Women

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 and 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, 3rd or 4th century B.C-- Discovered by Nag Hammadi)