The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra

Author(s): R. A. Wells
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 19 (1992), pp. 305-321
Published by: Helmut Buske Verlag GmbH
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 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra

von

R. A. Wells

An analysis of star patterns Old for

Kingdom the and earlier suggests that the origin
of the legend concerning the
goddess Nut
sky and the course of the sun steins from
early inhabitants Nile
of the Valley or Delta. By observing the stars, these people
created ameans of measuring time which led to the development of a calendar. At the
same time, such nightly observations led to stories which later formed the pantheon of
myths connected with gods and goddesses who were worshipped for thousands of years.
This paper indicates that Nut originated as an anthropomorphic form of the Milky Way
and that a particular of this group of stars in the pre-dawn sky on the
position
morning of the winter solstice gave rise to the legend of the birth of the sun de
picted in many monument scenes. Other aspects of Nut are also discussed.

1. Introduction

There are numerous allusions to astronomy in the lore of ancient Egypt

which survive in the monuments and documents handed down to us from

Dynastic times. The sun was as a creator deity and the moon
worshipped
as the regulator of Time and Truth. The star Sirius regulated the later
forms of the calendars and was identified with various goddesses, among
them Isis, Hathor, and Satet. Isis, the consort of Osiris, and Satet,
the consort of Khnum of Elephantine, were heavenly reflections of the

accompaniment of the constellation Orion by the smaller attendant Canis

Major, of which Sirius was the prominent star. At death, it was the

aspiration of every pharaoh to become one with the ihmw-sk, the inde
structible polar stars. Almost every aspect of daily life (and death)
in ancient Egypt had some connection with astronomy. For anyone who has
 306R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

/ \* / \ \ **ig. ! A line drawing of part of the ceiling of the

/ V \ sarcophagus chamber in the tomb of Ramesses VI. Only
^J Nut scene as discussed in
t*ie essential details of the
m./^L
/ V. are text
V text have been sketched. There lines and
r_Av_>C__?

*\ \ \ watched the night sky without the light pol

jA lution characteristic of much of the modern
\^J
k A world, it is quite understandable how early man
/\ \ could have been influenced so markedly by
/ / 1 i moving patterns of stars. The heavens in a
/ / 1 truly Shakespearean sense became the stage upon
/ / 1 which the deeds and actions of early man were
/ / acted out until the heavenly actions became the
/ / justification for the earthly ones. Even today
I in the deserts of
Egypt away from lighted
/ / areas, the night sky can still invoke a sense
II of stellar dominance that seems less palpable
/ / I elsewhere.
/ Although astronomy played such an important
^*^^^ \Ss^
role in the socialization and development of

religious thought in ancient Egypt, specific correlations between as

tronomical events and scenes on the monuments are few in num
depicted

ber. I would like to add to this collection by drawing attention to

certain astronomical relationships that are so consistent with the

mythology surrounding the goddess Nut that equating the former as the

progenitor of the latter seems beyond doubt.

Rather than presenting a complete concordance of all the scenes and

source phrases connected with Nut, however, in the interests ofbrevity
I merely wish to select the basic elements of the standard scene1 as

1 scenes are The ones in the of Seti I at and on the

Many available. cenotaph Abydos
in the tomb of Ramesses IV were treated at length by Neugebauer & Parker,
ceiling
EAT I, pp. 36-94. The one illustrated in this paper is a line sketch
chapter II,
from a photo of a ceiling in the tomb of Ramesses VI.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 307

***** *x xx xxx ******** xxx******-?-^^

other figures occurring below her body which \ |

^^B
have been omitted for economy of space. Also,
two were area
js\ ^^H
solar disks omitted in the binding ^**'M _^_H
so that the whole figure would fit here. m
f*\ f0^ ^^H

shown in Fig. 1 which appear to be the

^^m ^^H
oldest aspects of the legend. I refer fSSffiSSf
to the panorama in which the goddess is
j7/7
seen stretching out her naked body with / .//
y
her feet braced on one horizon and her
III \
hands poised on the opposite one. Stars /
j J
are usually depicted scattered along her
J J
body. At her head, the solar disk is /
drawn very close to her mouth as if she
J
were ingesting it. Another solar disk W?
^J
is drawn very near her genital area. ?"1
^\
The latter has, of course, usually been \\\ \ V\\ \

interpreted as Nut giving birth to the

^l]J] \b\\\\
sun. A complete clarification as to why
l[|( llJlli
she should apparently be eating the sun,
however, has been less convincing; but the two aspects together gen
erally form a standard Egyptological explanation that Nut is somehow
connected with sunrise and sunset? at sunset (entering the mouth of
Nut), the solar disk enters theDuat and passes through various gates of
the unjierworld (passes through the body of Nut) until the next morning
at sunrise it appears again (emerges from Nut's birth canal)2.

I shall depart from the diurnal aspects of this interpretation and

proceed from the simplest explanation of the scene, that of a mother

giving birth,a process which lasts longer than a day. In fact, the Nut

2 text
The translation of the lines and author commentary from P. Carlsberg 1 sup
plemented by those from the Seti I and Ramesses IV scenes given in EAT, I, pp. 36
94, provide a direct source of these events from at least the New Kingdom. But, of
course, they only recount a much older tradition.
 308 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

panorama sometimes indicates 12 solar disks along her body3, a certain

indication of the 12 months in the year1*.

Most of the Egyptological literature treats Nut as an entity separate

from any anthropomorphic stellar representation although at least one

ascribes Nut to an area of the northern sky5. There is, however, one

particular astronomical representation which, if clearly seen under

proper dark conditions, obviously strikes one by its human-like, even

female, form. That is the Milky Way, the outer arm of our galaxy, which
can only be seen in the darkest conditions of a moonless night. This
band of myriads of stars has a ghost-like, whitish appearance highly

3 E. Ramses IV. und Ramses von

Hornung, Zwei Ramessidisohe KQnigsgvtiber: VII., Philipp
Zabern, Mainz (1990), Taf ein 121-124, for plates of the Ramesses VII ceiling of the

sarcophagus chamber; EAT II, pp. 2-3, plate 7 and EAT III, pp. 34-36 for scene

descriptions. The tomb ceiling shows Nut in the form of Siamese twins joined back
to-back. They stretch lengthwise along the middle of the ceiling with their bodies
arching in opposite directions along the vaulted narrow dimension. Six suns are

spaced along each torso for a total of 12. Adjacent scenes are related to tables of
stars marking the hours of the night in the Ramesside star clocks for the whole
year. Twelve such tables for 6months of the year are positioned on the south side
of the twinned Nut, and another 12 for the remaining 6 months are located on the
north side. A similar Siamese twinning with 12 solar disks was omitted in Fig. 1.

** more
The connection of Ra with the year is treated fully in my forthcoming "Ra and
the Calendars" inRevolutions in Time: Studies in Egyptian Calendrios (1993),A. J.
Spalinger, ed.; but it is alluded to at some length below.

5 16
V. Davis, Arohaeoastronomy, no. P, Journal for the History of Astronomy (1985)
S102-S104. The article has the merit of correctly interpreting the seasonal gyra
tions of the Milky Way as highly suggestive of the Egyptian word mr-nh3y usually
translated as Waterway'. However, the suggestion that the Milky Way di
'Winding
vides the "northern" sky from the "southern" and that Nut is consequently to be
identified as the whole sky north of the Milky Way carries much less force. She
cites as evidence for such an interpretation the scribal lines in EAT I, p. 43,
A.I, 1-3: "This is the picture on the papyrus. The female figure of this position
that is to say, her head is in the west and her hind part in the east? is the
is the northern sky". Since the scribe was rather definite in describing
goddess,
the position of the female figure with specific body parts, I would interpret the

phrase "... is the northern sky" to mean "dominates the northern sky" which, of

course, is just what the Milky Way itself does.

For a lengthy discussion of mr-nh3 and variants in the Pyramid Texts and in later

readings of the Middle and New Kingdoms and the relationship between the 'Lake of
the'Lake of the'Winding Waterway1 and the course of the sun god
Flames', Knives1,
after his
birth, see Altenmiiller, 92(1966)86-95. For ZAS further examples of the

reading the of
hieroglyphs for this word and variants thereof and its relationship
to the course of the sun in the heavens, also see the dissertation of Ulrich Luft,
"Beitrage zur Historisierung der Gotterwelt und der Mythenschreibung", in: Studia

IV, no. 22, pp. 34-37, Budapest (1978). The evidence given in the pre
Aegyptiaoa
sent article the between thebirth of the sun god and the
helps clarify relationship
'Winding Waterway'.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 309

\ t4
9 f^

' '
ii'.A. "'/"o'^ -av^ / \\
Fig. 2. A modern representation of the Milky Way for northern latitudes. Shown are
the bifurcation at Cygnus (left) forming the legs, the swelling of the star clouds in
Gemini (right) forming the head (face downwards), and the distribution of the brighter
stars in the constellations along and within the Milky Way itself. Note also that the
ecliptic (path of the sun) passes through the head's mouth. This diagram is based on
Skymap 4 (p. 48) in the field guide of Menzel and Pasachoff6.

reminiscent of the female form wrapped in a thin robe of gauze. More

over, part of the band as seen in the northern hemisphere bifurcates
into two branches at the constellation of Cygnus while at the other end
the band enlarges or thickens near the constellation of Gemini? both add
to the human form as the legs and head, respectively, Fig. 2. As a

starting point,the goddess Nut is therefore equated with the Milky Way.

2. Star Charts

In interpreting the ancient legend in the standard scene, I have used

star positions andmaps computed for 3500 B.C. by aplanetarium computer
program7 inwhich positions of selected stars were checked for accuracy
with the writer's independent algorithms already used in an earlier

study8 connectedwith the 5th Dynasty sun temples at Abu Ghurab. After

computations, thebasic star maps were supplemented with the outline of

6
D. H. Menzel and J. M.Pasachoff, A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, 2nded.,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1983).

7 arenow on the
Several available market for IBM-compatible and Macintosh computers.

8 R. A.
Wells, BSAK, 4(1990)95-104.
 310 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

the Milky Way as given in the star charts of Menzel and Pasachof f6 .

Subsequent topocentric figures in this paper show the horizons for the
latitude and longitude of Cairo (30?N, 30?E in round numbers).

The essential elements of Nut as the Milky Way depicted in Fig. 2 are
the already mentioned bifurcation at Cygnus and thickening in the head
area near Gemini. It should be noted here that the bifurcation of the

Milky Way at Cygnus is not without significance. Cygnus, the swan, is

also sometimes called the 'Northern Cross' because of its obvious ap
pearance. Figurines of primitive societies in clay or other materials
which represent the female form have been found which denote the gen
italia by a cross inscribed in the appropriate position between the

legs9.

A further element that is apparent in Fig. 2 is that a number of pro

minent constellations occur along the Milky Way in addition to those

just mentioned, e.g., Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Lyra, Sag

and to name some of them. These constellations are
gitarius, Scorpius

composed of bright stars distinctive to their patterns, one or more of

which are considerably brighter than the others in each. It so happens
that these very bright stars are located within or near the confines of
the Milky Way
(Fig. 2). In a number of instances, these bright stars
are even more
enhanced because, although within the banded boundary of
the Milky Way, they are located inareas devoid of Milky Way whiteness,
i.e., within bays or inlets where there are no background stars. The
net effect of this distribution is that the Milky Way appears as a

whitish, diaphanous figure bespeckled with brighter stars10, a logical

explanation of the source of the Egyptian art form in the representation
of Nut with stars depicted along her body.

3. The Birth of Ra - The Winter Solstice

Having determined that the Milky Way provides an excellent source for
the Egyptian representation of the sky goddess Nut, it remains to be
seen whether any other astronomical events are also contained within the

9 60 67 in C Schliemannrs Excavations
E.g., Fig. (Ilios, 226), p. Schuchhardt,
ed.), Benjamin Blom, New York (1971), illustrates a typical
(London, 1891, orig.
example although this particular one is in lead, not terra cotta.

10 note that the area in the the is de

Please shaded diagrams denoting Milky Way
limited by discrete lines. In reality, of course, the Milky Way edges grade off

gradually like wisps in a much more diaphanous manner than canbe illustrated here.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 311

initial elements of the legend connected with the birth of Ra that can
also explain the Egyptian art form.

The birth of Ra, or mswt R?9 is clearly meant to be understood as sun

rise. As noted in ?1, many scenes show the sun coursing through the

body of Nut as the underworld, emerging from herbirth canal atsunrise,

flying along the heavens during the day to re-enter Nut and the under
world through her mouth at sunset. Astronomically, there is no rela

tionship between the sun, thesun's path inthe ecliptic, and the Milky
Way that could give rise to this diurnal picture. If there is a re

lationship with the sun passing near (or

through) the Milky Way, then it
must be a seasonal (i.e., yearly) rather than a daily event. A first

step in the search is to ask the question: "is there a particular in

cident, recurrent on ayearly basis, which combines the sun,the eclip

tic, the Milky Way, and position on the horizon?".

A helpful indication is afforded us in Neugebauer and Parker's11 dis

cussion of the cosmology of Seti I and Ramesses IV, in particular the
text lines B.I,16-17 which describe the direction of the rising sun:

"It is in the southeastern side behind Punt that this exists. It is

god
in the southeastern place of the falcon behind Punt that the god exists,
that is to say, the falcon which is on the It is said: It is Re
picture.
who is established there".

This direction is not too specific; however, from Egypt Punt probably
lay as far to the south on the eastern horizon as the sun can reach,

i.e., the winter solstice. The comments (p. 38) of Neugebauer and
Parker before presenting this translation imply the same: "The sun
originates orrises in far distant regions inthe Southeast, the country
of Punt. Perhaps this is the direction from which the sun is supposed
to rise when it is farthest away from Egypt at the time of the winter
solstice. It is difficult to say whether these two introductory chapters
are concerned with the primeval origin of the sun or with its daily
rising".

It is clear from what is presented below that at least in this part of

the text, the scribe is referring to the primeval origin of the sun? the
direction of which appears to be marked by the winter solstice. Else
where4, it was indicated that the origin of the 365-day interval against

11 45.
EAT, I, p.
 312 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

N E S

i'Sun
3. The appearance of the eastern horizon atCairo at 5:00 a.m. on the morning of
Fig.
the winter solstice (Jan. 16, 3500 B.C., jul.). Cygnus has just completely risen.
The two of the Milky Way the legs of Nut are lifted upwards
appendages representing
off the horizon towards the south. As the time of sunrise approaches, Cygnus will
move upwards and to the The sun is shown below the horizon.
right. (cf. Fig. 4).

which the first lunar calendar was matched and which later formed the
base period of the civil calendar corresponded to the length of time
that it took the sun god Ra to travel between the Two Lands from his

point of
origin in
Upper Egypt northwards and back again. Monitoring
the movements ofthe sun god must have been one of the earliest of

Predynastic observations in the Nile Valley; and it would have been

natural to interpret the sun's yearly motion along the eastern horizon
from the southernmost point at the winter solstice to the northernmost

point at the summer solstice and back as journeys or visitations of the

god to each of the two kingdoms? the due East point forming at least the

heavenly boundary between them. The determination of the number of days

in the interval as 365 did not pose any difficulty to a primitive

society12 .

12 of
A likely method of counting the days accurately is described in the article
footnote (4).
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 313

A/.V;'..I-,-*-\ V Jmm/ ?<\ t. fi Yi I

A"?ff: >\^fcX,/
Fig. 4. The same appearance (cf. Fig. 3) ca. 2 hours later at sunrise (7:05 a.m.).
Although stars are no longer visible, note that aline drawn from the north celestial

pole through the star Deneb (a Cyg) and intersecting the horizon at the sunrise
(ncp)
point will form agreat circle. The same relationship will not hold for dates earlier
or later than this date and time because the horizon position of the sun moves.

With the winter solstice seeming apparently important to the early

Egyptians, itwould be expected that the first lunar calendar would have
used this date to begin their year. Indeed, as has been noted4, the
derivation of the civil month name 'Mesore', which comes from mswt Rc,
and its position as the last month inthe year probably owes its origin
to this early lunar calendar. Since the lunar calendar year would begin

only after the winter solstice,as subsequently when the Sothic Rising
later came to mark the beginning of the year it similarly began after

prt Spdt, then the last position of Mesore isperfectly understandable.

The feast of the winter solstice celebrating thebirth of Ra would have
to have occurred in the last month of the lunar calendar, which would
have taken its name mswt R? eponymously as the name of the month13.

13 A more discussion
complete of problems encountered with theorder of Egyptian month
names is
given in the footnote (4) reference. However, given the significance of
the birth of Ra, the development of the calendar would result in the last month
being named after the most important feast in it. The description in text deals
with the original Predynastic state of affairs, not to be confused with any later
developments.
 314 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

The star charts alluded to in ?2were used to study the movements of the
sun and the Milky Way when the former was near the winter solstice. It
was apparent that on the day of the winter solstice in the early morning
around 5:00 a.m., roughly 2 hours before sunrise at about 7:05 a.m.,
the Milky Way, or the part representing Nut from the waist to the feet
was visible, stretched along the eastern horizon from the NE clockwise
towards the south (Fig. 3). The legs were spread apart with one above
the other. The birth canal area of the Milky Way defined by the con
stellation Cygnus, orperhaps the last star in the cross, Deneb (aCyg),
was also prominent, this star having attained sufficient altitude (ca.
8?) tobe clearly seen above the dust layers that would be close to the
horizon.

Earlier in the evening, the whole figure starting with the feet had been

rising off the horizon as the sky rotated towards dawn. By the time
illustrated in Fig. 4, the feet area (near the constellation of Ophi
ucus) is close to the local meridian and very near the zenith, i.e.

directly overhead (right ascension and declination grid lines are 15?

apart). The Milky Way disappears, of course, in the twilight and ap

proaching dawn14. But when the appears sun the the solon horizon at
stice point, it does so a position
at where aline drawn from the north
celestial pole through Deneb and intersecting the rising sun forms a
circle ? a ? sun's
great (Fig. 4; ncp Cyg center).

It is somewhat difficult to illustrate the significance of the corre

lation because rise times are also important. Earlier inDecember prior

to the morning of the winter solstice (in the Julian calendar, the
winter solstice occurs on January 16 at this date), the Milky Way has
not risensufficiently for the Cygnus area tobe visible before sunrise.

Only for about two weeks prior to the solstice will that part of the

llf sun a depression of -18? below the horizon when ends

The has astronomical twilight
(or For larger depressions, thereis no scattered sunlight at all in the
begins).
sky. For smaller depressions, scattered sunlight increases. A depression of -12?
marks the end (start) of nautical twilight. Between these two values, the sky
begins to lighten and the brighter stars will still bevisible although the fainter
band of the Milky Way will disappear towards the smaller value. A depression of
-6? marks the end (beginning) of civil twilight; between -12? and -6? the sky is
noticeably blue, and only the very brightest stars will remain visible. At 5:00
a.m. on the winter solstice in 3500 B.C., the solar depression at Cairo was -26?.
By 5:30 a.m., it had diminished to -19? and by 6:00 a.m. to -13?. The Milky Way
would have disappeared or almost disappeared by about 5:45 a.m. although Cygnus,
itself, would still be visible for perhaps another quarter hour. Not long after
6:00 a.m., most stars would have been extinguished.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 315

Milky Way become apparent. It has completely risen just above the
horizon by 5:00 a.m. only about a week before the solstice, however.

For these dates, a line drawn from the north celestial pole through
Deneb to the horizon at sunrise will not form a great circle because the
sunrise position has not moved far enough southwards. The great circle

relationship is valid only on the morning of the winter solstice. A few

days after the winter solstice, Cygnus will rise too near sunrise tobe
seen atall. Moreover, at these later times the sun will have begun its
northward journey moving the sunrise point out of position again.

Whether this great circle relationship is a critical aspect of the

winter solstice' sunrise is, of course, moot. But the fact that one
cannot see Deneb or Cygnus in the appropriate spot at the moment of the
appearance of the sun is highly reminiscent of another astronomical
event reported in connection with the Satet crown from a gate scene on
the island of Bigeh15. The crown shows a scorpion pushing the solar
disk with inscribed star ahead of itself with its claws. At the time of
the construction of the Ptolemaic gate, the path of the sun passed
through the constellation of Scorpius in the direction towards the
claws. But, of course, the path through Scorpius itself can only be
deduced by watching the patterns of stars just before sunrise and just
after sunset for several weeks on either side of the constellation.

In any event, the fact that Cygnus and this part of the Milky Way are
visible close to sunrise inthe early morning for only about anhour or
so14 for a few days prior to the winter solstice is quite remarkable.
If the great circle relationship is accepted as an event determinable by
the ancient Egyptians, then its significance may lie inthe fact that it
would mark the straightline pathway from that point about which the
ihmw-sk rotate that would be followed by Nut's offspring from her womb
(Deneb) in a manner similar to the hieroglyph (Gardiner's B3): Aft to its
birth on the horizon.

4. The of Ra and the Entrance to the Underworld ?

Conception
The Spring Equinox

Having determined that there were indeed observational sources for the

depiction of a stellate Nut giving birth to the sun, the comparable ob

15
R. A. Wells, SAK9 12 (1985). See Abb. 3, p. 258; Abb. 11, p. 276; and the dis
cussion, p. 277.
 316 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

/ ' A>V -a.krP--~.

* - AX X
A .-7 -zi-y \ v-t. X \

S^j^Son N

5. The appearance of the western horizon at Cairo at 6:00 p.m. at sunset on the
Fig.
Vernal Equinox (Apr. 19, 3500 B.C., jul.). Although the stars cannot be seen at this
time, the head of Nut defined by Gemini (left twin at the eye socket; right twin at
the mouth), her arms outstretched to the left (i.e., south), and her waist and legs
below thehorizon to the right indicate the critical positioning of the Milky Way when
it becomes visible after the sky has darkened, (cf. also Fig. 6).

servational source for the ingestion of the sun now needs to be found.

The significance of the winter solstice point as the birthplace of the

sun suggests the possibility of the summer solstice as the other source,

which would complete the picture by symmetry. In fact, no correlations

whatsoever between the head of the Milky Way at Gemini and the passing
of the sun near this point were found. Ingestion of the sun, of course,

implies sunset as the horizon point. But nothing specific was found by
examining the sky patterns after sunset on the summer solstice.

Needless to say, other horizon positions were examined for possible

correlations. The surprising result turned out to be that only after
sunset on the spring equinox was the appropriate relationship found.
About an hour and 15 minutes after sunset, the head of Nut near Gemini
lies due West face upwards on the horizon, Figs. 5,6. It would have
therefore been quite natural for the early Egyptians to interpret the

spring equinox sunset as the time when the sun enters Nut through her
mouth.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 317

SX '''
W \ N
Son .'.V

The same at 7:15 when the is dark =

Fig. 6. appearance p.m. sky enough (solar dep.
-16?) forthe Milky Way tobe seen. Gemini is just touching the horizon while part of
the head of Nut has already dropped below it.

Fig. 5 shows the appearance of the Milky Way at sunset. In the after
noon, thebody of Nut from the waist upwards to the head and arms moves
toward the due West point of the horizon. As the figure gets closer,
most of the body drops below the western horizon. It is not until the
sky would be dark enough after sunset for the Milky Way tobe seen that

only the head and arms are left remaining above the horizon with the
head at the point where the sun had set, Fig. 6.

The correlation is much more direct than that forthe winter solstice,
of course, because ecliptic, the or path of the sun, passes directly
through the Gemini area of the head near what one would consider the
mouth of the goddess, Fig. 2. As can be seen in Fig. 5, however, the
sun has already passed through the Milky Way by the time of the spring
equinox. Obviously, during the transit across the Gemini area of the

Milky Way, the latter cannot be seen. But by the time of the equinox,
this part of the Milky Way can be seen shortly after sunset as illus
trated here.
 318 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

Although the head lies on the horizon with mouth gaping open, that part
of the Milky Way defined by the foot stars of the right twin in Fig. 6,
which are closest to the mouth area, are not setting due West at this

epoch. They do set due West atan earlier epoch, however, i.e., earlier
than 3500 B.C. This observation is perhaps a line of future investi

gation for more precisely dating the time of origin of the legend of
Nut. But before that can be done, a more precise mapping of the Milky
Way as a shrouded figure would be needed to define the position of the

cup-shaped mouth area more accurately.

Even though both the birth and eating aspects of Ra in the Nut myth
appeared to be quite evident in these correlations, it seemed rather
curious that the latter relationship had occurred at the spring equinox.
Nevertheless, these associations are strikingly reinforced by counting
the number of days between the spring equinox and the winter solstice at
this epoch. A value of 272 days is obtained. This interval is iden
tical to the 9 month period of human gestation. Hence, it can be argued
that several natural events have all conspired to produce the myth of
Nut in its earliest form.

5. Discussion and Summary

Scenes depicting the goddess Nut usually show her outstretched, naked

body bespeckled with stars with her feet poised onone horizon and her
hands on the opposite one. The sun god Ra is shown entering her mouth,
passing through her body, and exiting through her birth canal. There
are other to this picture which vary from scene to scene,
accompaniments
but which have been ignored in this discussion because they are either
or else later additions of lesser The sun disk
ancillary significance.
near her mouth has usually been interpreted as an indication of sunset,

the passing through her body as the nightly passage of Ra through the

Duat, and the exit from the birth canal as the daily rising of the sun.
While indeed such an interpretation may be drawn from this scene, es

pecially in later Dynastic times, it is not a satisfactory or complete

explanation of what may have given rise to the original art form.

Generally, I have found that when seeking astronomical explanations for

beliefs one should associations, correlations, or rela
Egyptian keep

tionships simple and direct. There is little need to impose highly ab

stract conditions, which only exist in the modern mind, ona primitive

society. That being the case, direct answers to the following three
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 319

were sought:
questions

(1) was there in Predynastic times an astronomical phenomenon that

could have given rise to the sky goddess Nut in female anthro

pomorphic form complete with stars scattered along her body?

(2) at the same time, was there a particular between

relationship
this phenomenon and the sun which could account for the birth
of the latter and when did this event occur?

(3) for the same period, was there another relationship between the
two which could have been the direct basis for the entering of
the sun into the mouth of Nut?

Easily observable answers have been given to all three questions. The
female figure is the Milky Way with legs formed by the bifurcation at
the constellation of Cygnus and the head formed by a bulging of the star
clouds in the vicinity of Gemini. Cygnus is visible as a cross, which
is also a means of denoting the female genitalia onprimitive figu
rines. The stars along the body of Nut were the brighter stars in the
constellations arranged along the Milky Way.

A study of Predynastic star patterns indicated that the constellation of

Cygnus was visible in the morning sky for only a few days prior to the
winter solstice shortly before sunrise. Since the anthropomorphic form
would have had the appearance of a female lying on her back with legs
apart, one higher than the other, it would have been natural to inter

pret the rising of the sun at the winter solstice as the birth of Ra,
having been deposited there from the womb of
along Nut a
straightline
path from the north celestial pole. Thereafter, the sun moved northward
from its point of origin but returned to its birthplace once each year.

The correlation with the head of Nut was found to occur after sunset on
the spring equinox when the sun sets due West. About an hour and a
quarter after sunset, when the sky would have been darkenough to see
the Milky Way, the head of Nut could be seen facing upwards on the
horizon with her mouth near the due West point. It is hard to imagine a
more evocation than the consumed the sun as
spectacular goddess having
it passed through her mouth.

Having now treated the conception/birth aspects of the sun with respect
to the Milky Way at some length, it isworthwhile tore-read the scribal
lines quoted earlier5 regarding the position in the sky of Nut's body
parts. More sense is obtained from them by equating Nut with the Milky
Way than with the whole area of the sky north of the Milky Way.
 320 R. A. W e 1 1 s SAK 19

The number of days between the spring equinox and the winter solstice
also happened tobe the period of human gestation, further adding to the

picture of conception at the first and birth at the second of these

times16. In fact,this specific relationship probably the is origin of
the theological concept of Ra as the self-creating god in which he

brings his own self into being.

A final note of significance relates to the due West point of the

horizon. Throughout the whole of ancient Egyptian history, the west

represented the location of the Necropolis, and facing the west was an

important orientation for the deceased. It is clear from the corre

lation in this study that importance was placed on the due West point as
the entrance into the Duat. In fact, Kingdom the
pyramids Old may have
had their E-Worientation primarily because the entrance into the Duat
was due West17. It is true that most of them have the mortuary temples
and valley temples on the eastern side of the monument. Consequently,
many people have interpreted the orientation of the pyramids as being

primarily to the east; but this may have simply arisen because of the
geometry? the order from the river to get to the sarcophagus chamber

places these smaller structures first. Simply to argue that east faces
the direction of sunrise is not enough since we can now say with some
definite force that thebirthplace of Ra was not due East but rather to
the southeast at the horizon point of the winter solstice sunrise18.

16 The of these events has a note of about them. Since we are

timing curiosity
dealing with conception and
birth, one might also expect a correlation the with
rise of the Nile and fertilization of the land and the time of harvest. However,
The Nile rise was a summer event, often near the summer solstice, sometimes as

early as late May, but not asearly as March (Greg.). On the other hand, there is
such an agricultural correlation between conception/time of birth elsewhere. The
spring equinox in Predynastic times marked the rise of the Tigris-Euphrates rivers
and floods in Mesopotamia. One might therefore ask whether the earliest form of
the Nut myth arose there instead and was later imported into Egypt?

*' The star aDraconis had an influence as well since the ihmw-sk revolved around
pole
a point very close to it without setting. As is well known (see I. E.S. Edwards,
The Pyramids of Egypt, Penguin, Harmondsworth, U.K.,1985, rev.ed., pp. 279-80 for
the more complete discussions), the north face 'airshaft1 of the Khufu pyramid as
well as the north face main entrances of all of the Giza pyramids are inclined at
an angle such that light from the pole star could have entered the various
structures.

18
The author is indebted to Dr. Anthony Spalinger J. for a critical reading of an
earlier draft of this paper and for provision the of some reference material. He
also gives a note of thanks to Dr. Abdel-Azzuz Sadek for having expressed his own
belief that Nut was the Milky Way which was the impetus eventually to complete this
article.
 1992 The Mythology of Nut and the Birth of Ra 321

6. Addendum

As a note of interest, it might also be adduced that the relationship

between equinoctial sunset/conception and midwinter sunrise/birth for
the origin of Ra as the self-creating god is also the origin of the
matrilineal inheritance of the throne of Egypt. One title of the

reigning queen was normally 'God's Wife' (i.e., of Amun in the early
18th Dynasty, for example)19, and the pharaohs, at least since the 5th

Dynasty, were referred to as 'Son of Raf. Although Ra was the self

creating god par excellence, as this paper has shown he could not have

given birth to himself without the help of the goddess Nut, a female.

Hence, it is likely that the concept of the inheritance of the throne

through the female line owes its origin to celestial events that gave
rise to the mythology of Nut and the birth of Ra.

19
For adiscussion of the matrilineal inheritance of the throne in the 18th Dynasty
see C
Aldred, Akhenaten, (rev. ed.,1988), pp. 134-141. Whatever the title used
in previous eras, the basic idea that the sun god assumes the form of the reigning
pharaoh to impregnate the chief queen in order to produce the new pharaoh does
reflect the action of the sun entering the mouth of Nut to impregnate her for his
own birth at the winter solstice 9 months later. The first-born female of the
reigning queen, of course, inherits her mother's role as Nut. Consequently, the
first-born male as the sun god must marry his sister in order to perpetuate the
cycle. That it was not always possible to maintain the cycle perfectly or even
consanguineously gave rise to different Dynasties and other problems which are not
of concern here.

I am grateful to Professor H. Altenmiiller for the addition of this page to this

article after this issue had been prepared for the printer.