Egyptian funerary religion
Nut
Nut’s arched body forms the sky after Shu lifts her from the earth. Her head and feet touch the ground while her star-spangled body encloses the world. Coffin texts invoke her sheltering wings, and funeral speech credits her with raising the head of Osiris. The sky’s enclosing form is therefore also a personal image of protection.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalNut’s arched body forms the sky after Shu lifts her from the earth. Her head and feet touch the ground while her star-spangled body encloses the world.
Further detail
TraditionalCoffin texts invoke her sheltering wings, and funeral speech credits her with raising the head of Osiris. The sky’s enclosing form is therefore also a personal image of protection.
Context & interpretation
Tirard’s 1910 account interprets selected funerary texts and rituals through the scholarship of her period. Local cults and surviving manuscripts vary; her comparisons and proposed origins are not a modern Egyptological consensus.
Original passages
Source 1
The Book of the Dead
her body, spangled with stars, forms the skyOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 102
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0102
- Original scan leaf
- 112
- Recorded leaf number
- 102
- Current Reader position
- 95
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Source 2
The Book of the Dead
The goddess Nut had, for instance, raised the head of her son Osiris in order that Horus and Set should place upon his head their crowns, theOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 38
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0038
- Original scan leaf
- 48
- Recorded leaf number
- 38
- Current Reader position
- 32
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Continue exploring
Shu
The god who raises the sky from the earth in Tirard’s account, opening the space of the created world.
Shared source pageGeb
Earth god named Keb in the scanned funerary account.
Same subject and traditionAnubis
Guardian of the mummy and guide into the judgment hall.
Same subject and traditionAtum
The self-emerging creator called Tum by Tirard, rising from primordial water in the Heliopolitan creation account.