Egyptian. Also widely known as Stella Maris (Star of the Sea). She is the very well known Egyptian Goddess associated with rebirth and motherhood, and her cult became very popular in many areas during Roman imperial times. That cult has had a powerful impact on the development of Christianity in general and the accretion of beliefs surrounding the Virgin Mary in particular: it has long been noted that early images of Mary and the Christ child bear a striking similarity to contemporaneous images of Isis and Horus.
