THE SCENE: According to the Sicilian historian Diodorus, the Egyptians so respected the Goddess Isis that they adopted a matriarchal society to imitate her example.
THE TEXT: The Egyptians also made a law, they say, contrary to the general custom of mankind, permitting men to marry their sisters, this being due to the success attained by Isis in this respect, for she had married her brother Osiris, and upon his death, having taken a vow never to marry another man, she both avenged the murder of her husband and reigned all her days over the land with complete respect for the laws, and, in a word, became the cause of more and greater blessings to all men than any other. It is for these reasons, in fact, that it was ordained that the queen should have greater power and honour than the king and that among private persons the wife should enjoy authority over her husband, the husbands agreeing in the marriage contract that they will be obedient in all things to their wives.
– Bibliotheca Historica, Diodorus Siculus, 1st Century BC
[Image Credit: Isis Oracle by Alana Fairchild]
