" The myth of Isis, as given bj' Plutarch {I)e Iside?), appears to be a fusion of Egyptian and Phoenician tra- ditions, and the esoterical explanations offered by that writer and others show the high antiquity and luiintel- ligibility of her name. She was thought to mean the cause or seat of the earth, to be the same as the Egyp- tian Neith or ^linerva, and Athor or Venus; to be the Greek Demeter or Ceres, Hecate, or even lo. Many monuments have been found of this goddess, and a tem- ple at Pompeii, and a h3'mn in her honor at Antioch. The representations of her under the Roman empire are most numerous, Isis having, in the pantheistic spirit of the age, been compared with and figured as all the prin- cipal goddesses of the Pantheon" (Chambers, Cyclopm- dia, s. v.).
The fable was adopted and incorporated in the mysti- cism of the Gnostics. Accordingly, among other repre- sentations, we find a gem containing a beetle, with Isis on the opposite side, holding two children, the emblem of maternal fecundity. See Madonna. On another gem the beetle is not cut on the stone, but the stone is formed into the shape of the insect, and on the convex back is represented Isis, or the Egyptian Ceres, reclin- ing beside the Nile, with two vases of Egyptian corn, the emblem of vegetable prolirtcness, naturally expressed by the emblem of the sun's rays and the Nile : from the head issues the lotus, and in one hand is held a nilome- ter, or ]ierhaps a spade. It is the exact form of the same agricultural instrument as used at this day in the East. An amulet of Isis was held in great sanctity. See Egypt.
See Herod, ii, c. 59 ; Ovid, Metam. ix, 776 ; Bunsen, Efiypfs Place, i, 413 ; Wilkinson, ManndS and Cmt. iii, 276; iv, 366; Birch, Gall. Ant. p. 31; Reichel, De Isis apud Romanes cultu (Berlin, 1849) ; Pierer, Universal Lexikon, ix, 82; Smitli, Diet, of Class. Mythol. s. v.
Gnostic Gem of Isis, on a Scarabaeus.
Isites, the name of a Mohammedan sect, who de- rive their name from their founder, Isa-Alerdad. They
ISLAM
690
ISMAEL
hold that tlic Koran was created, notwithstanding the opposition of Jlohammed liimself against such a state- ment, for he held tliat it was eternal, and in his day anathematized .-.11 who dared to dissent from his asser- tion. The Isites, however, really avow the same belief, though they clothe it in very different language. They say that the copy of the Koran delivered by the Al- mighty to his Prophet was only a transcription of the original, and that the reference of eternal could not therefore be to any copy possessed by man. But their real heresy consists in their declaration that the Koran does not contain that matchless eloquence which ]Mo- hammedans generally claim as evidence of the inspira- tion of the book. See Broughton, Biblioth. Histor. Sac. i,547.
Islam or Eslam (Arab.), the proper name of the re- ligion known as Mohammedanism, designates complete and entire submission of body and soul to God, his will and his service, as well as to all those articles of faith, commands, and ordina'ices revealed to and ordained by Mohammed his prophet. Islam, the Mohammedans say, was once the religion of all men ; but wickedness and idolatry came into the world either after the miurder of Abel, or at the time which resulted in the flood, or only after Amru Ibn-Lohai, one of the first and greatest Ara- bian idolaters. Every child, they believe, is born in Is- lam, or the true faith, and would continue faithful to the end were it not influenced by the wickedness of its par- ents, " who misguide it early, and lead it astray to Ma- gism [see Paksees], Judaism, or Christianity." — Cham- bers, Ci/rlnpmlici, v, G48. See Mohasijiedaxism.
Island or Isle is the invariable rendering in the Auth.Vers. of the Heb. word "^X (Sept. v/yffoCiVulg. in- sula), which occurs in the following senses, chiefly in poetr}-: First, that of dry or habitable kmd in opposi- tion to water; as, "I will make the rivers islands" (Isa. xlii, 15 ; comp. xliii, 19 ; Hi, 2). Especially is it a mar- itime region or sea-coast, like the East-Indian Dsib, which means both shore and island. In Isa. xx, G, the isle of Ashdod means the country, and is so rendered in the margin, particularly as this was a sea-shore. In Isa. xxiii, 2, G, " the isle" means the country of Tyre, and in Ezek. xxvii, G, 7, that of Chittim and Elisha, both being maritime regions. (In Job xxii, 30, ipD— 'X means the «on-guiltless.) In this sense it is more par- ticularly restricted to the shores of the INIediterranean, sometimes in the fuller expression " islands of the sea" (Isa. xi, 1 1), or " isles of the Gentiles" (Gen. x, 5 ; comp. Zeph. ii, 1 1), and sometimes simply as " isles" (Psa. Ixxii, 10; Ezek. XX vi, 15, 18; xxvii, 3, 35; xxxix, G; Dan.xi, 18) : an exception to this, however, occurs in Ezek. xxvii, 15, wliere the shores of the Persian Gulf are in- tended. Secondly, it is used botli in Hebrew and Eng- lish, according to its geographical meaning, for an isl- atul proper, i. e. a country surrounded by water, as in Jcr. xlvii, 4, "the isle (margin) of Caphtor," which is probably that of Cyprus. " The isles of the sea" (Esth. X, 1 ) are evidently put in opposition to " the land" or continent. Thirdly, the word is used by the Hebrews to designate all those countries divided from Palestine by water, as fully described in Jer. xxv. 22, '= the isles which are beyond the sea," which were hence regatded as the most remote regions of the earth (Isa. xxiv, 15; xlii, 10; lix, 18; compare the expression in Isa.lxvi, 19, " the isles afar off"), and also as large and numerous (Isa. xl, 15 ; Psa. xcvii. 1). (See J. D. Michaclis, Spici- lefiium. i, 131-142.) In Isa. xi, 1 1, after an enumeration of countries lying on their own continent, the words '•and the islands of the sea" are added in order to com- prehend those situate beyond the ocean. It is observed by Sir I. Newton (on Daniel, p. 276), "By the earth the Jews understood the great continent of all Asia and Af- rica, to which they had access by land; and by the isles of the sea they luiderstood the places to which they sailed by sea, particularly all Europe. (See (iesenius. Thes. Ueb. p. 38.)— Kitto • Smith. Comp. Wu.d Beast.