Nut (goddess)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nut
Ouranos[1]

Nut

cow
. She was depicted wearing the water-pot sign (nw) that identifies her.

Names

The pronunciation of ancient Egyptian is uncertain because vowels were long omitted from its writing, although her name often includes the unpronounced determinative hieroglyph for "sky". Her name Nwt, itself also meaning "Sky",[5] is usually transcribed as "Nut" but also sometimes appears in older sources as Nunut, Nent, and Nuit.[6]

She also appears in the hieroglyphic record by a number of epithets, not all of which are understood.

Goddess of the sky, stars

Nut, personification of the night-sky, speckled with stars, from inside the coffin of Peftjauneith.

Nut is a daughter of

cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens, a sycamore tree, or as a giant sow
, suckling many piglets (representing the stars).

Origins

A sacred

Earth mother (or Mother Nature), she personified the sky and he the Earth.[9]

Nut appears in the creation myth of

Shu (Air) and then gave birth to Sky as the goddess Nut, who mated with her brother Earth, as Geb. From the union of Geb and Nut came, among others, the most popular of Egyptian goddesses, Isis, the mother of Horus
, whose story is central to that of her brother-husband, the resurrection god Osiris. Osiris is killed by his brother Set and scattered over the Earth in 14 pieces, which Isis gathers up and puts back together.

Myth of Nut and Ra

Nut swallows the Sun, which travels through her body at night to be reborn at dawn.

Shu, was given the job to keep them apart. Nevertheless, Nut did not regret her decision.[citation needed
]

Some of the titles of Nut were:

Role

cow

Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of protecting the dead when they enter the afterlife. According to the Egyptians, during the day, the heavenly bodies—such as the Sun and Moon—would make their way across her body. Then, at dusk, they would be swallowed, pass through her belly during the night, and be reborn at dawn.[16]

Nut is also the barrier separating the forces of

cardinal points
or directions of north, south, east, and west.

Because of her role in saving Osiris, 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."[17]

Nut, goddess of sky supported by Shu the god of air, and the ram-headed Heh deities, while the earth god Geb reclines beneath.

She was often painted on the inside lid of the sarcophagus, protecting the deceased. The vaults of tombs were often painted dark blue with many stars as a representation of Nut. The

air
which is in thee. I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it liveth, and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace.''

Book of Nut

The

decans deities. The cycles of the stars and planets, as well as time keeping are also covered in the book.[18]

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Greek Gods vs Egyptian Gods: What are the Differences?". November 2021.
  2. ^ "Nut". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020.
  3. .
  4. .
  5. ^ Erman, Adolf; et al., eds. (1957), Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache [Dictionary of the Egyptian Language] (in German), p. 214
  6. ^ Budge, An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary (1920), p. 350.
  7. ^ Hart, George (200t). The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Routledge. p. 110
  8. ^ a b c The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Leonard H. Lesko, 2001.
  9. The Journal of American Folklore 1987 American Folklore Society
    .
  10. ^ Plutarch. Plutarch's Moralia (Loeb)/Isis and Osiris. Translated by Babbitt, Frank. p. 12.
  11. ^ Budge, E. A. Wallis (1908). Books on Egypt and Chaldaea: Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life. Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. pp. 42–44. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  12. Thames and Hudson
    , 1959.
  13. ^ The Moralia – Isis & Osiris, 355 F, Uchicago.edu
  14. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Google Books
  15. ^ Emma Swan Hall, Harpocrates and Other Child Deities in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt Vol. 14, (1977), pp. 55–58, retrieved from JSTOR.org
  16. ^ Alexandra von Lieven: Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne. Das sogenannte Nutbuch. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies, Kopenhagen 2007.

Bibliography

  • Collier, Mark; Manley, Bill (1998). How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Revised ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Leeming, David (2004). Egyptian goddesses: The Oxford Companion to World mythology. Oxford University Press.
  • Budge, Wallis (2007). Papyrus of Ani: Egyptian Book of the Dead. NuVision Publications.
  • Lesko, Leonard H. (2001). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt.
  • Hollis, Susan Tower (1987). Women of Ancient Egypt and the Sky Goddess Nut.
  • Willems, Harco (1988). Chests of Life: A Study of the Typology and Conceptual Development of Middle Kingdom, Standard Class Coffins. Ex Oriente Lux. .

Further reading

External links