Geb

Tefnut gave birth to Geb, who was associated with the earth, and to Nut, who was associated with the sky. Shu and Tefnut formed the first divine couple and the second generation of the Heliopolitan Ennead. An androgynous creator god produced them. This god was usually called Atum or Ra-Atum. In one account, Shu was sneezed out and Tefnut was spat out after the creator swallowed his own semen. Some Coffin Texts treat Shu and Tefnut as aspects of one being. They describe this being as the one who developed into three.

Geb and Nut embraced so closely that nothing else could exist between them. Nut conceived children, but she could not, or would not, give birth to them. Their union drew creation back towards oneness. Creation therefore required another separation.

Shu acted between his children. He lifted Nut above him and placed Geb beneath his feet. He became a cosmic giant, with a stride as long as the sky. In the familiar image, Shu stands with raised arms and supports Nut’s arched body, while Geb lies below. Other deities called the supporters of Shu assisted him. The eight Heh gods were especially associated with this task. Shu created them from his own bodily fluids.

The separation left Geb as the earth beneath Nut and Nut as the sky above him. Egyptian art often showed Shu standing over Geb and holding up Nut. The Coffin Texts record Shu lifting Nut and setting Geb under his feet. Later coffins and funerary papyri show the scene in greater detail. A related account says that Ra ordered Shu to separate Geb and Nut. Another says that jealousy led Shu to force himself between them. In a different episode, Shu supported Nut after she took the form of a cow and became dizzy while raising Ra into heaven.

Geb challenged Shu’s leadership, and Shu withdrew from the world. Some accounts say that Geb took Tefnut, his mother, as his chief queen. Others say that he raped her. This separated Shu from his sister-wife, just as Shu had earlier separated Geb from his sister-wife. Geb’s claim to the throne remained disputed. When he tried to put on his father’s headdress, its guardian serpent burned him.

Geb was eventually accepted as ruler of Egypt. He defended the land against the children of Apophis and was generally regarded as the rightful ruler of everything on earth. In one account, storms and darkness followed his seizure of the throne and his violation of Tefnut for nine days. When they cleared, Geb was acknowledged as king.

After seventy-five days, Geb travelled through his kingdom. He heard of Shu’s strength and of the uraeus serpent that Shu had placed on his head. Geb tried to take the serpent for himself. When he opened the chest where it was kept, the serpent breathed deadly venom. The venom killed all his attendants. Geb was burned and fell sick with fever.

After ruling Egypt, Geb gave the divine kingship to his son Osiris. Osiris had been born to Nut. At his birth, a voice proclaimed that the great and good king had arrived, or that the lord of all was entering into light. In most accounts, Osiris was born wearing a crown, and the sun god chose him to succeed Geb. Osiris therefore began the next stage of the divine royal succession.

Some accounts instead make Ra or Atum the one who transferred the throne directly to Geb. Other traditions place Shu or Osiris at the beginning of Egypt’s line of divine kings. A few sources also refer to a violent struggle between Geb and Osiris. One late account from Kom Ombo claims that Osiris was killed and born again after a union between Geb and Shu.

Geb took the form of the primeval goose, the Great Cackler, and broke the silence of the first world. He laid a cosmic egg on the primeval mound. The mound rose from the Nun, the waters of chaos that existed before the present universe.

The egg contained Ra, the bird of light who would create the world. When it opened, the first sunrise began. Ra appeared as the sun and brought light to the darkness. In this creation variant, the egg was the source of the sun and the beginning of the ordered world.

This emergence was linked with the Isle of Flames, which was described as the primeval hill. The island became a place of pilgrimage and ritual. Hermopolis preserved the story among its creation traditions. These traditions connected the first world with the lake, the island and the cosmic egg.

Geb was generally the earth. He was usually described as the son of Shu and Tefnut, with Nut as his twin sister. He was also sometimes called the father of Ra and Thoth, and the father of the gods. In this variant, he acted as the celestial goose who laid the egg from which the sun emerged.