United States or United States Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We have now five gods in existence; Khepera, the creative principle, Shu, the atmosphere, Tefnut, the waters above the heavens, Nut, the Sky-goddess, and Keb, the Earth-god. Presumably about this time the sun first rose out of the watery abyss of Nu, and shone upon the world and produced day. In early times the sun, or his light, was regarded as a form of Shu.
Shu and Tefnut then united and they produced Keb, the Earth-god, and Nut, the Sky-goddess. The text then refers to some calamity which befell the Eye of Nebertcher or of Khepera, but what it was is not clear; at all events the Eye became obscured, and it ceased to give light.
+804+. Juno, an independent deity, originally not the wife of Jupiter, is, in the developed cult, the special patron of the maternal side of the life of women, and, as such, is a great domestic power, the embodiment of a large part of family life. It was probably as great sky-goddess that she attained this position the chief female deity is naturally the protector of women.
However this may be, she became a great goddess, in the later construction the wife of Jupiter, and was identified with Hera, to whom in fact she is nearly related in function and character. She was sky-goddess, but not, for that reason, necessarily light-goddess.
Originally these gods were the personifications of air and dryness, and liquids respectively; thus with their creation the materials for the construction of the atmosphere and sky came into being. Shu and Tefnut were united, and their offspring were Keb, the Earth-god, and Nut, the Sky-goddess.
This period of darkness is, of course, the night, and to obviate the inconvenience caused by this recurring period of darkness, the god made a second Eye, i.e. the Moon, and set it in the heavens. The greater Eye ruled the day, and the lesser Eye the night. One of the results of the daily darkness was the descent of the Sky-goddess Nut to the Earth-god Keb each evening.
Behold, Osiris Unas, the Eye of Horus hath been brought unto thee, for it hath been seized for thee that it may be before thee. III. As specimens of the hymns in the Pyramid Texts may be quoted the following: the first is a hymn to Nut, the Sky-goddess, and the second is a hymn to Rā, the Sun-god. Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children.
Her name is based on the stem di, 'to shine, which appears in 'Jupiter' and 'Juno'; but she is not a sky-goddess the "shining" in her case is that of trees and plants, the green color that gleams in the light, so that the grove is called lucus, the 'shining mass. Diana was soon identified with Artemis, and was endowed with her attributes.
Word Of The Day