Egyptian funerary religion
Shu
Shu thrusts himself between Keb and Nut and raises the sky from the earth’s embrace. This separation makes an ordered space where the sun can appear. Funerary ritual also identifies the deceased with Shu. Tirard describes this identification as conferring divine power within a ceremony designed to reanimate the person.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalShu thrusts himself between Keb and Nut and raises the sky from the earth’s embrace. This separation makes an ordered space where the sun can appear.
Further detail
TraditionalFunerary ritual also identifies the deceased with Shu. Tirard describes this identification as conferring divine power within a ceremony designed to reanimate the person.
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
Shu is said to have thrust himself between Keb and NutOpen 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
of the valley of the Nile, Shu the son of Ra. As Shu he could perform onOpen 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
Geb
Earth god named Keb in the scanned funerary account.
Raises above the earthNut
Starry sky goddess and protective presence over the dead.
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.