Ancient Egyptian goddess Nut: what is this deity

Mythology has always been, perhaps, the most interesting part of Egyptian culture, however, not only Egyptian. Tales of the gods and their deeds are very informative, while reading all kinds of myths has always been liked not only by young children, but also by adults. There were a great many gods in ancient Egypt. Now I want to tell you who the goddess Nut is.

Pedigree

This character has a very high origin: Nut is the granddaughter of Ra himself - the sun god on his father's line. She is the daughter of Tefnut, goddess of moisture, who was portrayed as a cat, and Shu is a god of air. At the same time, Nut is the wife and at the same time the twin sister of the god of the earth, Hebe.

Name

The name of the goddess is interesting. In translation, "Nut" means "heaven." The root of the word from which this name was formed is denoted by a hieroglyph, in translation meaning "a vessel". Therefore, often this deity was depicted with a vessel on its head (standing in a pose).

Purpose

Nut is the goddess of heaven, she personifies the sky that stretches above the earth and covers the earth. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that all the stars and planets are in the sky, as in water, in free swimming. According to the beliefs, along the body of the goddess every day the sun passed, in the evening she swallowed it, in order to give birth again in the morning. At dawn, the moon and the stars swallowed, so that they would appear again only in the evening. That's why the Egyptians, she also became a funeral goddess, because everyone wanted to die like the sun, and then be born a star and live in heaven. Over time, it began to be depicted on the ceilings of graves, as well as in funerary tombs on the covers. Such drawings were considered evidence that the goddess Nut will take each deceased to his heaven.

Picture

How did the gods represent the Egyptians? As a rule, the goddess Nut was depicted naked, which is not often found in Egyptian mythology. Basically, she was a woman with a body stretched out and bent in the form of a firmament, leaning her arms and legs to the ground. So the inhabitants imagined the heavens, to which the solar god Ra rises daily. It is worth noting that, despite the fact that her palms in the drawings are compressed as it were, she has to point every finger on her hand and leg to four different directions. If you look at the tomb of Ramses VI, the pharaoh of Egypt, then the goddess Nut is depicted simultaneously in two guises - night and day. These bodies are arranged with their backs to each other, one is covered with stars (night), and the other is decorated with twelve suns - one for each day time.

Less often, Nut is depicted in a standing or sitting position, in which case she has a large pitcher on her head. Then she can be both naked, and in a tight dress. Sometimes the goddess was depicted in the form of a sycamore tree (very often such drawings can be seen on funerary tombs: the Egyptians believed that the deceased can drink water in the next world) or a pig that devours its children - the sun, the moon and the stars. The image of the cow (which is also characteristic of this goddess) was considered very valuable symbolically in ancient Egypt. So, after deciphering the texts on the walls of the pyramids, it became clear that the pharaohs are the sons of the sacred cow, which she gives birth to. And the goddess herself is far beyond the limits of the ordinary person's tangibility, protecting everyone from the evil forces of chaos.

Attributes

Egyptian goddess Nut does not have many attributes. The main thing is a dress strewn with stars (or a naked body), and also a vessel with which it is depicted in the sitting position. When the goddess was depicted in a standing pose, she had an ankh (the cross of life) in her hands, and also a wuz rod (a rarity for a female deity).

Epithets

The Egyptian goddess Nut, when people addressed her, was always called "The Mother of the Stars," "Born to the Gods" or simply "Great" - these epithets belonged only to her. She was represented as a defender of the world from the forces of chaos, who are trying to break through her body, covering the earth.

Legend

Interesting is the legend that relates to the goddess Nut. In this case, it appears in the image of the Heavenly Cow. Once Ra - the sun-god - wanted to climb it to Heaven. But before he had time to pass and half the way, as Nut felt a breakdown, her head spun, and she was ready to fall. Therefore, Ra summoned to the aid of the eight gods, who should support her feet, and the god Shu - the abdomen area. This plot was often used to create drawings. The goddess was portrayed in the form of a cow, whose legs are supported by the gods. Ra himself floats under her belly in his wonderful boat, right under the stars.

Cosmology

Noteworthy is the fact that the Egyptians were interested in the cosmos and everything connected with the celestial abyss. That's why the goddess Nut has such a huge importance. Very often, near her images one could see the hieroglyph "heh", which in translation means "a million deities". In fact, these are only stars that, according to the beliefs of the inhabitants of ancient Egypt, were the souls of the dead.