From the Elysian fields you will see me as queen of the profound Stygian realm
I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements,
primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of
the dead, queen of the ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single
manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are.
….Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names,
and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round
earth venerates me….Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the
Battles; others as Hecate….the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning
and worship me call me by my true name….Queen Isis.
- Apuleius, The Golden Ass, tr. Robert Graves, used as the epigraph to American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath
