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Solar
Nefertem
nfr-tmThe lotusPerfumeThe first sunrise
How it changed
A god who is an image rather than a story: the blue lotus that closes at night, sinks, and opens again on the water at dawn, with the newborn sun inside it. That gave Egypt a way to picture the first morning, and it gave perfumers a patron, because the flower's scent and the god are the same idea. The Pyramid Texts already call him the lotus at the nose of Ra.
Cult centre
Memphis
Best attested
Old Kingdom onward
Family
Son of Ptah and Sekhmet in the Memphite triad.
Epithets
- “Lotus at the nose of Ra”
How to recognise the figure
A young man with a large lotus flower on his head, sometimes flanked by two plumes, occasionally a lion-headed figure.
Carries
Worshipped at
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