Isis, Magna Deorum Mater (from Oedipus Aegyptiacus)

The woodcut shows Isis standing in a hilly landscape, wearing a robe decorated with star patterns and a crescent moon emblem on her chest. Her elaborate headdress features stalks of grain and serpent motifs, while she holds a ceremonial sistrum in her raised right hand and a bucket-like situla in her lowered left. She is surrounded by alphabetical labels (A-S) that correspond to a descriptive key in the margins detailing her attributes as a lunar and agricultural deity. The style is illustrative, using high-contrast black and white linework typical of 17th-century printed books.

This image derives from Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652–1654), which attempted to reconstruct the prisca theologia and decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs through an esoteric, syncretic lens. It illustrates the late antique tradition of Isis as a 'pantheos'—a universal goddess encompassing the attributes of all other deities.