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ancient Egyptian gods "N" |
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Neith:
She was worshipped in the Memphite area during the Old
Kingdom as the protector of the kings. Her cult dated back
to the predynastic times. She was a goddess of hunting and
war and is shown holding bows and arrows and wearing the
crown of Lower Egypt. Her main following was at Sais but
eventually extended through the Delta and through the Faiyum
regions. She was most popular during the Twenty-sixth
Dynasty since most of the kings of that time came from the
Sais region. Later on, her status was elevated to a creator
goddess in Esna. In some eras she is shown nursing a
crocodile because it was believed that Sobek, the crocodile
god was her son. Nekhbet, Nekhebet: This goddess appeared in the shape of a vulture or as a woman wearing a vulture headdress and was worshiped at el-Kab (Nekheb). Some reliefs show a vulture soaring above the head of the king and this is thought to be her. She usually wore the White Crown which was a representation of Upper Egypt and that part of the country. She had close association with the goddess Uto which was her counterpart in Lower Egypt along with the goddesses Mut and Tefnut. Nekhbet was shown protecting and suckling the royal child. Sometimes she was considered to be the wife of the Nile god and at other times she was addressed as a “daughter of the sun.” Her name stood for “She of Nekheb.” Nephthys: This goddess was the daughter of Geb and Nut and the sister of the deities Osiris, Seth, and Isis. She was also the wife of the god Seth. Along with Isis, she was a protector, a mourner, and a reviver of the dead. Her name is the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian goddess Hebt-Hut. Most places knew her as the “Lady of the Castle.” She was depicted with a hieroglyph of her name above her head and sometimes with wings on her arms. Sometimes she is also depicted with the hieroglyph on her head which means “palace.” As one of the four canopic goddesses she performed an important function. The mythological story goes on to say that she tricked Osiris, her brother, into siring her son Anubis. Eventually, Isis ended up with caring for the child. When Osiris was killed, she and Isis restored him back to life. She was thought to have great magical powers. Nun: He, along with Naunet, were the first of ancient gods in the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. They were depicted with frogs’ heads. He is very seldom shown in pictorial form but is believed to represent the ancient watery abyss where the god arose to power. This god was thought to inhabit watery dark places such as deep wells and caverns. Nut: She was a goddess of the sky and was depicted as a naked woman with her body arching over the earth and with her feet and fingertips touching the ground. She is shown in many tombs and temples. Heavenly bodies are portrayed as going through the body of this goddess – the sun in particular. The reliefs show that she ate the stars each morning and then gave birth to them in the evening. She was the wife of Geb and is said to have given birth to Osiris, Horus (the |
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| old), Seth, Isis, and Nephthys. She is shown in several ways. Sometimes she is shown as a woman with a vase on her head and in others she is a cow that Re mounts when he appears at the moment of creation. During the mortuary rituals she takes on another role and protects the deceased. In spite of all the roles that she portrayed she was never given a temple of her own. | ||||||||
