
Many world religions and belief systems have a sacred mother figure, personifying a strong, caring character—like the Hindu goddess Parvati, the Greek goddess Gaia, or the Christian Virgin Mary. Isis is the sacred mother figure of ancient Egypt, known as the Mother Goddess, with a dramatic backstory: to conceive her son, she resurrected her murdered husband. In this statuette, Isis holds Harpocrates—the child Horus—to her breast, a position that represents the mother figure as the nurturer and protector of humankind.