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 gave 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 BC, discovered in Nag Hammadi