From the Nile to the Bosphorus

                                                                                      Myths do travel as long as people wander

The Bosphorus, known as the Istanbul Strait is a strait that forms the boundary between the Thrace and Anatolian sections of Turkey. The ancient writers state that the Bosphorus derived its name from the passage of Io in the shape of a cow. The story of Io probably came from Egypt and Isis, the ancient goddess of the Nile. Along with her trip to Egypt, Io was having children who were related to Zeus. One of the first she were bore was Keroessa on the hill between the Alibeykoy (Cydaros) and Kagithane (Barbysos) streams at the tip of the Golden Horn. Afterwards, Keroessa  became the mother of the first founder of the city Byzantium known as Byzas.

* Isis was the Great Lady, the Queen of Heaven, the Moon-goddess, protectress and mother of  all the pharaohs. She was skilled as a sorceress and a healer.

* Harpokrates is the Hellenized version of the Egyptian phrase meaning ‘Horus the child’. He was a form of the god Horus, son of Isis and Osiris.

Io is carried before Isis on the back of a dark-skinned Egyptian god. She is crowned with a pair of cow horns suggestive of her former metamorphosis. Isis sits with an adder coiled around her arm, and beside her son Harpokrates with finger pressed to his lips.

Bosphorus-Istanbul

Golden Horn