Shu and Tefnut

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 5000 BCE–2500 BCE

Country or Culture: Egypt

Genre: Myth

Overview

The roots of Egyptian mythology extend so far into the past that no one author can be assigned to any particular myth. This is indeed the case in the tale of Shu and Tefnut combining to form the world. The oldest extant version comes from a text of Pepi I, near the end of the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2686–2181 BCE).

Shu, the male god, represents the sun’s dryness and heat and the dry atmosphere separating the earth and sky. The name Shu may come from a root word meaning “parched, empty, withered, or dry.” In drawings, Shu appears as a man wearing one, two, or four feathers on his head, thus connecting shu with shau, the Egyptian word for “feather.” Shu holds up the sky, one hand at the place of sunrise, the other at sunset. Also, in some extant porcelain figurines, he is shown kneeling to lift up the sun. If Shu is not wearing feathers, he is wearing the hindquarter of a lion. Shu sometimes holds a scepter in his hand; in other depictions, he has a snake and a scorpion along with the scepter. He is identified as having power over serpents.

Shu’s consort, Tefnut, symbolizes all that was moist, from the root word tef or tefnet, “to spit, or be moist.” Tefnut manifests in a variety of forms. Tefnut wears a sun-like disk surrounded by a snake on her head. She is sometimes shown as a lion or wearing a lion headdress. Both gods are lion-gods and are referred to in several passages in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Shu and Tefnut are twins, produced from Tem (Atum), who was associated with the sun god. Tem means “to make an end of, be complete.” As the sun god, he completes the day or makes an end of it when he sets. He is the light of both the sun and of the moon, and his abode is the sun. He personifies both the sun’s rays that come from Ra’s eyes and the north wind. Those in the underworld express thanks for his breeze.

O Amen-Ra, the gods have gone forth from thee. What flowed forth from thee became Shu, and that which was emitted by thee became Tefnut; thou didst create the nine gods at the beginning of all things, and thou wast the Lion-god of the Twin Lion-gods.

“Hymn to Amen-Ra”

A form of the god Ra, Shu is always shown in human form. In the earliest versions of the tale, Tem masturbates to create children; however, in later versions, his shadow, or khaibut, serves as his wife. A third variant suggests that his wife was Iusaaset, a goddess.

Although Egyptians customarily set aside cities for their gods, this practice does not seem to have been followed in the cases of Shu and Tefnut. However, the cities of Memphis, Idfu, and Dendera were known by honorific titles—Palace of Shu, Seat of Shu, and Hinu-en-Shunefer respectively. Tefnut was identified with Dendera as well; a portion of that city was called the House of Tefnut. In the temple of Helios in Heliopolis, people worshipped lions, which may have been an aspect of honoring Shu and Tefnut.

Feminist and archetypal literary criticism can both enhance the reader’s understanding of the Shu and Tefnut myth. Feminist literary criticism is concerned with the representation of characters within a given story and their gender roles, while archetypal literary criticism assesses the universal images and motifs present in a given text. Taken together, these analytical approaches will further elucidate both the individual gendered messages within the Shu and Tefnut myth and its relationship to the larger canon of mythological tales.

Summary

The union of Shu and Tefnut is part of the Egyptian creation stories. The details of the myth are inconsistent; variant versions exist for many segments of the story. In general, the stories relate the triumph of order over chaos. Creation is more potent than destruction. All versions agree, though, that the sun god, either Atum or Ra-Atum (after he adopted the sun god of Heliopolis), created them without any corresponding female agent, thus begetting the second generation of the deities. All subsequent generations were produced through male-female relations.

Ra-Atum sneezed out Shu and spat out Tefnut. In later texts, Tefnut is represented as a pair of lips, spitting. The three are sometimes referred to as a trinity, “the one who developed into three” (Pinch 196). In some versions, Shu and Tefnut take the form of lion cubs, an identity that explains depictions of Tefnut as a lioness. She also is shown in either human or snake form.

According to written accounts beginning during the Middle Kingdom era and extending into the Greco-Roman period, Shu and Tefnut left Atum. Whether they did so deliberately or by accident is not clear; they became lost and spent many years wandering. Worried for their safety, Atum sent the Eye of Ra, also identified with the goddess Hathor. Shu and Tefnut returned as adults with the Eye of Ra.

In another version of the myth, Tefnut (who is also linked with the Eye of Ra and with the goddess Maat) quarrels with Ra-Atum and lives in the Nubian Desert, taking the form of a lioness. Shu goes after her and persuades her to return; in other versions of the myth, Thoth brings her back.

Through their sexual union, Shu and Tefnut produce Geb, the earth god, and Nut, the sky goddess. In turn, Geb and Nut create Isis and Osiris, Nephthys, and Set (Seth). The three generations of nine deities are referred to as the Ennead of Heliopolis.

Before the third generation could be born, however, Geb and Nut had to be separated, because either they clung so closely that creation had no place to be or they quarreled. When Nut swallows the stars each night, Geb becomes angry, feeling that she was eating their children. Shu holding the body of Nut above a reclining Geb is one of the most frequently depicted images in all Egyptian art. However, one of the texts proclaims, “[T]he Earth is held up under Nut by your arms, Tefnut” (R. Wilkinson 183).

Both Shu and Tefnut are sometimes portrayed as twin Lions of the Horizon.” Depicted as two spotted cats or lions, they are turned away from each other, with the sun on the horizon between them. The lions are multivalent, signifying either the two forms of time (eternal sameness and eternal recurrence) or yesterday and tomorrow (Pinch 197).

In some versions of the myth, after the sun god returns to the sky, Shu rules over Egypt for seven hundred years before joining the sun god. Geb eventually takes both the throne and his mother, Tefnut.

The Egyptians created a sort of guidebook for the afterlife, known as the Book of the Dead. Composed of multiple papyrus scrolls, it contains not only incantations but also pragmatic counsel, such as a chapter on not being bitten by snakes and one advising the dead to bring along a boat. The Book of the Dead relates that Shu and Tefnut were to have one soul between them. The halves, however, were identified with the souls of Ra and Osiris.

Shu was a key god in life after death. From ancient times, the Egyptians believed that souls needed a ladder to reach heaven. Shu helped the dead stand at this ladder. One text states that the dead king ascended on the bones of Shu, which may refer to clouds. The dead were nourished with the food of Shu, another way of saying that the dead lived on light. Tefnut was thought to give the dead breath, expressing her role as goddess of soft rains and breath. One of the artifacts found in Tutankhamen’s tomb was an ivory headrest for the king. Shu is kneeling, arms upraised, supporting the curved headrest as he holds up the sun of the king’s head. He is flanked by the lions of yesterday and tomorrow.

Shu and Tefnut were worshipped at their main cultic center, which the Greeks named Leontopolis, in honor of the lion form the gods assumed there. Tefnut also had a cult center at Heliopolis.

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