Shu (Egyptian deity)

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Shu (Egyptian deity)
Shu
God of the wind and air
Shu is shown holding the sky above his head.
Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center Heliopolis, Leontopolis
Symbol the ostrich feather
Consort Tefnut
Parents Ra and Iusaaset
Siblings Tefnut
Hathor
Sekhmet
Offspring Nut and Geb
Shu (/u/; meaning "emptiness" and "he who rises up") was one of the primordial gods in Egyptian mythology, a
personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis.
Family
He was created by Atum, his father and Iusaaset, his mother in the city of Heliopolis. With his sister Tefnut
(moisture), he was the father of Nut and Geb. His daughter, Nut, was the sky goddess whom he held over the Earth
(Geb), separating the two. The Egyptians believed that if Shu didn't hold his son and daughter (the god of the earth
and the goddess of the sky) apart there would be no way life could be created.
Shu's grandchildren are Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys. His great-grandsons are Horus and Anubis.
Shu (Egyptian deity)
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Myths
As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, and pacifier. Due to the association with
air, calm, and thus Ma'at (truth, justice and order), Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was
seen with between one and four feathers.
In a much later myth, representing the terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was said that Tefnut
and Shu once argued, and Tefnut left Egypt for Nubia (which was always more temperate). It was said that Shu
quickly decided that he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth,
disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return.
He carries an ankh, the symbol of life.
Sources
Hans Bonnet: Lexikon der gyptischen Religionsgeschichte, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6, S. 685-689
Shu
Adolf Erman: Die Aegyptische Religion, Verlag Georg Reimer, Berlin 1909
Wolfgang Helck: Kleines Lexikon der gyptologie, 1999 ISBN 3-447-04027-0, S. 269f. Shu
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
Shu (Egyptian deity) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=613524449 Contributors: -Ril-, 999, A. Parrot, Alensha, Am088, Andre Engels, Angel David, Apepch7, Aranel,
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:Tutankhamun headrest.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tutankhamun_headrest.jpg License: Copyrighted free use Contributors: Jon Bodsworth
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