Her Cyclopedia: The Goddess Nekhebet

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Nekhebet, Queen-of-Vultures
N]X]B]T
[to Whom the eighth day of March, day 067, is dedicated]

Geography/Culture: Egypt: the city Nekhebet (Greek -- Eileithyiaspolis).
Description: Goddess of nature and death; Mother of Mothers, Father of fathers; Primeval abyss which brings forth life everlastingly; Source of the great river {the Nile, but which could be understood as of life}; Protectress of women in childbirth; Sovereign and Matron of Upper Egypt.
To Whom Sacred: water-lily or lotus sceptre twined by a snake; vulture; the direction south; the white crown of Upper Egypt.

Titles/Variants, etc:

Greeks identified Her with: Eileithyia, qv.
Nekhebet may be one person of the quadrupled Meshkhent, qv.
Hat-Hor is also called Nekhebet.
Variant: Hekhebit.
She is often confused with Mut,
Nekhebet is one of the two: Neb-Ti, below.

Source: NLEM; Mercacante WWEM 106.

Neb-Ti, The-Two-Mistresses
N]B-TE

Geography/Culture: Egyptian.

Description: Dual Goddess of Upper (south), and Lower (north), Egypt; Protectress of the Pharoah.

Titles/Variants, etc:

See also Greek Ta-Thea, The-Two-Goddesses, a title of Demeter, Barley-Mother and Persephoneia, .
In one aspect as vulture Goddess of Upper Egypt She is: Nekhebet, above.
In one aspect as cobra Goddess of Lower Egypt She is Uatchit.

Source: Monaghan BGH 215.

{Note: The confusion between Nekhebet and Mut may signify that the two names were at some time used for the same Goddess and that gradually the two names accrued to themselves distinctive qualities. How did the ideogram of a vulture head-dress come to signify Mother (as is said of Mut's name)? The fact that the united crowns of both upper and lower Egypt are sacred to Mut suggests that the Neb-ti are a dual form of Mut.}

worked on: March 1996; June 1995; February, August 1991; June, August 1990.
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