Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Nuit
In Egyptian mythology, Nuit or 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. She was one of the Ennead. The sun god Re entered her mouth after the sun set in the evening and was reborn from her vulva the next morning. She also swallowed and rebirthed the stars. The eternal mother.
Nut's colours are the indigo of the night sky and the silver lights of the stars.
She was a goddess of death, and her image is on the inside of most sarcophagi. The pharaoh entered her body after death and was later resurrected. Nut was the coffin of the heavens.
In art, Nuit is depicted as a woman wearing no clothes, covered with stars and supported by Shu; opposite her (the sky), is her husband, Seb(the Earth). Wife and sister of Geb, she was the mother of Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris and Isis were their first born male and female children and the original governors of Egypt. Their younger siblings are Seth, the god of destruction, and Nephthys.
As goddess of the sky, she is often depicted with her body stretched out over the earth as a protective mother shielding earth's mortals. Geb, the earth god, is often shown reclining below her with his phallus elevated to the sky. Nut is the firmament that protects the world from the amorphous chaos beyond and as such maintains all that is in existence. She is mother and protector, associated with the cow, a source of nurture and nourishment, indicating great maternal strength and benign wisdom.
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