| In the Ennead
mythology, Nuit (alternatively spelt
Nut) was the sky goddess, in contrast
to most other mythologies, which usually
have a sky father. Nuit is a daughter
of Shu, god
of the air, and Tefnut,
goddess of moistness. Her husband
was Geb, the
earth, with whom she had 4 children:
Ausare (Osiris),
Aset (Isis),
Set, and Nebet
Het (Nephthys).
In myth, she originally lay eternally
having sex with Geb,
but Shu (the
air) later separated them, and it
was said that if she ever returned
to that position, chaos would reign
(because the world was the bit that
existed between the two). |
|
|
Originally she was the goddess of the daytime sky, but in
later times became the sky in general. The sun god, at this
point Ra, was thought, on his nightly voyage, to enter her
mouth after the sun set, and be reborn from her vulva when
the sun rises. She also swallowed and re-birthed the stars,
and thus was regarded as an eternal mother, and also goddess
of resurrection.
| In art, Nuit was usually depicted
as a naked woman with her back arched
over the heavens, facing Geb,
who lay with his phallus pointed toward
her. Often, this image was painted
on the inside lid of sarcophagi as
a reminder of resurrection. When depicted
standing up separately from Geb,
she appeared with a water pot on her
head (which happened to be the hieroglyph
for nuit), and with the colour indigo,
representative of the night sky. Sometimes
she appeared in the form of a cow
whose great body formed the sky and
heavens, a sycamore tree, or as a
giant sow, suckling many piglets,
which represent the stars. |
|
|
Gods
and Goddesses Menu
This article
is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org
- the free encyclopedia created and edited
by online user community. Although the
vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia
articles provide accurate and timely information
please do not assume the accuracy of any
particular article. This article is distributed
under the terms of GNU
Free Documentation License.
|
