sister of King Osiris.  I am She who finds fruit for men. I am mother of King Horus.

I am She that rises in the dogstar.  She called Goddess by women.  For me was the city Bubastis built.

I divided the earth from the heavens.  I showed the path of the stars.  I ordered the course of the sun and the moon.  I devised business in the sea.

I made strong the man.  I brought together Woman and Man.  I appointed to women to bring their infants to birth in the tenth month.  I ordained that parents should be loved by children.  I laid punishments on those disposed without natural affection towards their parents.
I made with my brother Osiris an end to the eating of men.  I revealed mysteries to men.  I taught men to honor images of the gods.  I consecrated the precincts of the gods.

I broke down the governments of tyrants.  I made an end to murders.  I compelled women to take the love of men.  I made the right stronger than gold and silver.  I ordained that the True should be thought Good.  I devised marriage contracts. 

I assigned to the Greeks and the Barbarians their languages.  I made the beautiful and the shameful to be distinguished by nature.  I ordained that nothing should be feared than an oath.  I have delivered the plotter of evil against other men into the hands of the one he plotted against.  I established penalties for those who practice injustice.  I decreed mercy to supplicants.  I honor righteous guards.  With me the Right prevails.

I am the Queen of Rivers and Winds and Sea.  No one is held in honor without my knowing it.  I am the Queen of War.  I am the Queen of the Thunderbolt.  I stir up the sea and I calm it.  I am in the rays of the sun.

Whatever I please, this too shall come to pass.  With me everthing is reasonable.  I set free those in bonds.  I am the Queen of Seamanship.  I make the navigable unnavigable when it pleases me.

I created walls of cities.  I am called The Lawgiver.  I brought up lands out the depths into the light.  I am Lord of Rainstorms.  I overcome fate.  Fate hearkens to me.

Hail Egypt that nourished me.

{Isis hymn from Kyme, ca 100 CE.  Translated by Frederick C. Grant.  Slight modifications by myself.}
My own Egyptian style Isis statuette.
When people think of the Roman Isis, they are usually thinking of this beauty on the right.  This is the Capitoline Isis, so named as she graces the halls of the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  She is from the Villa of Hadrian and so is dated to ca 117 - 138 CE.  She stands 5'10 1/2", or 179.5 cm tall.  Notice the "thet knot" she is wearing.  This knot was
common for priests and priestesses of Isis.  {Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen}
On the left is this variation of the typical Isis pose.  Dated to 120 - 150 CE, she is now in the British Museum.  Thanks to Patty, aka Archangeli for letting me use her photograph.  
And my own small Roman Isis!  I bought this one from Isiscraft.
Above, the face of Isis does not get any sweeter than this.  From one of the Pompeii Isis statues now in Naples.
1st century.
Also from Hadrian's villa comes this interesting bust.  The marble is actually mostly black.  Notice the bull's horns on her helmet.  On the back of the bust is the face of the Apis bull. 
Above left, Isis-Fortuna, 1st century CE.  Isis, identified with Fortuna, has her hand on a ship's rudder representing her role as goddess of seamanship as well as fortune in steering through the seas of life and her mastery over Fate.  Note the Isiac elements in this figure: the Isiac headress with cobras and horns and the water jar so common in Isis representations.
{Photo by Barbara McManus}
On the right, my own Isis-Fortuna.  Here instead of the waterjar she is holding a cornucopia {Isis was also identified with Ceres and Demeter, as well as many other goddesses}.  Note the wheel at her side. 
If her face looks somewhat Asian, it shows that this figure was made in India!  Purchased from Isiscraft.
There is only one more room to go.  Isis is waiting there for you.
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