Nemty

The sources do not preserve a full cosmogonic origin narrative for Nemty. He is attested as an ancient local god with priests by the 2nd Dynasty and became associated with the town Per-Nemty/Antaeopolis in the 12th Upper Egyptian nome. In mythic narrative (the Contendings of Horus and Seth) he functions as a ferryman at a divine council on an island; later literature characterizes him principally as a god of ferrymen. The exact nature of his original function prior to this occupational specialization is not recorded in the supplied materials and remains uncertain.

Iconographically Nemty is depicted as a falcon standing on a boat. In the Contendings tale he suffers the punitive cutting off of his toes, a detail explained in the tradition as especially crippling because a falcon without toes could not perch and therefore could not stand on the boat.

In the mythic record Nemty's primary function is as a ferryman: he transports beings across water to an island where a divine assembly meets. In the Contendings episode he is persuaded by payment (initially refusing gruel, then accepting a gold ring) to ferry Isis in disguise; for that action other gods punish him by cutting off his toes. Beyond this occupational role and the narrative incident of persuasion and punishment, supplied sources record his cultic presence (priests, offerings) but do not ascribe additional magical powers or wider mythic feats.