Nut (Egyptian mythology)
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Nut (also Neuth or Nuit ) is the goddess of the sky in Egyptian mythology . She symbolizes the firmament and was seen as the mother of the stars .
Myths
As one of the primordial goddesses, the goddess Nut is part of the creation myth of the Ninth of Heliopolis . According to the Heliopolitan creation myth, she is the daughter of Shu , the god of air, and Tefnut , the goddess of moisture, and the granddaughter of the sun god Atum . Together with her husband Geb , the god of the earth, she begat the deities Osiris , Isis , Seth and Nephtys .
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Nut is considered to be the "mother of Horus " in addition to Isis , since Isis became pregnant by copulating with Osiris in Nut's womb. In the Nutbuch , however, she is described as the mother of Re and wife of Osiris:
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| The majesty (re) of this god emerges from her rear, on the eastern horizon. So he goes to earth, appeared and born. So he opens the thighs of his mother Nut. So Re goes to heaven. This is how Re comes into being, as it came into being for the first time on earth the first time. He opens his amniotic sac and swims in his blush. He purifies himself in the arms of his father Osiris. This is how Osiris lives after Re has placed himself with him. This is how the dawn arises . So he is at work in the arms of his father Osiris in the east. So when he (Re) ascends to heaven, his form becomes great. |
presentation
Nut is mostly depicted in human form. One of the most common depictions shows the naked goddess from the side, arching over the earth god Geb with an arched body and touching the horizon with her outstretched arms and legs. Sometimes she is supported by her father, the air god Schu .
It was also shown from the front on the inside of sarcophagi , often swallowing or giving birth to the sun. The image was attached to the underside of the lid in order to create a kind of union with the deceased. The coffin represented the body of the groove that received the dead in order to give birth again.
Nut was sometimes also depicted as a "heavenly cow", with the four hooves symbolizing the cardinal points, or as a sow with her piglets.
Nut as the sky goddess
Nut fulfilled an important function in Egyptian cosmogony . It represented the sky; her laughter was the thunder and her tears the rain. The body of the groove symbolized the vault of heaven, it separated the earth from the surrounding primeval tide. According to mythological belief, Nut's body stretched protectively over the earth; their limbs, which were supposed to touch the ground, symbolized the four cardinal points.
At the same time she was considered the mother of the stars . It was believed that the sun disappeared in her mouth in the evening, to travel through her body at night and reappear in her lap in the east in the morning. In the course of the day, the stars also wandered through her body in the eternal cycle. This metaphor is the origin for the designation of Nut as "sow that eats her piglets". Despite this nickname, the goddess was viewed as very positive.
The myth of the birth of their children was documented by the Greek writer Plutarch : The sun god Re envied Nut for her eternal position in the sky and feared that this might dispute his power. For this reason he cursed her so that she could not bear children on any day of the 360 days of the year. The god Thoth (with Plutarch it was the Greek god Hermes ), however, then extended the year by 5 days and thus enabled Nut to give birth to her children.
Nut in the Egyptian cult of the dead
Nut also played an important role in the Egyptian cult of the dead. It was closely related to the belief in the resurrection of the deceased, who after their death appeared as stars on their bodies. Together with her brother consort Geb, the earth god, she begat the gods Osiris , Isis , Nephthys , and Seth, all of whom were associated with the Egyptian cult of the dead.
Nut was also a goddess of the dead. In the pyramid texts she is depicted as a healing cow, among other things. As the protector of the dead on their journey to the afterlife, she was also often depicted on the inside of sarcophagi . The role of the groove was often merged with that of the goddess Hathor in later times . Nut thus partially took over the role of Hathor as mistress of the sycamore , the tree that was to give food and drink to the deceased, and Hathor was partially depicted as the sky goddess.
Groove in astronomy
Some Egyptologists , such as Kurt Sethe , Arielle Kozloff and Ronald Wells , hold the view that the goddess Nut symbolized the ribbon of the Milky Way . Among other things, they referred to Proverb 176 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead , which in their opinion names the ribbon of stars in connection with the goddess. In addition, they interpreted the representations from the Ramesside period with stars on and around their bodies as proof of their hypothesis , but without being able to give clear evidence for it. After working through these and other texts, those views could no longer be shortlisted, as Harco Willems , Rolf Krauss and Arno Egberts clearly demonstrated that with the Mesqet von Nut the "transit region of the sky and the stars in the and exit areas of the Duat ”is meant.
cult
Like many other cosmic deities, Nut neither had its own cult nor its own temple , but her images adorn many places of worship. Amulets were worn in the population, albeit rarely , which represented Nut as a sow.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Nut. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 536-539.
- Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Nut. In: Small Lexicon of Egyptology. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 207.
- 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 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The New Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 8 . 15th edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Chicago 1992, ISBN 0-85229-553-7 , pp. 835 .
- ↑ Kurt Sethe: The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. After the paper prints and photographs of the Berlin Museum. Part 1: Text. - Half of 1. Proverbs 1–468 (Pyr. 1–905). Olms, Hildesheim u. a. 2001 (reprinted by Hinrichs, Leipzig 1908), ISBN 3-487-02593-0 , p. 315.
- ↑ Arielle Kozloff and a .: Egypt's dazzling sun - Amenhotep III and his world. Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, Cleveland 1992, ISBN 0-940717-16-6 , pp. 336-337.
- ^ Ronald Wells: The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra. In: Studies on ancient Egyptian culture. No. 19, 1992, pp. 305-321.
- ↑ Harco Willems: The coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418) - A case study of Egyptian funerary culture of the Early Middle Kingdom. Peeters, Leuven 1996, ISBN 90-6831-769-5 , pp. 262-270.
- ↑ Rolf Krauss: Astronomical Concepts and Concepts of the Beyond in the Pyramid Texts. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-447-03979-5 , pp. 254-255.
- ↑ Arno Egberts: In quest of meaning - A study of the ancient Egyptian rites of consecrating the meret chests and driving the calves. Nederlands Institut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-6258-208-7 , pp. 292-293.