In the Heliopolitan cosmogony (which, unless otherwise mentioned, will be used as the source), Nut was the daughter of Shu and Tefnut. Shu, the god of Air, was created when his father, Atum, spit him out. Tefnut, Shu’s sister, was the goddess of Moisture. She was created when Atum vomited her forth. Atum was a self-creating god, often given the epithet “He who created Himself”.
Nut’s consort was her twin brother, Geb (Keb), the god of the earth. He was often referred to as “The Great Cackler”. It is said that, before the creation of the universe as we know it, the two of them lay in an embrace of sexual union. Ra, the Sun god, was greatly vexed, maybe even jealous, of the couple. He ordered Shu to separate them by holding Nut up so that only her fingertips and toes touched the earth.
Ra also prohibited Nut from marrying Geb; when she disobeyed, he decreed that she would never bear children in any month of the year. The Moon god, Thoth, felt sorry for Nut and gambled with the moon; he won from the moon “a seventy-second part of his light.” In doing so, the five days before the Egyptian new year (called the days "above the year") were created, and Nut bore a child on four of them. Traditionally, the order of her children is as follows: Osiris (Ausar), Isis (Eset), Set (Seth), and Nephthys (Nebhet). (While there are some stories that hold the god Horus/Heru was also born of Nut, this contradicts the accepted tradition that his parents are Osiris and Isis.)
Nut is said to have numerous other children, and is sometimes (as previously mentioned) depicted as a sow, her great belly providing milk to countless piglets, the stars. Tradition holds that she swallows her children every morning, presumably birthing them again at dusk.
Ra also prohibited Nut from marrying Geb; when she disobeyed, he decreed that she would never bear children in any month of the year. The Moon god, Thoth, felt sorry for Nut and gambled with the moon; he won from the moon “a seventy-second part of his light.” In doing so, the five days before the Egyptian new year (called the days "above the year") were created, and Nut bore a child on four of them. Traditionally, the order of her children is as follows: Osiris (Ausar), Isis (Eset), Set (Seth), and Nephthys (Nebhet). (While there are some stories that hold the god Horus/Heru was also born of Nut, this contradicts the accepted tradition that his parents are Osiris and Isis.)
Nut is said to have numerous other children, and is sometimes (as previously mentioned) depicted as a sow, her great belly providing milk to countless piglets, the stars. Tradition holds that she swallows her children every morning, presumably birthing them again at dusk.
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