Naunet
The female deity associated with the primordial watery abyss, the female aspect of the deity, represented as a snake or snake-headed woman. In Egyptian mythology, Nu, is the deification of the primordial watery abyss, in the Ogdoad cosmogony, the name meaning abyss.
Due to being a concept, Nu was viewed as not having a gender, but as with most Egyptian deities, also having aspects that could be represented as female or male. The female aspect being named Naunet (also spelt Nunet), is the female aspect, which is the name Nu displayed with a female gender ending. The male aspect, Nun, was a spelling to show a male aspect. As with the three other of the four primordial concepts of the Ogdoad, Nu's male aspect was depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed man. In Ancient Egyptian art, Nun also appears as a bearded man, with blue-green skin, representing water.
As with the other ogdoad concepts, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship, however, Nu was sometimes represented by a sacred lake, or, as at Abydos, by an underground stream.
Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a "solar bark" (or barque, a boat). The boat is occupied by eight deities, with the scarab deity Khepri standing in the middle surrounded by the seven other deities. Other groupings include Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun, Hauhet and Heh, Kauket and Kek.
| Ancient Egypt-related topics | |
|---|---|
 |
Architecture · Art · Chronology · Cuisine · Dynasties · Geography · History · Mathematics · Medicine · Religion · Pharaohs · People · Language · Sites · Technology · Writing Egyptology · Egyptologists · Egyptology portal |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
