Nut

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Name

Nut

Sky

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Names - Alternate

Nuit

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Appearance

Nut is often depicted as a tall or long woman bending over the body of Her husband/brother Geb, colored dark blue and spangled with five-pointed golden stars.

Sometimes Nut appeared in the form of a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens, a sycamore tree, or as a giant sow, suckling many piglets, which represent the stars.

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Parents

Shu and Tefnut

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Consorts

Geb

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Children

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Epithets

Coverer of the Sky
Mistress of All
She Who Protects
She Who Holds a Thousand Souls

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Roles

Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of resurrection and rebirth. According to the ancient Egyptians, the heavenly bodies would enter her mouth, traverse her skies and be reborn with dawn out of her womb. A sacred symbol of Nut was the ladder, used by Wesir to enter her heavenly skies. This ladder-symbol was called maqet and was placed in tombs to protect the deceased, and to invoke the aid of the god of the dead.

Nut was seen as a friend and protector of the dead, who appealed to her as a child appeals to its mother: "O my Mother Nut, stretch Yourself over me, that I may be placed among the imperishable stars which are in You, and that I may not die." Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine: "I am Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil."

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Worship Centers

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Festivals

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Creation Story

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Myths

It was revealed to Ra that His grand-children, Nut and Geb would bear a child who would usurp His throne over the Two-Lands. Ra was determined to prevent this prophecy from ever coming to fruition, so He had forbidden Nut and Geb from being together by ordering His own son, Shu, the Father of Nut and Geb to seperate them for all of eternity. Strong as Shu had been by lifting His daughter high into the sky and away from Her Brother, Nut and Geb managed to find a way to come together and so it would come to pass that Nut would carry the children of Her Brother, Geb.

Discovering that Nut was with children, Ra was enraged. He had long thought of how He could prevent His Grand-daughter from giving birth to the heir to His throne and so, Ra, Creator of and Lord over the Entire Universe, decreed that there should not be a single day within the 360-day year that Nut would be allowed to give birth.

Distraught, Nut had supplicated Djehuty, Wisest of the Gods, for an answer to her predicament. He pondered Her problem and told Her not to fret as He would find an answer for Her. Djehuty went to see Khonsu, who ruled the phases of the moon, and played a game of Senet in which Khonsu was cajoled into betting some of his light. Djehuty being the Wisest of the Gods won the game of Senet and used the light He won from Khonsu to fashion the five days Nut needed to give birth to Her five children. Wesir was the first of the five children of Nut and Geb, being followed, in order, by Set, Heru-wer, Aset, and Nebt-het.

As a woman, she arches over her husband Geb, upheld by her father Shu. Each morning she births Ra, and each evening she swallows him again.

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Art

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Ancient

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Modern

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Hymns

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Ancient

[O] Nut, thou hast extended thyself over thy son the Osiris Pepi,
Thou hast snatched him out of the hand of Set; join him to thyself, Nut.
Thou comest, snatch thy son; behold, thou comest, form this great one [like] unto thyself.
[O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi.
[O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi.
Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children.
Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children.
Keb [was to] Nut. Thou didst become a spirit.
Thou wast a mighty goddess in the womb of thy mother Tefnut
when thou wast not born.
Form thou Pepi with life and well-being; he shall not die.
Strong was thy heart,
Thou didst leap in the womb of thy mother in thy name of "Nut."
[O] perfect daughter, mighty one in thy mother, who art crowned like a king of the North,
Make this Pepi a spirit-soul in thee, let him not die.
[19] [O] Great Lady, who didst come into being in the sky, who art mighty.
Who dost make happy, and dost fill every place (or being), with thy beauty,
The whole earth is under thee, thou hast taken possession of it.
Thou hast encompassed the earth, everything is in thy two hands,
Grant thou that this Pepi may be in thee like an imperishable star.
Thou hast associated with Keb in thy name of "Pet" (i.e. Sky).
Thou hast united the earth in every place.
[O] mistress over the earth, thou art above thy father Shu, thou hast the mastery over him.
He hath loved thee so much that he setteth himself under thee in everything.
Thou hast taken possession of every god for thyself with his boat (?).
Thou hast made them shine like lamps,
Assuredly they shall not cease from thee like the stars.
Let not this Pepi depart from thee in thy name of "Hert" (ll. 61-64).