Because I am the first and the last I am the venerated and the scorned
I am the whore and the saint
I am the wife and the virgin
I am the mother and the daughter
I am the arms of my mother
I am the sterile one, and my children are many
I am the well-wed and the spinster
I am the one who gave the light and the one who never gave birth
I am the wife and the husband
And it was my man who bore me in his belly
I am the mother of my father
I am the sister of my husband
And he is my rejected son
Respect me always
Because I am the scandalous and the discreet.
Hymn to Isis is 3rd or 4th century BC, discovered in Nag Hammadi.
Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho opens his novel Eleven Minutes with the Hymn to Isis.
Isis, the Egyptian Goddess, is mentioned several times in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. What is discovered at Nag Hammadi plays a key role in the plot.
Hymn to Isis is a favourite of talented Bulgarian artist Detelina Petkova.