Both personify the sky as a primordial figure paired with an earth deity, though Egyptian cosmology genders the pairing in reverse (Nut is the sky, Geb the earth)
At a glance
Egyptian Pantheon
tradition
Greek Pantheon
the sky, the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth
domains
the sky, the heavens
arched, star-covered body, the solar disc she swallows and births each day
symbols
the starry sky
—
also called
Ouranos
Where they meet
Both are gods of the sky.
Where they part
Nut alone
the stars, the daily solar cycle, rebirth
Uranus alone
the heavens
Why they are compared
Both personify the sky as a primordial figure paired with an earth deity, though Egyptian cosmology genders the pairing in reverse (Nut is the sky, Geb the earth)
Both personify the sky as a primordial figure paired with an earth deity, though the genders are reversed between the two traditions
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.
Uranus
Cult sites: No independent temple cult attested; honored jointly with Gaia in oath formulas.
Festivals: No dedicated festival is securely attested.
Uranus received little formal cult of his own in the historical Greek world. His role is almost entirely cosmogonic and genealogical rather than devotional, invoked mainly in solemn oaths paired with Gaia.
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.
Primordial personification of the Sky, born from and united with Gaia (Earth). Father of the Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatoncheires, Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus, an act whose aftermath shaped the early generations of Greek gods.
Uranus was brought forth by Gaia alone, without a father, to be the starry Sky covering the Earth on every side. United with Gaia, he fathered the Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatoncheires, but his cruelty toward these children led Gaia to arm Cronus with a sickle and have him castrate Uranus, ending his direct rule.
Uranus is the personified Sky, brought forth by Gaia alone to be her equal and to cover her on every side, providing "an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods." United with Gaia, he fathered the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes, and the three Hundred-Handed Ones, the Hecatoncheires.