monthofloveart: Geb and Nuit by Jeszika Le Vye www.jeszika.com 2020 Month of Love Geb and Nuit from
monthofloveart: Geb and Nuit by Jeszika Le Vye www.jeszika.com 2020 Month of Love Geb and Nuit from Egyptian mythology is one of the oldest love stories. Conceived as a pair, like many of the Egyptian gods, they represented a duality between themselves, a masculine and feminine pairing of ideas. Nuit the starry sky and Geb the earth god. They were both the children of Shu (air and emptiness) and Tefnut (moisture). Together Geb and Nuit formed the boundaries of the created universe from the primordial waters. However, their father (or in some stories Ra) disliked their closeness, how tightly the two clung to each other and separated them - raising Nuit high beyond reach and laying Geb low. When they were separated, Geb wept in sorrow and his tears formed the oceans. However, one story tells of how Nuit, who greatly desired to have children with her companion sought out the help of Thoth - who by tricking Ra into adding a few days to the year, was able to create 4 extra days where Geb and Nuit were not bound from each other and were able to conceive their four children - Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Set.Geb is unusual in that he is one of the few earth deities in mythology that was male. He was often pictured with a viper around his head and was known as the father of snakes - and the word for snakes meant ‘sons of earth’.Tombs were known as ‘Geb opening his jaws’ and he was part of the tribunal of judges in the weighing of the soul against Ma'at’s feather. Souls that were worthy he released to travel into the beyond encompassed by Nuit, guiding them and providing them with meat and drink - but the unworthy and guilty, Geb forever trapped in his embrace. Sarcophogisis were painted with Geb at the base and Nuit on the inside lid, showing they both guarded the dead. Nuit was also known as she who holds a thousand souls, her being containing all the blessed living (the souls of the dead) as well as the stars and giving birth to Ra every morning.It was believed that though Geb and Nuit were separated during the day, each evening, Nuit would meet Geb, creating darkness. If there were storms during the day, it was said that somehow Nuit had slipped closer to the earth, her body a barrier separating the primordial chaos from the ordered cosmos of creation. My newest Month of Love painting, and Egyptian painting for my book, From Dark Expanse, the Stars -- source link