| In Egyptian
mythology, Nekhbet (also spelt Nechbet,
and Nekhebit) was an early, predynastic,
local goddess who was the patron of the
city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb.
She was seen as a goddess who had chosen
to adopt the city, and consequently depicted
as a vulture, a creature that the Egyptians
thought only existed as females, having
to adopt children. The priestesses of Nekhbet
were called muu (mothers), and wore robes
of vulture feathers. |
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Later, like Wadjet,
she became patron of the pharaohs, in her case
becoming the personification of Upper Egypt,
and thus said to be the wife of Hapy,
the god of the nile. Egypt’s oldest oracle
was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb, the original
necropolis or city of the dead.
In art, Nekhbet was depicted as the white vulture (representing
purification), always seen on the front of pharaoh’s
double crown. Nekhbet was usually depicted hovering with her
wings spread above the royal image, clutching an ankh
in her claws. As patron of the pharaoh, she was sometimes
seen to be the mother of the divine aspect of the pharaoh,
and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers,
and the Great White Cow of Nekheb (depicted as having very
large breasts).
In some texts of the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is referred
to as Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who hath existed
from the Beginning, and is Creatrix of this World.
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