Nut – The sky goddess who personified the canopy of the heavens, wife of Geb (earth), mother of Osiris, Isis, Set, Nepththys, and Horus the Elder. After the primordial mound rose from the waters of chaos at creation, Atum (Ra) sent his children Shu and Tefnut out to create the world. When they returned, he was so happy he shed tears of joy which became human beings. These creatures had nowhere to live and so Shu and Tefnut mated to give birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Their relationship was so intimate that it disturbed Atum who pushed Nut high above Geb and fixed her there. He also decreed that she could not give birth on any day of the year. Thoth, the god of wisdom, gambled with Iah, god of the moon, and won five days’ worth of moonlight which he transformed into days. Nut was able to then give birth to her five children on five consecutive days in July which was not part of Atum’s original. In some versions of the story, it is Khonsu who loses the gamble with Thoth.
