Monday, January 7, 2013

Geb and Nut




Geb and Nut were the parents of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.  According to wikipedia:


The oldest representation in a fragmentary relief of the god, was as an anthropomorphic bearded being accompanied by his name, and dating from king Djoser's reign, 3rd Dynasty, and was found in Heliopolis. In later times he could also be depicted as a ram, a bull or a crocodile (the latter in a vignet of the Book of the Dead - papyrus of the lady Heryweben in the Egyptian MuseumCairo).
Frequently described mythologically as father of snakes (one of the names for snake was s3-t3 - 'son of the earth' and in a Coffin Texts-spell Geb was described as father of the snake Nehebkau, while his mother was in that case Neith) and therefore depicted sometimes as such. In mythology Geb also often occurs as a primeval divine king ofEgypt from whom his son Osiris and his grandson Horus inherited the land after many contendings with the disruptive god Set, brother and killer of Osiris. Geb could also be regarded as personified fertile earth and barren desert, the latter containing the dead or setting them free from their tombs, metaphorically described as 'Geb opening his jaws', or imprisoning those there not worthy to go to the fertile North-Eastern heavenly Field of Reeds. In the latter case, one of his otherworldly attributes was an ominous jackal-headed stave (called wsr.t) rising from the ground unto which enemies could be bound.


by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com)
 

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