Nut

One of the things that has always intrested me about Nut, is the fact that she is a rare example of a sky-goddess. In most cases, the Sky is ruled by the masculine, a male god figure, but in anceitn Egypt, it is the reverse. The sky is ruled by the femiene, a goddess while the earth is ruled by the male, Nut's husbamd.

The ancient Egyptian sky-goddess, one of the Ennead of Heliopolos. She is the personification of the sky and of the heavens, the daughter of Shu and Tefnut.

Nu was the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world. The god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in the evening and travel through her body during the night to be reborn from her vulva each morning. She also swallows the stars and have them reborn later. In the death cult she plays a part in the resurrection of the dead; she is portrayed on the inside of the lids of the sarcophagi. The pharaoh was said to enter her body after death, from which he would later be resurrected.

As sky-goddess Nut was portrayed as a naked woman covered with painted stars, held up by Shu. Thus she forms the firmament above her husband Seb, the earth. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions. The principal sanctuary of Nut was at Heliopolis.


"Nut." Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/nut.html>