Goddess Nut | Goddess of the Sky
Goddess of the Sky
One of the oldest Egyptian goddesses, the goddess of the sky, is the body beneath which the universe is submerged. She is the wife of the god Geb, and gave birth to the sky and the earth with four children, forming the fourth generation, namely, "Osiris", "Isis", "Set" and "Nephthys".
Nut was often depicted in human form, but sometimes as a cow or a tree. Her epithets include “She Who Covers the Heavens,” “She Who Protects,” “She Who Carries All the Gods,” and “She Who Carries a Thousand Souls.”
Other popular concepts see the sun as a child stepping into the mouth of the sky goddess Nut in the evening, then passing through her body during the night and being reborn from her in the morning, and sometimes as a young child of the sky goddess who is embodied in the image of the heavenly cow.
There was also a mixture of these different conceptions of the daily journey of the sun god, and it is not surprising that the story of the destruction of mankind is inscribed with a picture of the god Ra in his full human form sailing in his sacred boat on the back of the sky cow Nut.
The idea of the sunset as being swallowed by the sky goddess extends to the movement of the stars in the sky, which are seen as little pigs disappearing into Nut's mouth where she devours them in the morning, then brings them out again before nightfall. For this reason the word Mesut in Egyptian literally means "time of birth."
As in the Heliopolis myth, the universe originated from unformed water called Nun, from which emerged the god Atum, who appeared on a hill called the First Hill or the Hill of Creation - and the god Atum is equal to the god Ra - then the god Atum created the twins Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, who in turn created the god Geb, the god of the earth, and the goddess Nut, the goddess of the sky.
Among the Egyptian gods, the deity responsible for the heavens was depicted with an elongated body covered in stars, bent towards the earth, holding herself up with her hands and feet. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Nut was linked to the world of the dead. Since she treated them as a mother treats her children, offering them help and security, this goddess gave the deceased the concession to live again.
Although the mother of all gods decided to start a family with Geb, her father, Shu, and Ra, the sun god, did not agree with this relationship. So they tried to separate them so that Nut would not have children.
It was because Ra feared losing his throne; however, Nut managed to have children with her husband, each of them possessing powerful qualities: Seth personified the god of evil, Osiris embodied the deity of the dead, Isis represented the goddess of magic, Nephthys symbolised the deity of water, and Horus the Elder personified the god of war.
When the god Ra discovered the birth of the children of the goddess of the heavens, he was so upset that he managed to separate this union by preventing them from seeing each other for 365 days of the year. However, Nut obtained time slots from the moon to meet Geb. On the other hand, this goddess was linked to the sun, since she swallowed the god Ra at night and he appeared resplendent the next day, heralding the new dawn.
Nut is frequently portrayed as a person, but it can also occasionally be a cow or a tree. Among Nut's titles are: ‘Coverer of the Heavens,’ ‘She Who Protects,’ ‘She Who Carried All the Gods,’ and ‘She Who Bears a Thousand Souls.’
According to other widely held beliefs, the sun represents a child entering the mouth of the goddess of the sky (Nut) in the evening, then passing through her body during the night and emerging from her in the morning. This can occasionally take the shape of a tiny child of the goddess of the sky, who is represented by the celestial cow imagery. There was also a mixture of these different perceptions of the daily journey of the sun god, so it is not surprising that the story of the destruction of mankind is engraved with a drawing of the god Ra in his full human form sailing in his sacred boat on the back of the celestial cow Nut.
The idea of sunset as the swallowing of the sun by the goddess of the sky extends to the movement of the stars in the sky, which she sees as mere piglets disappearing into the mouth of Nut, who devours them in the morning and then brings them out again before nightfall. For this reason, the word Mesut in the Egyptian language literally means ‘time of birth’.
Nut played a funerary role in ancient Egyptian beliefs about rebirth and rebirth. Texts refer to the deceased's desire to become a star in Nut's body. According to the Ain Hemisphere doctrine of creation, Nut united with Geb to give birth to Osiris, who was associated with resurrection and the cycle of rebirth. Nut played a significant role in the revival of the deceased king in the Pyramid Texts, where she is referenced in numerous passages.
She also played the same role in the Coffin Texts. The prevailing belief was that the fate of the deceased was the same as that of the sun god. The thinking Egyptian mind imagined that the deceased passed in the company of the sun god inside the body of Nut, goddess of the night sky, to be born with him in the eastern sky the following morning, a notion confirmed by the Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom.
Naked woman covered in stars or wearing a long, tight dress decorated with stars, her arms and legs are extended.
She is depicted on the ceilings of tombs or chapels, or on the internal parts of lids and sarcophagi, likened to a tree representing its trunk, holding a tray topped with food and holding a vase of water in one hand. Cow, lioness, and vulture.
Her main places of worship
Her place of worship was Heliopolis, where she is considered the mother of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Seth, but no temple is dedicated to her. Nevertheless, her representations adorn many places of worship and she had important shrines in Memphis and Dendera.
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