Nehmetawy

Nehmetawy

Lesserwell-documentedAncient Egyptian religionKhemenu (Hermopolis)DepTebtunisHerakleopolisEgypt (general cult context)
Origin

In the Tebtunis Mythological Manual Nehmetawy appears within the returning-goddess narrative: a raging goddess-figure (in that text represented by Unut) spears Geb for fornicating with Nehmetawy. In this strand Nehmetawy flees from Set to Naunet (the primordial waters/inner sky), is visited by Nephthys and Thoth, and is escorted back to the temple at Khemenu (Hermopolis) where her return is ritually enacted as part of a festival.

Appearance

Anthropomorphic in depiction, Nehmetawy is frequently shown wearing a sistrum-shaped headdress and often seated with a child in her lap. This sistrum headdress and maternal, seated imagery link her visually to Hathor-like associations and to temple symbolism connected with the Ogdoad (for example, sistra imagery in the Temple of the Ogdoad/Temple of the Golden One).

Abilities

The sources describe Nehmetawy primarily in functional and ritual terms rather than as an agent of overt magical feats. Her roles include consoling and protecting the needy (her name means 'she who embraces those in need'), serving as the pacified counterpart within the returning-goddess cycle, and being the focus of festival performance and reintegration that restores local cosmic and social order. She is represented in mythic narratives as escorted back to sanctuary by Thoth and Nephthys and is paired in local theology with male deities (Nehebkau or Thoth) and possibly connected to local Horus figures.

Entity Network
TThothUUnutGGebNNehmetawy
related
Related Entities
More from Ancient Egyptian religion

Aani

Aani (ancient Egyptian jꜥnr) is the lexical term for the baboon in ancient Egyptian language and functions in religious contexts as an animal icon and theophoric epithet. Attested repeatedly in Egyptian texts and images, the baboon image is used to represent or denote aspects of gods such as Thoth, Hapy, Khonsu, and Osiris rather than implying the animal itself is an independent deity.

Aker

Aker is an ancient Egyptian personification of the horizon and an earth and underworld deity who is described in surviving summaries as guardian of the eastern (Bakhu) and western (Manu) horizons, marking liminal boundaries between day and night and between the living world and the netherworld.

Akhty

Akhty (also read Netjer-akhty) is an ancient Egyptian deity identified with the northern bald ibis and linked to the akh (the transfigured, luminous human spirit). Attested from early 2nd dynasty inscriptions and in Old Kingdom personal names and priestly titles, Akhty was associated with the evening horizon and believed to guide the setting sun and carry the deceased's spirit into the night sky.

Amaunet (Amunet)

Amaunet (also spelled Amunet, Amonet) is a primordial female deity of ancient Egyptian religion, attested from early religious texts and represented as the feminine counterpart and consort of the god Amun. She is presented in sources as a pre-creation or primeval principle associated with hiddenness; Thebes is recorded as a principal center of her cult into the late dynastic and Ptolemaic periods.

Amenhotep, son of Hapu

Amenhotep, son of Hapu was a historically attested 18th‑Dynasty official who was posthumously venerated and integrated into Egyptian temple cult as a deified, local healing intercessor. His cult appears in Thebes and resurges in the Ptolemaic period, represented in votive reliefs, chapels, and statues.

Ammit

Ammit is an ancient Egyptian funerary guardian-demon of the Duat who stands at the Hall of Two Truths during the weighing of the heart. Feared and not worshipped, she awaits the verdict and consumes hearts judged impure, thereby preventing the deceased from joining the blessed dead.

Ammut

Ammut is an ancient Egyptian chimeric creature associated with the Judgment of the Dead; traditionally described as a composite of lion, hippopotamus, and crocodile, she is said to consume the souls or the symbolic heart of those judged unworthy, preventing admission to the afterlife. Modern artistic and speculative retellings recast Ammut as a large scavenging semi‑aquatic animal whose corpse‑consuming habits inspired funerary beliefs.

Amset (Imsety)

Amset (Egyptian Imsety) is one of the four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian mortuary religion, a named funerary guardian commonly associated with protection of the liver and represented as the human-headed canopic-jar lid in mummification and afterlife iconography.

Amun

Amun is a major ancient Egyptian deity whose name (imn) means 'the hidden one.' Originating as a local Theban tutelary god, he rose to national prominence and was syncretized with the sun‑god Ra (Amun‑Ra), becoming a transcendent, self‑created creator and king of the gods closely tied to royal legitimation and personal petitionary religion.

Amun-Re

Amun-Re is a major ancient Egyptian state deity formed by syncretism of Amun with the sun-god Re. Attested from the Old Kingdom and rising to prominence as the patron god of Thebes by the 11th Dynasty, Amun-Re is closely tied to pharaonic kingship, temple cult, and oracular activity (notably at Siwa).

Amunet

Amunet (jmnt) is a primordial Egyptian goddess originally one of the female members of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis whose name means ‘The Hidden One.’ In later Theban religion she became a localized consort and cult companion of Amun, serving protective and liturgical roles in royal coronation, Sed festivals, temple liturgies, and funerary invocations.

Ancient Egyptian corkscrew-horned sheep

An extinct ovicaprine form identified in modern scholarship as Ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus and depicted in early pharaonic art; its distinctive loosely spiralling horns were adopted as the horn-type for several ram-headed Egyptian deities and persisted in iconography after the animal vanished from the record.

Community Record

Sources
  1. [1]
    Nehmetawy — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Nehmetawy'.wiki
  2. [2]
    Nehmetawy — Wikidata. Wikidata entry Q19282.other
well-documented