Nephthys
| Nephthys in hieroglyphics | ||||||
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Nephthys (Nepht hys) Nb.t ḥw.t |
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| transcription | Nb.t-ḥw.t | |||||
| Old Coptic table |
Ⲛⲉⲃⲑⲱ ( Nebthō ) |
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Nephthys , also Neb-hut or Nebet-hut , is a birth and death goddess in Egyptian mythology , who also represents the goddess Nut in her appearance . In the pyramid texts she was considered the "goddess of the south".
presentation
Nephthys is shown as a standing woman. Like her twin sister Isis , she also wears the hieroglyphs of her name on her head: The symbols for master and house. On coffins she appears in human form with outspread wings, in the Osiris myth, however, as a bird of prey. Some depictions show the deity suckling the king. In the Old Kingdom she was mentioned for the first time as the Pharaoh's protector , in the New Kingdom then on various walls and statues.
Surname
Her name Nebet-hut only means "mistress of the house", but there are no further references to her. The house probably means the palace of Osiris. Other names of the Nephthys are "The sister of God (of Osiris)" and "The widow (of Osiris)".
meaning
Nothing is known about the original nature of the Nephthys. In the Ninth of Heliopolis she is the daughter of Nut and Geb and sister of Osiris , Seth and Isis . But she was also the wife of Seth, whereby no children emerged from this connection. According to the Osiris myth , she wanted a child from Osiris and he fathered the child Anubis with her . At the time of Ramses IV. The goddess belonged to the so-called "Ninth of Abydos ", which actually consisted of 12 gods.
Nephthys, like her sister Isis, was considered the goddess of the dead. She helped Isis to find the dismembered body of Osiris and to embalm it. Both mourned over the dead man in the shape of kites . She accompanied the dead to the afterlife and mourned them. A late king was advised to flee from the curls of the Nephthys. They symbolized mummy ties . Although these are necessary, they are also considered an obstacle in the hereafter. She is also considered the goddess of magic and divination .
Together with Isis, Neith and Selket , she is one of the four patron goddesses of the sons of Horus and goddess of the canopies . It protects the canop of Hapi , in which the deceased's lungs are kept.
Another connection exists to the goddesses Uto and Nechbet . Together with them she was Harpokrates' nurse and caretaker .
Cult places and cult
The birthday of Nephthys was celebrated on the 5th Epagom (approx. September 26th). Since she was not a local goddess, there was no fixed cult around her, as with other gods. She was seldom worshiped without reference to Isis . From the Ramesside period , in the 19th and 20th dynasties , cults around them in connection with Seth are documented.
In Greek mythology
Here she is equated with Teleute, Nike or Aphrodite .
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 519-521.
- Rolf Felde: Egyptian deities. 2nd expanded and improved edition, R. Felde Eigenverlag, Wiesbaden 1995, pp. 41–42.
- Veronica Ions: The Gods and Myths of Egypt. (= The great religions of the world - gods, myths and legends. ) Neuer Kaiser Verlag - Book and World, Klagenfurt 1988.
- Manfred Lurker : Lexicon of the gods and symbols of the ancient Egyptians. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-502-16430-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - The so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 , p. 47.
- ↑ Jan Assmann : Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt . Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49707-1 , p. 164.
- ↑ a b c Rolf Felde: Egyptian gods. Wiesbaden 1995, p. 42.
- ↑ Veronica Ions: The gods and myths of Egypt. Klagenfurt 1988, p. 65.