Nut Mother Goddess Of Us AllHer name is pronunced 'Noot'. 'Nuit' means 'night.' Nut was originally a mother-goddess who had many children. The
hieroglyph for her name, which she is often seen wearing on her head is
a water pot, but it is also thought to represent a womb. She was daughter of air god, Shu and water goddesses, Tefnut. She was shown in Egyptian artwork as a dark, star-covered naked woman,
holding her body up in an arch, facing downwards. Her arms and legs
were imagined to be pillars of sky, and hands and feet were
thought to touch four cardinal points at horizon. Far
underneath her lay earth god, Geb, sometimes ithphallyic, looking
up at his sister-wife. She was also described as a cow goddess, taking
on some of attributes of Hathor. Geb was described as "Bull of
Nut" in Pyramid Texts. As a great, solar cow, she was thought to
have carried Ra up into heavens on her back, after he retired from
his rule on Earth. She is also pictured as a giant sow, suckling many piglets. These
piglets represented stars, which she swallowed each morning before
dawn. Nut was considered to be mother of sun and moon.
During day, Nut and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes
down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms came during
day, it was believed that Nut had some how slipped closer to Earth.
Nut is barrier separating forces of chaos from ordered
cosmos in this world. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch four cardinal points or directions.
The sun god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in evening
and travel through her body during night to be reborn from her
vulva each morning. She gives birth to sun in east and swallows sun in
west.
In one myth Nut gives birth to Sun-god daily and he passes over her
body until he reaches her mouth at sunset. He then passed into her
mouth and through her body and is reborn next morning. Another myth
described sun as sailing up her legs and back in Atet (Matet)
boat until noon, when he entered Sektet boat and continued his
travels until sunset. As a goddess who gave birth to son each day,
she became connected with underworld, resurrection and tomb.
She was seen as a friend to dead, as a mother-like protector to