What do Nut and Osiris have in common?

They share no domain in this atlas: Nut holds the sky, the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth, while Osiris holds afterlife, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, judgment.

Which traditions do they belong to?

Both belong to the Egyptian Pantheon.

Side by side

Nut vs Osiris

Nut and Osiris are recorded in a parent-and-child line within the Egyptian Pantheon.

At a glance

Egyptian Pantheon

tradition

Egyptian Pantheon

the sky, the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth

domains

afterlife, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, judgment

arched, star-covered body, the solar disc she swallows and births each day

symbols

crook and flail, atef crown, green or black skin, mummy wrappings, djed pillar

—

also called

Usir, Lord of the Perfect Black

Where they meet

The atlas records no shared domain or symbol between them. What connects them is elsewhere: Nut and Osiris are recorded in a parent-and-child line within the Egyptian Pantheon.

Where they part

Nut alone

the sky, the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth

Osiris alone

afterlife, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, judgment

How each was worshipped

Nut

Cult sites: No major independent state temple; honored chiefly through funerary art and coffin decoration.

Festivals: The five epagomenal days at year's end were associated with the births of her children.

Nut's presence in Egyptian religion is felt overwhelmingly through funerary art: her image, arched across coffin lids and tomb ceilings, was meant to receive the dead into her body each night just as she received the sun, promising the same daily rebirth to the deceased.

Osiris

Cult sites: Abydos, with the processional route to Umm el-Qa'ab, Osireion and temples throughout Egypt as the dead god.

Festivals: Khoiak mysteries, Osiris festivals of the month of Khoiak.

Death, grain, and kingship of the underworld. Khoiak grew his figure from grain and floated his neshmet bark. Every tomb needs him. Isis, Horus, and the justified dead share the same story.

Nut

Egyptian Pantheon

Goddess of the sky, daughter of Shu, consort of Geb, and mother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Nut's star-covered body arches over the earth, swallowing the sun each evening and giving birth to it again each dawn.

Nut was born to Shu and Tefnut and, with her brother and consort Geb, formed the third generation of the Ennead. Ra, angered by her secret pregnancy by Geb, forbade her from giving birth on any day of the calendar year, until Thoth won five extra days through which Nut bore Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.

Nut is the sky itself, depicted as a woman whose elongated, star-covered body arches over the reclining earth god Geb, held apart from him by their father Shu. Daughter of Shu and Tefnut, Nut forms, with Geb, the next generation of the Heliopolitan Ennead after Atum, Shu, and Tefnut.

Read the full Nut entry

Osiris

Egyptian Pantheon

God of the afterlife, resurrection, and fertility. First pharaoh and lawgiver who taught agriculture to humanity. Murdered by his brother Set and resurrected by Isis.

Osiris was the first mythical pharaoh of Egypt, who brought civilization and agriculture. After being murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Set, he was resurrected by Isis to rule the Underworld.

Read the full Osiris entry

Compare something else

Build your own comparison

Preparing comparison data...

At a glance

Egyptian Pantheon

tradition

Egyptian Pantheon

the sky, the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth

domains

afterlife, resurrection, fertility, agriculture, judgment

arched, star-covered body, the solar disc she swallows and births each day

symbols

crook and flail, atef crown, green or black skin, mummy wrappings, djed pillar

—

also called

Usir, Lord of the Perfect Black

How each was worshipped

Nut

Cult sites: No major independent state temple; honored chiefly through funerary art and coffin decoration.

Festivals: The five epagomenal days at year's end were associated with the births of her children.

Osiris

Cult sites: Abydos, with the processional route to Umm el-Qa'ab, Osireion and temples throughout Egypt as the dead god.

Festivals: Khoiak mysteries, Osiris festivals of the month of Khoiak.

Death, grain, and kingship of the underworld. Khoiak grew his figure from grain and floated his neshmet bark. Every tomb needs him. Isis, Horus, and the justified dead share the same story.