Creator
Neith
ntHow it changed
Among the very oldest gods in Egypt, present on First Dynasty artefacts and still a state deity three thousand years later, which no other goddess matches. In the Contendings of Horus and Set the gods write to her for a ruling and she gives one, and they follow it, which places her outside and above the tribunal. Late texts at Esna make her the creator who made the world by speaking, a role usually reserved for Ptah.
Cult centre
Sais, in the Delta
Best attested
Predynastic onward, one of the oldest deities attested, and dominant again under the Saite kings
Family
Self-created; mother of Ra in some accounts, and of Sobek.
Epithets
- “Opener of the ways”
- “Mother of the gods”
How to recognise the figure
A woman wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt, with a shield and crossed arrows, or a weaver's shuttle.
Appears in
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