Neith: Egypt’s Primeval Goddess of Creation, War, and Order
Neith is one of the earliest Egyptian deities to appear in the archaeological record; the earliest signs of her worship date to the Naqada II period (c. 3600–3350 BC). Her main cult centre was the city of Sais in Lower Egypt, near the western edge of the Nile Delta, and some Egyptologists have suggested that she originated among the Libyan peoples who lived nearby.
She was the most important goddess in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC) and had a significant shrine at the capital, Memphis. In subsequent eras she lost her preeminence to other goddesses, such as Hathor, but she remained important, particularly during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 BC), when Sais was Egypt’s capital. She was worshipped in many temples during the Greek and Roman periods of Egyptian history, most significantly Esna in Upper Egypt, and the Greeks identified her with their goddess Athena.
This article explores Neith’s origins, symbolism, roles, worship, and why she remained central to Egyptian belief for so long.
Neith Symbols and Iconography
In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity. She was wearing the Red Crown, with a bow, occasionally holding or using two arrows. Her symbolism often is of a goddess of war and of hunting. According to Wilkinson, her hieroglyphic symbol consists of two bows crossed over a shield. The hieroglyphs of her name are usually followed by a determinative containing the archery elements.
According to Fleming & Lothian, the symbol of her name is a shield symbol explained with either double bows (facing one another), intersected by two arrows (usually lashed to the bows), or by other imagery associated with her worship.
As she is connected with weaving, the symbol is sometimes suggested to be a shuttle. However, according to scholar Arthur Evans, the bow of Neith in her symbol represented two bows in a sheath, and it was “convincingly” explained over the shuttle hypothesis by Egyptologist Margaret Murray.
Her symbol also identified the city of Sais. This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art. In her form as a goddess of war, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died.
As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was sceptre (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life). She is associated with Mehet-Weret, as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily, whose name means “Great Flood.” In these forms, she is associated with the creation of both the primordial time and the daily “re-creation”. As protectress of Ra or the king, she is represented as a uraeus. In time, this led to her being considered the personification of the primordial waters of creation.
Goddess Neith
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, as displayed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Nurse of Crocodiles
Sometimes Neith was pictured as a woman nursing a baby crocodile, and she was then addressed with the title, “Nurse of Crocodiles”, reflecting a southern provincial mythology in Upper Egypt that she served as the mother of the crocodile god, Sobek. As the mother of Ra, in her Mehet-Weret form, she was sometimes described as the “Great Cow who gave birth to Ra”.
As a maternal figure (beyond being the birth-mother of the sun-god Ra), Neith is associated with Sobek as her son (as early as the Pyramid Texts), but in later religious conventions that paired deities, no male deity is consistently identified with her in a pair and so, she is often represented without one. Later triad associations made with her have little or no religious or mythological supporting references, appearing to have been made by political or regional associations only.
Anthropomorphic Representations of Neith
Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty. The vase was found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) at Saqqara. That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is demonstrated by a preponderance of theophoric names (personal names that incorporate the name of a deity) within which Neith appears as an element.
Predominance of Neith’s name in nearly forty per cent of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal women of the First Dynasty, clearly emphasizes the importance of this goddess in relation to the early society of Egypt, with special emphasis on association with the Royal House.
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 that this was her primary function as a deity.
The Cult of Neith at Sais
It has been theorized that 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. Textual and iconographic evidence indicate that she was a national goddess for Old Kingdom Egypt, with her own sanctuary in Memphis, indicating the high regard held for her. There, she was known as “North of her Wall”, as counterpoise to Ptah’s “South of his Wall” epithet.
While Neith is generally regarded as a deity of Lower Egypt, her worship was not consistently located in that delta region. Her cult reached its height in Saïs and apparently in Memphis in the Old Kingdom. and remained important, although to a lesser extent, through the Middle and New Kingdom. Her cult regained cultural prominence again during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty when worship at Saïs flourished again, as well as at Esna in Upper Egypt.
Temple of Neith
Her temple at Sais was one of the most respected religious institutions in Egypt. Ancient writers described it as a place of great wisdom, mystery, and ritual depth.
The sanctuary reportedly bore an inscription suggesting profound cosmic knowledge, reinforcing Neith’s reputation as a goddess of hidden truth.
The Myth of Horus and Seth
Neith was a very important figure in the later traditions to end a dispute between Horus and Seth about the throne of Egypt. Her opinion was not dismissed due to her age and impartiality.
This role reinforced her image as:
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Wise and fair
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Above rivalry
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Capable of restoring balance
Because of this, Neith was associated with Ma’at, the principle of truth and cosmic order.
Neith Attributes
An analysis of her attributes shows Neith was a goddess with many roles. From predynastic and early dynasty periods, she was referred to as an “Opener of the Ways” (same as Wepwawet), which may have referred not only to her leadership in hunting and war but also as a psychopomp in cosmic and underworld pathways, escorting souls. References to Neith as the “Opener of Paths” occur in Dynasty Four through Dynasty Six, and Neith is seen in the titles of women serving as priestesses of the goddess. Such epithets include: “Priestess of Neith who opens all the (path)ways”, “Priestess of Neith who opens the good pathways”, “Priestess of Neith who opens the way in all her places”.
Statue of the goddess Neith
The main imagery of Neith as Wepwawet was as the deity of the unseen and limitless sky, as opposed to representations of Nut and Hathor, who respectively represented the manifested night and day skies. Neith’s epithet 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, under Neith’s control of all beyond the visible world, of which only a glimpse is revealed before 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. It is at these points, beyond the sky that is seen, that Neith’s true power as the deity who creates life is manifested.
Since Neith also was goddess of war, she thus had an additional association with death: in this function, she shot her arrows into the enemies of the dead, and thus she began to be viewed as a protector of the dead, often appearing as a uraeus snake to drive off intruders and those who would harm the deceased (in this form she is represented in the tomb of Tutankhamun). She is also shown as the protectress of one of the Four Sons of Horus, specifically Duamutef, the god who protected the stomach. Through her role as a goddess of weaving, she was associated with the wrappings of mummies.
Neith Mythology
- In some ancient Egyptian creation myths, Neith was identified as the mother of Ra and Apep.
Ra slays Apep
- When she was identified as a water goddess, she was viewed as the mother of Sobek, the crocodile.
Egyptian god Sobek
- It was because of this association with water, like the Nile, that during the pairing of deities, she was sometimes considered the wife of Khnum and sometimes was associated with the source of the River Nile.
Ancient Egyptian god Khnum silhouette, Middle East god Logo
- In that cult centre, she was also associated with the Nile Perch as well as being the goddess of the triad.
- As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to reweave the world on her loom daily. An interior wall of the temple at Esna records an account of creation in which Neith brings forth the first land, from the primaeval waters, the Nun. All that she conceived in her heart comes into being, including all thirty deities.
Neith and the Afterlife
Neith also played an important role in funerary beliefs.
Funerary Protection
She was one of the four goddesses who protected the canopic jars, guarding the internal organs of the deceased.
She specifically protected the lungs and was associated with the north.
Cloth and Burial
Because of her connection to weaving, Neith was linked to the linen wrappings used in mummification. This made her essential to safe passage into the afterlife.
