If you missed my last article on Ne Zha, you can find it here.
Nut, also known as Nunut, Nent, and Nuit, is the goddess of the cosmos, sky, stars, mothers, astronomy, and the universe. She has several epithets, such as Coverer of the Sky, She Who Protects, Mistress of All, She Who Bore the Gods, and She Who Holds a Thousand Souls. She is not only a goddess; she is the heavens and all they hold. She is the personification of the sky.
Nut is the third generation of deities, according to the Egyptians. Her father is Shu, the god of the air. Her mother is Tefnut, the goddess of rainfall. Nut’s brother is Geb, the god who is the earth, again the personification of an element. This is odd because Geb is the Earth, and Nut is the sky when it is generally the other way around, with an Earth mother and a sky father. Geb is also her consort as is common with the gods of all pantheons. Like I said to my child, it had to be because they didn’t have a whole lot of options. Their children are: Osiris, god of fertility and the dead, Isis, goddess of magick and healing, Set, god of the desert, and Nephthys, goddess of protection and beer. Horus the Elder (different than Horus, son of Isis and Osiris), god of war, and the sky (differently than Nut). He is only said to be their child by the Greeks, not the Egyptians. Nut is part of the Nine Great Enneads with her grandfather Atum-Ra, her parents, her husband, and their children, not including Horus the Elder.
Nut has quite a few symbols. Of course, she had the sky and stars, but also cows, water pots, and a ladder called a maqet, which is a form of protection for the dead and a way to call to the gods of said dead for guidance. Nut was/is depicted as a starry nude woman arching over the Earth, though sometimes as a cow. In human form, she wears a water pot on her head.
Ra, the sun god, decreed that Nut couldn’t have babies on any day of the year. Wanting children with her husband, Nut went to Thoth. When Nut spoke to Thoth, he came up with a plan. He would gamble with Khonsu, god of the moon (another deviation from the standard female/male roles as women usually represent the moon), with the stake that if Khonsu lost, he had to give Nut some of his moonlight. Thoth is really a champ at draughts, which checkers is the modern form of the game. She collected enough moonlight that she got an additional five days of the year. Nut gave birth to her kids at that time, and Ra was pissed. For that exploited loophole, he made Shu forever keep Nut and Geb apart. The Greek historian Plutarch said all this happened because of jealousy. According to Plutarch expected to marry Nut and was pissed when she chose Geb instead. Nut is held up so she cannot embrace her husband ever again by their father and eight heh-gods, who are the personifications of eternity.
Nut is the dam that keeps Nun’s primordial waters from drowning the world. This also explains both why the sky is blue and how Ra can sail his boat in the cosmos. Speaking of Ra, Nut helped her grandfather get to his barge in the sky when he abdicated his throne to Osiris. To do this, she was granted the form of a cow by the primordial waters. Nut is also the wall separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos. She does all this by resting on her fingers and toes as she arches over the world. Her fingers and toes touch the earth at each cardinal point: East, West, North, and South.
What do you think of Nut? I think her story is sad. I would die if I could no longer touch, hug, and kiss my husband. If I could see him all day and night but continued to be denied his touch would be hell. Imagine doing it as long as she has. Have you played as Nut on Smite? What do you think of her playability? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
