Goddess
Nut
(pronounced Noot)
In ancient times, after the twelfth month of
each year and before the first day of the ensuing year, calendar makers inserted
five days to permit the Goddess Nut to give birth to all of her children. (Maspero,
Dawn of Civilization, p208.)
Her name means "Night." Some of the titles of Nut were "Coverer
of the Sky," "She Who Protects," "Mistress of All," and
"She Who Holds a Thousand Souls."
Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of resurrection
and rebirth. According to the Egyptians, the heavenly bodies would enter her
mouth, traverse her skies and be reborn with dawn out of her womb.
A sacred symbol of Nut was the ladder, used by Osiris to enter her heavenly
skies. This ladder-symbol was called "maqet" and was placed in tombs
to protect the deceased, and to invoke the aid of the god of the dead.
She was the sky goddess, in contrast to most other mythologies, which usually
have a sky father. Nut was also a protector from "all things evil" to
those who sought her out.
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