Nekhbet

Nekhbet (

Mythology

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One of Egypt's earliest

Badarian

cultures. At its height, from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants.

Nekhbet was the tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. Nekhbet and her Lower Egyptian counterpart Wadjet often appeared together as the "Two Ladies". One of the titles of each ruler was the Nebty name, which began with the hieroglyphs for [s/he] of the Two Ladies....^[2]

Iconography

In art, Nekhbet was depicted as a vulture.

In New Kingdom times, the vulture appeared alongside the uraeus on the headdresses with which kings were buried. The uraeus and vulture are traditionally interpreted as Wadjet and Nekhbet, but Edna R. Russmann has suggested that in this context they represent Isis and Nephthys, two major funerary goddesses, instead.^[4]

Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol (representing eternal encircling protection), frequently in her claws.^[2]

Depictions of animal deities start with the animal being depicted directly. Later the animal appears in human form, but still with an animal head. Individual deities continue into historical times (post 3000 BC) to often be described in their original animal form: e.g., Horus (Falcon), Wadjet (cobra) and Nekhbet (vulture). ^[5]

Gallery

• 
  Nekhbet with outstretched wings below a row of uraei, from the

  mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari
• 
  Granite statue of Nekhbet from Sanam in Lower Nubia, Twenty-fifth Dynasty, Ashmolean Museum
• 
  Paintings of Nekhbet on the ceiling of the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu
• 
  Nekhbet above the Nomen and prenomen of Ramesses III
• 
  Nekhbet next to Haremakhet on a column
• 
  A painted relief depicting Nekhbet in the

  Temple of Hatshepsut
• 
  Nekhbet holding a staff and Shen ring
• 
  A painted relief depicting Nekhbet in Queen Hatshepsut's temple
• 
  Relief from the Temple of Nekhbet at El Kab
• 
  Nekhbet (right) and Wadjet (left) crowning Ptolemy VIII in the Temple of Edfu

In popular culture

• Nekhbet is a bird-like monster in Final Fantasy XII.
• Nekhbet appears in Rick Riordan's The Throne of Fire as a minor antagonist.
• Nekhbet is the name of a pet vulture in the
  Tenshi ni Narumon
  .

References

Further reading

• Hans Bonnet: Nechbet. In: Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte. Nikol, Hamburg 2000,
  ISBN 3-937872-08-6
  , S. 507f.
• ISBN 3-447-04027-0
  , S. 199.
• ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5
  .
• Alexandra von Lieven: Der Himmel über Esna – Eine Fallstudie zur religiösen Astronomie in Ägypten am Beispiel der kosmologischen Decken- und Architravinschriften im Tempel von Esna. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000,
  ISBN 3-447-04324-5
  .
• Marcelle Werbrouck, Fouilles de El Kab II. 1940, S. 46ff.