Older spelling: Nuit

Daughter of the air god, Shu, and the goddess of moisture, Tefnut, Nut was one of the Ennead of Heliopolis. She is the goddess of the sky and heavens and the fundamental barrier between the chaos and order. Her fingers and toes reach out to touch the four cardinal directions - North, South, East and West.

Nut took on several forms during her tenure in the Egyptian sky, the most prominent of which is a naked woman stretched across the heavens supported by the air god, Shu, who is kneeling on the earth god, Geb. Alternatively, she was often shown directly above an erect Geb - her consort and brother. She is occasionally depicted as a cow whose body forms the sky.

The sun god, Re, would travel through her body each night and be reborn from her vagina each morning. As a goddess of the dead her role was that of resurrection - the pharaoh were said to enter her body after death, from which he would later be resurrected.

Her principal sanctuary was at Heliopolis. Her children, by Geb, were Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nepthys





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Egyptian Mythology