Portal:Mythology

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Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of resurrection and rebirth. According to the Egyptians,during the day, the heavenly bodies—such as the sun and moon—would make their way across her body. Then, at dusk, they would be swallowed, pass through her digestive system during the night, and be reborn out of her uterus at dawn, the red streaks in the sky symbolizing the blood and fluid passed at birth.

Nut is also the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in the world. She was pictured as a woman arched on her toes and fingertips over the earth; her body portrayed as a star-filled sky. Nut’s fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions of north, south, east, and west. Because of her role in saving Osiris, Nut was seen as a friend and protector of the dead, who appealed to her as a child appeals to its mother: “O my Mother Nut, stretch Yourself over me, that I may be placed among the imperishable stars which are in You, and that I may not die.” Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine: “I am Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil.” She was often painted on the inside lid of the sarcophagus, protecting the deceased. The vault of tombs often were painted dark blue with many stars as a representation of Nut. The Book of the Dead says, “Hail, thou Sycamore Tree of the Goddess Nut! Give me of the water and of the air which is in thee. I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it liveth, and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace.” [9]

Selected picture

In Greek mythology, Io was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. This painting by Correggio depicts her abduction by Zeus, who took the form of a cloud so as not to be found out by his jealous wife Hera.

WikiProjects

• Wikiproject of Mythology
  • Wikiproject of Hindu mythology
  • Japanese mythology taskforce

Wikiversity

School of Comparative Mythology

Selected Myth

The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Achaeans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in a cycle of epic poems of which only two, the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, survive intact. The Iliad describes an episode late in this war, and the Odyssey describes the journey home of one of the Greek leaders, Odysseus. Other parts of the story, and different versions, were elaborated by later Greek poets, and by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid.

Did you know?

• ...that the Tigmamanukan, a Philippine mythological bird, can be a good or a bad omen depending on the direction of its flight?
• ...that the Ugaritic Yam is in many ways the mythic predecessor to the Abrahamic Satan?
  
• ...that the English folkloric figure Herne the Hunter is etymologically related to the Celtic god Cernunnos?
• ... that Malinalxochitl was the Aztec goddess of snakes, scorpions, and insects of the desert?

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