Hymn to Isis

for i am the first and the last
i am the venerated and the despised
i am the prostitute 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 barren and my children are many
i am the married woman and the spinster
i am the woman who gives birth and she
who never procreated
i am the consolation for the pain of birth
i am the wife and the husband
and it was my man who created me
i am the mother of my father
i am the sister of my husband
and he is my rejected son
always respect me
for i am the shameful and the magnificent one

(hymn to Isis, third or fourth century B.C., discovered in Nag Hammadi)