Nehmetawy

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.

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).

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.