The Guiding Feminine:

Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

Neith:

Ancient Goddess of the

Beginning, the Beyond, and

the End
Neith is generally regarded as the quintessential war-goddess
and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient predynastic
period. However, she is a far more complex goddess than is
generally known, and of whom ancient texts only hint of her true
nature. In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce
deity, a human female wearing the R

ed Crown, occasionally holding or using the bow and arrow, in

others a harpoon. In fact, the hieroglyphs of her name are usually
followed by a determinative containing the archery elements, with
the "shield" symbol of the name being explained as either double
bows (facing one another), intersected by two arrows (usually
lashed to the bows)[1], or by other imagery associated with her
worship[2] Emblems of Neith in serekh of a
queen.

As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the wAs (was)

scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the anH (ankh) (symbol of
life). She is also called such cosmic epithets as the "Cow of
Heaven," a sky-goddess similar to Nut and as the Great Flood,
Mehetweret (MHt wr.t), who gives birth to the sun daily [3]. In
these forms, she is associated with creation of both the primeval
time and daily "re-creation." As protectress of the Royal House,
she is represented as a uraeus, and functions with the fiery fury of
the sun, not unlike the Eye facets of Hathor, discussed earlier [4].
 Representations of Neith as Eye goddesses
el-Sayed, Neith, II, Doc. 322 and 424

Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient

Egyptian culture. Flinders Petrie noted the

earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic

periods, as can be seen from a representation of a barque bearing
her

crossed arrow standards in the Predynastic Period (Fig. 1, left) [5].

Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early
dynastic period, can be seen in this representation from the diorite
vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty (Fig. 2, right),
found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) as Saqqara.
That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is shown
by a preponderance of theophoric names (personal names which
incorporate the name of a deity) within which Neith appears as an
element [6]. Predominance of Neith’s name in nearly forty percent
of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal
women of the First Dynasty, only emphasizes the importance of
this goddess in relation to the early

society of Egypt, with special emphasis upon the Royal House [7].

Name of Queen Mer-Neith,"Beloved of Neith" First Dynasty, Abydos

el-Sayed, Neith, II, Doc. 108

In the very early periods of Egyptian history, the main
iconographic representations of this goddess appear to have been
limited to her hunting and war characteristics, although there is no
Egyptian mythological reference to support the concept this was
her primary function as a deity. It has been suggested the hunt/war
features of Neith’s imagery may indicate her origin from Libya,
located west and southwest of Egypt, where she was goddess of the
combative peoples there [8].

Predynastic Stela, Neith II, Doc. 81

It has been theorized Neith's primary cult point in the Old

Kingdom was established in Saïs (modern Sa el-Hagar) by Hor-
Aha of the First Dynasty, in an effort to placate the residents of
Lower Egypt by the ruler of the unified country. It appears from
textual/iconographic evidence she was something of a national
goddess for Old Kingdom Egypt, with her own sanctuary in
Memphis indicated the political high regard held for her, where she
was known as "North of her Wall," as counterpoise to Ptah’s
"South of his Wall" epithet [9]. While Neith is generally regarded
as a deity of Lower Egypt, her worship was not consistently
located in that region. Her cult reached its height in Saïs and
apparently in Memphis in the Old Kingdom, and remained
important, though to a lesser extent, in the Middle and New
Kingdom. However, the cult regained political and religious
prominence during the 26th Dynasties when worship at Saïs
flourished again, as well as at Esna in Upper Egypt.

An analysis of her attributes shows she was a goddess with many

roles. From predynastic and early dynasty periods, she was
referred to as "Opener of the Ways" (wp wA.wt) which may have
referred not only to her leadership in hunting and war, but also as a
psychopomp in cosmic and underworld pathways [10]. The main
imagery of Neith as wp wA.wt was as deity of the unseen and
limitless sky, as opposed to Nut and Hathor, who represented the
manifested night and day skies, respectively. As the "Opener of the
Sun’s paths in all her stations" refers to how the sun is reborn (due
to seasonal changes) at various points in the sky, beyond this
world, of which only a glimpse is revealed prior to dawn and after
sunset. It is at these changing points that Neith reigns as a form of
sky goddess, where the sun rises and sets daily, or at its ‘first
appearance’ to the sky above and below [11]. It is at these points,
beyond the sky that is seen, that her true power as deity who
creates life is manifested [12].

Causing matter to exist and to live is the primary nature in Neith’s

primeval role in creation. That she does so without assistance of
other deities is attested to her from the Pyramid Texts to the end of
ancient Egyptian culture [13]. Of all Egyptian gods and goddesses,
Neith is often referred to in Egyptian texts as the "eldest," and even
as the "first" deity. She is reputed, especially in the Late Period, to
be the great creator of the world, and is often called by some
scholars the equivalent of the creator gods such as Atum and Ptah
[14]. As in the case of these primeval gods (though generally
referred to as male), Neith is described in texts as either
undifferentiated in gender or possessing both genders [15]. As
such, Neith should not be seen as a "original mother goddess"
figure, as indicated in some references, but as an androgynous
deity who creates the world from self-generation [16]. However,
unlike these gods who act after "emerging" from the void, the texts
from all periods of Egyptian history indicate she is, in fact,
representation of the first conscious Act of Creation from the Void,
who takes the inert potential of Nun and cause creation to begin.

Lana Troy, in her Patterns of Queenship: in ancient Egyptian

myth and history, indicates the weapons of Neith may be
interpreted as symbolic examples of the goddess’ androgynous
nature and her mode of creation. Though represented as female,
her standard of crossed arrows indicates her masculine nature as
well, which Troy argues is present in the Egyptian language itself:
"…it will be noted that the masculine function was related to the
rays of the moon. The Egyptian word for rays is stwt (WB IV,
331). The association between the rays and male sexuality is
notable in the relationship between the terms stwt and sti ‘to eject,’
‘to impregnate,’ and styt ‘semen’ (WB IV, 326 ff. Cf. and Faulkner
1962, 253). The verb from which these terms derive can also mean
‘to shoot’ particularly in reference to the bow and arrow (WB IV,
326)…

As a female deity and personification of the primeval waters, Neith

encompasses masculine elements which enable her to function as a
creator. She is a feminine version of Ptah-Nun [17]. Her feminine
nature is complemented with masculine attributes symbolized with
her association with the bow and arrow. In the same manner, her
personification as the primeval waters is Mehetweret [MHt wr.t],
the Great Flood, conceptualized as streaming water, related to
another use of the verb sti, meaning ‘to pour’." [18] (emphasis
mine)

Rather than a feminine counterpart of Nun, as has been theorized,

Neith is the active element that causes

creation, utilizing her powers as air and light, permeating the inert
and void qualities of Nun [19] in an androgynous fashion to make
living, formed matter [20]. Matter exists as experienced by human
beings as the known universe, including this temporal world, and
the gods. However, Neith herself, as well as Nun, exist in a place
beyond what is known by the gods themselves. These two deities
exist only in Duat [21]. Therefore, Neith’s act of creation is to take
inert (the potentiality existing in Nun), and through air and light,
cause these qualities to develop (xpr, xprw), or "come into being."
She floats upon the waters of Nun and is, in parse representation of
her function as creator, the first primordial mound [22]. Her first
act of creation is of Atum, the first "whole one," and that being is
the first completed act of creation. From this completed creation
comes all other creation, as defined in texts from the Pyramid
Texts through the Papyrus Bremner-Rhind [23]. Neith is also a
goddess designated as a protectress of the living and the dead. Her
insignia of shield and crossed arrows is seen in the representational
standards of the Hmswt, the female counterpart to the Ka (kA).
Like the kA, the Hmswt guided in the formative phase in the
development of a human being before birth, although there is no
mention of this aspect to a human being after birth [24]. One of the
four tutelary goddesses of the dead (along with Isis, Nephthys, and
Selket), Neith’s functions in the rebirth of the deceased after death
is attested to from the Pyramid Texts [25] through the Books of the
Dead through the end of Egyptian culture. It is in the funerary
mode that Neith is depicted at her most fierce, shooting arrows at
the evil spirits that would attack the deceased, either in the tomb or
during the passage through the underworld [26]. Figures (top)
Neith with Selket and Isis, respectively

Figure (bottom) Neith shooting arrows at evil spirits

attacking the deceased.
El-Sayed, Neith, II, Doc. 346,434 and 679a

In summary, Neith should be seen as an example of the entire

Egyptian theological and cosmogonical systems personified in one
deity. As one of the oldest deities of the Egyptians, the full range
of her attributes and meaning in Egyptian religion has only begun
to be fully explored. She encompasses the creative powers of the
"first time," the period of creation that was the goal of the Egyptian
culture in its daily ethical and religious life to cultivate and
maintain. That her act of creation becomes many deities which
make up the Egyptian pantheon, emerging from Atum, reflects
Hornung’s theory in which all divinity comes from Unity (via the
Potential and the Act), making Neith a deity of the First Principle
[27].