Editing Isis (section)

====Relationship with royalty====
Despite her significance in the Osiris myth, Isis was originally a minor deity in the ideology surrounding the living king. She played only a small role, for instance, in the [[Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus]], the script for royal rituals performed in the reign of [[Senusret I]] in the Middle Kingdom.<ref>{{harvnb|Frankfort|1978|pp=43–44, 123, 137}}</ref> Her importance grew during the New Kingdom,<ref>{{harvnb|Lesko|1999|p=170}}</ref> when she was increasingly connected with Hathor and the human queen.<ref>{{harvnb|Troy|1986|p=70}}</ref>

The early first millennium BCE saw an increased emphasis on the family triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus and an explosive growth in Isis's popularity. In the fourth century BCE, [[Nectanebo I]] of the [[Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt|Thirtieth Dynasty]] claimed Isis as his patron deity, tying her still more closely to political power.<ref>{{harvnb|Bricault|Versluys|2014|pp=30–31}}</ref> The [[Kingdom of Kush]], which ruled Nubia from the eighth century BCE to the fourth century CE, absorbed and adapted the Egyptian ideology surrounding kingship. It equated Isis with the ''[[kandake]]'', the queen or [[queen mother]] of the Kushite king.<ref>{{harvnb|Morkot|2012|pp=121–122, 124}}</ref>

The [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaic]] Greek kings, who ruled Egypt as pharaohs from 305 to 30 BCE, developed an ideology that linked them with both Egyptian and [[List of Greek deities|Greek deities]], to strengthen their claim to the throne in the eyes of their Greek and Egyptian subjects. For centuries before, [[Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies|Greek colonists]] and visitors to Egypt had drawn parallels between Egyptian deities and their own, in a process known as ''[[interpretatio graeca]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|2008|pp=387–388}}</ref> [[Herodotus]], a Greek who wrote about Egypt in the fifth century BCE, likened Isis to [[Demeter]], whose mythical search for her daughter [[Persephone]] resembled Isis's search for Osiris. Demeter was one of the few Greek deities to be widely adopted by Egyptians in Ptolemaic times, so the similarity between her and Isis provided a link between the two cultures.<ref>{{harvnb|Thompson|1998|pp=699, 704–707}}</ref> In other cases, Isis was linked with [[Aphrodite]] through the sexual aspects of her character.<ref>{{harvnb|Solmsen|1979|pp=56–57}}</ref> Building on these traditions, the first two Ptolemies promoted the cult of the new god [[Serapis]], who combined aspects of Osiris and [[Apis (deity)|Apis]] with those of Greek gods such as [[Zeus]] and [[Dionysus]]. Isis, portrayed in a [[Hellenized]] form, was regarded as the consort of Serapis as well as of Osiris. [[Ptolemy II]] and his sister and wife [[Arsinoe II]] developed a [[ruler cult]] around themselves, so that they were worshipped in the same temples as Serapis and Isis, and Arsinoe was likened to both Isis and Aphrodite.<ref>{{harvnb|Pfeiffer|2008|pp=391–392, 400–403}}</ref> Some later Ptolemaic queens identified themselves still more closely with Isis. [[Cleopatra III]], in the second century BCE, used Isis's name in place of her own in inscriptions, and [[Cleopatra VII]], the last ruler of Egypt before it was annexed by [[ancient Rome|Rome]], used the epithet "the new Isis".<ref>{{harvnb|Plantzos|2011|pp=389–396}}</ref>