Nut, Egyptian sky goddess
In the ancient Egyptian pantheon, Nut is the sky goddess, consort and at the same time sister of the earth god Geb.
She embodies the vaulted celestial structure that arches over the earth and beneath which the human world exists. At sunset Nut swallows the sun god Ra, who then travels through her body and is reborn from her womb in the morning.
This daily ascension narrative is one of the most central cosmic images of Egyptian religion. Nut is the mother of the four (or five) Osirian gods Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys and (in some lists) Horus the Elder.
Her name probably derives from a word for «water» and links her to the celestial primordial waters, which the gods knew as the conception of the upper watery realm.
Table of Contents
Myth and Genealogy
Nut belongs to the second generation of the Heliopolitan Ennead (group of nine gods). She is the daughter of Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture) and the sister as well as consort of the earth god Geb.
From their union come the five gods Osiris, Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis and Nephthys, who are born on the five epagomenal days at the end of the Egyptian calendar year.
The mythical separation of Geb and Nut by their father Shu, who lifts the sky goddess aloft and stretches her over the outstretched earth god, is among the oldest and most important cosmic myths of Egyptian religion.
In Plutarch («De Iside et Osiride» 12) the birth of the Osirian gods is recounted in detail. Ra had decreed that Nut should give birth on no day of the year.
Thoth, the cunning god of writing, however, won five additional days in a game with the moon, days that did not count toward the normal year.
On these five epagomenal days Nut brought her children into the world one after another. This narrative explains both the five additional days at the end of the Egyptian calendar year and the mythical genealogy of the Osirian family of gods.
A particular narrative describes Nut’s swallowing of the sun god. In the evening, when the sun disappears behind the western horizon, Nut swallows the solar disk. During the twelve hours of night the sun god moves through the body of the goddess, past the stars, which are themselves images of Nut’s internal organs.
In the morning Nut gives birth anew to the young sun god at the eastern horizon. This daily rebirth is the mythical basis for the conception of the resurrection of the deceased: whoever is received by Nut in death is reborn like the sun.
In Late Period theology Nut also appears as the «celestial cow», a pictorial variant in which the goddess is depicted as a vast cow studded with stars, beneath which the human world exists.
This reading appears in the «Book of the Heavenly Cow», a religious text of the late 18th Dynasty, preserved in several royal tombs (Seti I, Ramesses II, Ramesses III).
The celestial-cow conception links Nut with Hathor, who likewise appears in cow form; both goddesses are identified in some local theologies or understood as complementary aspects of a cosmic mother.
Symbols, Iconography and Attributes
Nut is depicted in Egyptian art in two characteristic ways. The first is the «arched Nut»: a naked or clothed woman who vaults over the earth on hands and feet, forming the celestial vault with her body.
This depiction is widespread on the ceilings of royal tombs, on the inner sides of coffin lids and on the walls of the temples throughout the Egyptian cultural sphere.
The second is the «upright Nut»: a woman in a standing or enthroned pose, often with a water vessel on her head or with the hieroglyph for sky on her head. This depiction occurs more frequently in statuettes and smaller artworks.
Her most important attributes are the stars that cover her body. On the sarcophagus ceilings of the Late Period Nut is often depicted with hundreds of small stars; her breast is adorned with the zodiac signs and with the decan stars.
On a famous ceiling from the tomb of Seti I, Nut is depicted in full splendor with all the constellations, the solar barque and the phases of the moon; this astronomical ceiling is one of the most detailed cosmic depictions of Egyptian antiquity.
Her sacred plant is the sycamore fig, whose tree crown is regarded as the place where Nut appears. In the «Book of the Dead» (spell 59) the goddess appears as a woman in the crown of a sycamore, from which she offers water and bread to the deceased.
This «sycamore woman» is one of the most moving pictorial motifs of Egyptian funerary religion: the mother receives the deceased child and nourishes it with the gifts of life needed in the world beyond. In the private tombs of the New Kingdom this scene is especially widespread.
Sculptural artworks of Nut survive from the Old Kingdom onward. From the Middle Kingdom comes an important statue showing Nut as a standing woman with the sky hieroglyph on her head; from the New Kingdom numerous sarcophagus ceilings with the arched Nut survive.
In the Valley of the Kings the ceilings of the royal tombs show Nut at monumental scale; the tomb of Seti I (KV 17) has one of the earliest and most detailed Nut ceilings, the tomb of Ramesses VI (KV 9) shows her in a double arch (Day-Nut and Night-Nut).
These astronomical ceilings are the most important sources for understanding Egyptian celestial mythology.
Cult and Veneration
Unlike the gods with territorially anchored principal cults, Nut had no independent main temple. Her veneration was bound to the sun temples, to the royal tombs and to funerary cult practice.
In Heliopolis Nut was part of the Ennead; in Memphis she had a chapel within the temple of Ptah; in Thebes she belonged to the circle of gods invoked in the Amun-Ra temple.
Nut received particular veneration in the mortuary temples of the pharaohs, because her womb was regarded as the receiving chamber of the deceased king.
In the daily temple ritual Nut was invoked during the performance of the solar ritual. In the evening, when the solar image was ritually laid to rest, the hymns were spoken in which Nut receives the sun and preserves it in her body.
In the morning, when the sun «rose» from the sanctuary, the hymns of birth from the womb of Nut were spoken. This liturgical practice is documented in detail in the temple ritual books (Papyrus Berlin 3055 and others).
In burial Nut played a central role. On the inner side of the coffin lid the arched Nut was often depicted, so that the deceased lay directly beneath the goddess and was symbolically received by her.
In the Coffin Texts and in the Book of the Dead one finds the repeatedly recurring spell: «O my mother Nut, spread yourself over me, let me become one of the imperishable stars, do not let me die».
This invocation was one of the central texts of the burial ritual and placed the deceased under the protection of the sky goddess.
In the harvest festival and in the festivals of vegetation Nut had a secondary role as giver of celestial water (rain, dew). In Egyptian religion, however, rain was rare and mostly regarded as a divine anomaly; the main water source of Egypt was the Nile, whose rise was governed by other gods (Khnum, Hapi).
Yet in the Late Period theology of Esna and in the temple hymns of Edfu Nut appears as a giving mother, whose tears and sweat bring forth the fertile dew that moistens the fields.
Important Sanctuaries and Temples
Nut had no monumental temples of her own. Her veneration was bound to the cosmic temple reliefs and to sepulchral architecture.
In the Valley of the Kings the ceilings of the royal tombs are Nut’s most important «sanctuaries»: they show the sky goddess at monumental scale, with her stars and with the solar cycle that runs through her body.
The tomb of Seti I (KV 17), the tomb of Ramesses VI (KV 9) and the tomb of Ramesses IX (KV 6) have the finest Nut ceilings; they are among the most impressive examples of cosmic religion in the ancient world.
A particular position is held by the «Nut image» in the so-called «Book of Nut», a religious text from the New Kingdom that is astronomically elaborated to a high degree.
The book was placed on the walls of the royal tombs and in a detailed version in the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos (the Osireion).
There the sky goddess is depicted with all the decan stars, all twenty-four hours of day and night, and with the astronomical constellations of Egyptian celestial science. The scholarly edition of this book by Otto Neugebauer and Richard Parker made it accessible as one of the earliest astronomical works of humanity.
In the temple of Dendera, the great Hathor sanctuary of the Ptolemaic-Roman period, there is a famous ceiling in the pronaos with a monumental Nut depiction.
On this ceiling are placed the twelve hours of day and night, the complete zodiac and the decans; the famous «Zodiac of Dendera» (now Louvre, Paris) is part of this pictorial program. The ceiling shows the most mature astronomical synthesis of Egyptian celestial mythology and is regarded as the most accomplished Nut image of all.
In Esna, in Edfu, in the Hibis temple of the Kharga oasis and in many other Ptolemaic-Roman temples, Nut reliefs are integrated into the theological pictorial programs. In Karnak and in Medinet Habu Nut depictions are found in the solar reliefs of the temple courts.
Particular mention is due to the «astrarium» in the tomb of Senenmut (TT 353), the architect of Hatshepsut, which houses one of the earliest surviving astronomical ceilings of Egypt; Nut is not directly depicted here, yet the entire pictorial program rests on Nut theology.
Mythic Narratives
The most important Nut narrative is the separation from Geb and the raising of the celestial vault. Shu, her father, steps between the two closely embracing siblings and lifts Nut aloft with raised arms. Geb remains on the ground, often with outstretched arms that underline his longing connection with the removed sister.
This separation creates the living space between earth and sky in which the human world can exist. The narrative is among the oldest world-formation myths of humanity and is treated again and again in the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and the temple texts of the Late Period.
The birth of the Osirian gods is the second central narrative. Ra forbade Nut to give birth on any day of the year; Thoth won five additional days through his game with the moon, on which Nut bore in succession Osiris, Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis and Nephthys.
This narrative explains the five epagomenal days of the Egyptian calendar year and the mythical kinship of the Osirian gods. Plutarch recounted it in detail in «De Iside et Osiride» 12; it is among the best-attested Egyptian myths of all.
The daily rebirth of the sun is the third central narrative. In the evening Nut swallows the sun; at night the solar disk travels through her body, past the stars, which are themselves images of her internal organs; in the morning Nut gives birth anew to the sun at the eastern horizon.
This daily narrative is the mythical basis for the conception of the resurrection of the deceased: whoever is taken into the womb of Nut is reborn like the sun. This reading shaped Egyptian funerary religion across three millennia.
In the «Book of the Heavenly Cow», a religious text of the late 18th Dynasty, a particular narrative is recounted. Ra, having grown old, wishes to withdraw from humankind and mounts the back of Nut in cow form. While she lifts him aloft she grows dizzy and asks Shu to help her.
Shu places himself beneath her belly and supports her with the four Shu supports (the four sky supports or pillars) at the corners of the world.
With this the sky is definitively separated from the earth, and the gods withdraw from the human world. This narrative is regarded as the Egyptian variant of the widespread myth of the «disappearance of the gods» and is significant in the history of religion.
Relationships within the Pantheon
Nut is closely embedded in the genealogical network of the Heliopolitan Ennead. With Geb, her brother and consort, she shares the cosmic love story: both were closely embracing in a mythical primeval age and were separated by their father Shu; from their union came the Osirian gods.
With Shu, her father, there exists the relationship of mythical separation; from this separation arises the living space between sky and earth. With Tefnut, her mother, she is genealogically connected, without an independent mythical episode being handed down.
With the Osirian gods Nut is mother. She is the mother of Osiris, of Horus the Elder, of Seth, of Isis and of Nephthys. This motherhood makes Nut the ancestral mother of the most important Egyptian family of gods.
With Ra, Nut has an ambivalent relationship: Ra had forbidden her to give birth, yet through Thoth’s cunning this decree was circumvented; at the same time Nut receives Ra each evening in her womb and gives birth to him anew in the morning.
This daily role of receiving and giving birth makes Nut the cosmic mother of the sun god himself.
With Hathor there exists in some local traditions an identification or fusion. Both goddesses appear in cow form; both are regarded as cosmic mother; both have relationships with the sun god. In Late Period theology Nut-Hathor or Hathor-Nut is venerated as a double figure.
With the deceased Nut has the central relationship of maternal reception: she takes the deceased into her womb and grants them resurrection like the sun. This relationship is addressed again and again in the Coffin Texts and in the Book of the Dead and gives Egyptian funerary religion its maternal, consoling character.
Reception
In Greco-Roman antiquity Nut was usually identified with Rhea, because both were regarded as mothers of the younger gods. Plutarch («De Iside et Osiride» 12) sets out this identification and designates Nut as the «mother of the gods».
In the Hellenistic temple reliefs of Edfu, Dendera and Philae Nut remained in the Egyptian designation; identification with Greek deities was limited and concerned above all the theological explanation for Greek readers.
The Egyptian conception of the sky goddess who receives and gives birth to the sun exerted broad influence in the ancient world through Hellenistic mediation.
It becomes visible in the Hermetic writings, in Gnostic Sophia speculation and in Christian Coptic Marian theology; Mary as «Queen of Heaven», who receives and gives birth to the divine child, is a late form of the same cosmic mother conception.
This structural kinship has been studied by comparative religious studies since Erik Hornung and Jan Assmann.
The modern rediscovery of Nut begins with Champollion’s publications on the Coffin Texts. In the nineteenth century Heinrich Brugsch analyzed the Nut hymns; in the twentieth century Otto Neugebauer, Richard Parker and Erik Hornung systematically opened up the «Book of Nut» and the astronomical ceilings.
The more recent research of Joachim Quack and Andreas von Lieven re-edited and annotated the Late Period astronomical texts with their Nut theology; their editions are the foundation of today’s understanding of Egyptian celestial mythology.
In modern popular culture Nut is present in countless novels, films and comics; the image of the star-spangled arched woman has become a fixed element of esoteric and popular Egyptian iconography.
Classification in Religious Studies
Nut belongs to the category of sky goddesses, who in many religions represent the personified upper world. Striking in the history of religion is her gender attribution: while in most Indo-European religions the sky is conceived as male (Dyaus Pita in India, Zeus in Greece, Tiwaz in Germania), in Egypt it is female.
This corresponds to the inverse gender attribution of the earth: Geb (male) and Nut (female) form the Egyptian variant of the cosmic pair, in which earth and sky are reversed relative to the Indo-European norm.
The Egyptian configuration Nut-Geb-Shu is a central example of the fact that the gendered coding of cosmic elements is culturally variable and not a universal constant. Mircea Eliade and Jan Assmann treated this peculiarity in detail in their comparative-religious works.
The Egyptian variant shows that a matrilineal or at least matrifocal conception is readily possible within the religious system of a highly developed polytheism; it does not require a matriarchal social structure but reflects an independent theological logic.
Erik Hornung worked out the theological function of Nut as cosmic mother and guarantor of resurrection in «Conceptions of God» and in «Der Eine und die Vielen».
Joachim Quack reassessed the astronomical aspects of Nut theology in his more recent works and showed that the Egyptian sky goddess was not merely a poetic personification but a bearer of precise astronomical knowledge.
More recent comparative-religious research has found in Nut an important point of comparison for the discussion of the gendered coding of the sky and for the conception of the cosmic mother in the ancient religions. This discussion is especially productive in the field of Marian theology and Gnostic Sophia speculation.
Sources
Pyramid Texts, especially spells 245, 247 and 553 (Nut as mother of the deceased).
Coffin Texts, especially spells 130 and 156. Book of the Dead, especially spell 59 (sycamore woman) and spell 178. «Book of Nut», edition by Otto Neugebauer and Richard Parker, «Egyptian Astronomical Texts», Providence 1960 to 1969. «Book of the Heavenly Cow», edition by Erik Hornung, Freiburg 1982. Plutarch, «De Iside et Osiride» 12 and 44. Henri Frankfort, «Kingship and the Gods», Chicago 1948. Erik Hornung, «Der Eine und die Vielen», Darmstadt 1971. Erik Hornung, «Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt.
The One and the Many», Ithaca 1982. Joachim Friedrich Quack, «Beiträge zu den ägyptischen Dekanen und ihrer Rezeption in der griechisch-römischen Welt», in: A. Imhausen, T. Pommerening (eds.), Writings of Early Scholars in the Ancient Near East, Berlin 2010. Andreas von Lieven, «Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne. Das sogenannte Nutbuch», Copenhagen 2007.
