Tefnut

TEF-noot

egyptian: Tfnt

Definition

Tefnut (Egyptian Tfnt) is the Egyptian goddess of moisture and the female half of the very first divine pair. In the Heliopolitan creation story — the cosmology taught by the priests of Heliopolis (Egyptian Iunu) — the creator-god Atum brings forth two children at once, the air-god Shu and Tefnut. Together this pair becomes the parents of the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut, so Tefnut stands at the head of the family of gods whose grandchild, Nut, is the star-filled vault of heaven itself.

In Tradition

Egyptologists treat Tefnut as the second member of the Heliopolitan Ennead — the family of nine gods descended from Atum — and the counterpart of Shu. She is usually called the goddess of moisture, though the scholar James Allen reads her in the Pyramid Texts as the atmosphere of the lower world, the mirror of Shu above. With Shu she also forms a lion-pair, giving her a distinct lioness identity.

In Practice

Tefnut matters in Egyptian-tradition work because she is one link in the genealogy that produces the sky. The creator Atum makes Shu and Tefnut; they in turn father Geb and Nut; and Nut is the arched, star-spangled body across which the Sun, Moon, and decans (the star-groups that mark the hours of night) all move. So an inscription that names Tefnut is usually anchoring itself in this Heliopolitan cosmogony rather than in day-to-day star-watching. She also appears as one of the lion-pair called Ruty (Egyptian Rwty, "the two lions") — Shu and Tefnut together — a form that turns up in funerary spells where the deceased calls on Ruty to open "the roads of the Sky." As an "Eye of Re," Tefnut carries the fierce lioness aspect shared by several Egyptian goddesses.

Historical Origin

Tefnut is attested from the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts onward as a founding member of the Heliopolitan Ennead. Faulkner's Utterance 527 preserves the classic account: from Atum "were born the twins Shu and Tefenet," and from them descend Geb and Nut. The lion-pair Ruty is named across the Book of the Dead (Saite Recension), e.g. spells 38, 56, 72, and 78. She is treated in Wilkinson, *The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt* (2003); her cult sat at Heliopolis and Leontopolis.

Further Reading

  • R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts
  • Thomas George Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day
  • Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt