Atum

Shu and Tefnut return from the darkness of Nun with Atum’s missing Eye. Atum had sent the solar Eye after them when they went to explore the primeval waters and became lost. The Eye lit the darkness and could appear as a goddess. Hathor was identified with it in one tradition. Sekhmet and Wadjyt were also associated with the Eye.

During its absence, Atum had grown another eye. The returning Eye Goddess became furiously jealous when she saw it. Ra pacified her by placing her on his brow as a protective cobra. From there, she spat fire at his enemies. Another account identifies the second eye as the Moon. Atum gave the returning Eye some of the splendour belonging to the first eye and restored it to his face.

Atum gathers his children and weeps tears of joy at their return. Men and women spring from these tears. Humanity therefore comes from the creator’s bodily fluid, as Shu and Tefnut had also first come from him. Atum produced Shu and Tefnut through an act involving his own semen. Shu was sneezed out, while Tefnut was spat out. They became the first divine couple and the second generation of the Ennead of Heliopolis.

The world then takes shape. Shu separates the earth from the sky and gives the breath of life to the creatures on earth, including human beings, in accordance with Atum’s command. The landforms arise before humanity, followed by animals and plants. Atum wills the creation of people, while Shu carries out the act that gives them life.

Atum rose from the primeval waters called Nun. A mound of dry ground appeared above the waters. This Primeval Mound gave the creator a place on which to exist, and he began the work of making the world and its inhabitants.

Atum produced the first divine pair, Shu and Tefnut, through his own bodily creative act. The accounts described this act in different ways. Some presented it as masturbation. Others said that Atum spat, sneezed, or breathed out the pair. In each version, the life of the new gods came from Atum himself. Their emergence marked the first differentiation from the solitary creator.

Atum came into being alone, with the potential for all life contained within him. When his heart became effective, he could think and feel, and creation began. The names of beings could also be spoken to separate the elements of the primeval state. Shu and Tefnut were among the first results of this creative process.

The work of creation continued through the new gods. Shu later separated the earth from the sky and gave the breath of life to the creatures on earth, including human beings, in accordance with Atum’s command. Atum therefore willed the making of life, while Shu carried out part of that work. The birth of Shu and Tefnut began the movement from the lone creator and the undivided waters towards a world containing distinct divine and living beings.