Shu

God of the Air

Shu is the personification of air and the dry, light-filled space that separates sky from earth. In the Heliopolitan cosmogony recorded in the Pyramid Texts, he was produced by the creator god Atum, who is said to have sneezed or spat him out along with his twin sister Tefnut, goddess of moisture, at the very beginning of creation.

Father of Geb and Nut

Shu and Tefnut, in turn, gave rise to the next generation of the Ennead: Geb, god of the earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky. One of the most iconic images in Egyptian religious art shows Shu standing between his two children, his arms raised to physically hold Nut's star-covered body aloft above the reclining figure of Geb, keeping heaven and earth eternally separated after they had once been locked together in embrace. This scene appears repeatedly on papyri, coffins, and tomb ceilings throughout Egyptian history.

Light and Order

As the personification of sunlight-filled air, Shu was closely tied to concepts of order and stability within the created world, sometimes described as bearing up the sky in an act that maintained the very structure of the cosmos against collapse back into primeval chaos. In the succession of divine kingship recorded in Egyptian theology, Shu was said to have ruled the earth after his father Atum, later passing kingship down through Geb to Osiris.

Later Turmoil

In some New Kingdom mythological texts, Shu's reign as king of the gods is troubled by conspiracies and attacks from the followers of the serpent Apep (Apophis), reflecting the broader Egyptian theme of order under constant threat from chaos, which every king, divine or human, was required to hold at bay.