Nut

Nationality/Culture

Egyptian

Pronunciation

NOOT

Alternate Names

None

Appears In

The Book of the Dead

Lineage

Daughter of Shu and Tefnut

Character Overview

In Egyptian mythology, Nut was the sky goddess and the mother goddess of ancient Egypt. She was the twin sister and wife of the earth god Geb (pronounced GEB). Nut was said to swallow the sun each night and give birth to it anew each morning. She was also regarded as an important deity, or god, related to the afterlife.

Major Myths

Nut and Geb, children of the god Shu (pronounced SHOO, meaning “air”) and goddess Tefnut (pronounced TEF-noot, meaning “moisture”), were born locked together in a tight embrace. The sun god Ra ordered Shu to separate them, so Shu held his daughter high above the earth, creating room between Nut and Geb for other creatures to live. In another version of the myth, Ra climbed onto Nut's back and asked her to lift him into the heavens. As Nut rose higher, she became dizzy, but four gods steadied her legs, and Shu held up the middle of her body. In this way, Nut's body became the sky, and Ra attached stars to her.

Angered by the marriage of Nut and Geb, Ra decreed that Nut could not bear children during any month of the year. Thoth (pronounced TOHT), the god of wisdom, took pity on Nut and played a game with the moon—the regulator of time—that allowed him to create five extra days in the year. Because these days were not covered by Ra's decree, Nut was able to give birth to five children: Osiris (pronounced oh-SYE-ris), Isis (pronounced EYE-sis), Set (pronounced SET), Nephthys (pronounced NEF-this), and Horus (pronounced HOHR-uhs).

Nut's body divided the cosmos and helped keep the forces of chaos, or disorder, from breaking through the sky and overwhelming the earth. During the day, Ra sailed along Nut's body in a boat. When he reached her mouth, she swallowed him, bringing on the night. After traveling through Nut's body at night, Ra emerged again at dawn and brought on the day. In some myths, Nut plays an important role in the underworld , or land of the dead, providing fresh air for the souls of the dead.

Nut in Context

For ancient Egyptians, Nut served as an explanation for where the sun went at night. Although Egyptians understood the cycles of the sun, moon, and seasons, they did not know that the earth was round and that heavenly bodies traveled around each other in orbit. The idea that an enormous goddess consumed the sun at one end of the sky, and then gave birth to it at the other, may have seemed as likely an explanation as any for how the sun got back across the sky without being seen. Astronomers have also noted that the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live, was probably visible as a faint glowing arch in the Egyptian night sky—similar to ancient depictions of Nut as a starry woman arched across the sky from horizon to horizon.

Key Themes and Symbols

Nut represented many things to ancient Egyptians. She was a protector and provider, often depicted as a cow—a symbol of nourishment. An important theme in the myths of Nut is death and rebirth. Every night, she consumed Ra by swallowing him, and then gave birth to him again every morning. In this way, the ancient Egyptians viewed each day as a cycle of death and rebirth. In much the same way, Nut transported Ra from death to new life, and was also regarded as an escort or vehicle for humans at death, accompanying the dead to the unknown world of the afterlife. She was sometimes symbolized as a ladder that allowed souls to ascend to the sky.

Nut in Art, Literature, and Everyday Life

Egyptian artists often portrayed Nut as a woman holding a pot of water on her head, an indication of her role as the provider of rain. She was also shown as a woman arched over the earth god Geb, with her fingers and toes touching the horizon. Typically, her body was painted blue and covered with stars to resemble the night sky. Nut was often painted on the insides of coffins, since she was considered an escort and protector for the dead. Although Nut was important to the ancient Egyptians, she was seldom worshipped in the same way as many other gods and is not very well-known in modern times, except to those who study ancient Egyptian culture.

Read, Write, Think, Discuss

An important theme in many non-Western myths is birth, death, and rebirth. The myths of Nut emphasize this theme in stories of Nut and Ra, which portray life as an ongoing cycle. While many non-Western cultures incorporate this notion of cycles in their understanding of life, Western societies tend to view life as linear: birth and death, rather than birth, death, and rebirth. Using your library, the Internet, or other available resources, find examples of societies with cyclical and linear views of life. How are their cyclical and linear views expressed through their religious beliefs and ideas about the afterlife? Can you find any historical evidence that Western societies once held cyclical views of life?

SEE ALSO Egyptian Mythology; Isis; Osiris; Ra; Thoth