NÈITH

The divinity who bore the names of Amon , Amon-Re , Cneph or Cnouphis , was, as we have seen, the male generative principle of the universe. The Egyptians symbolized, in the character of Neith , the female generative principle of the whole of nature.

These two principles, closely united, formed only one whole in the first being who organized the world. From this comes that the Egyptians considered Nèith as a being at once male and female (αρσενοθελυς), and that the proper name of this divinity expressed in the Egyptian language, as Plutarch teaches us, the idea: I came from myself.

The goddess Neith occupied the upper part of the sky. Inseparable from the Demiurge , she participated in the creation of the universe, and presided over the generation of species; she is the force that moves everything.

The worship of this divinity, general throughout Egypt, as the monuments prove, was especially practiced in the principal city of Lower Egypt, at Sais, where a college of priests resided. The temple of the goddess bore the famous inscription: I am all that has been, all that is, and all that will be; No one has lifted the veil that covers me; The fruit that I have brought forth is the Sun. It would be difficult to give a greater and more religious idea of ​​the creative divinity.

Neith was the type of moral and physical strength. She presided over wisdom, philosophy, and the art of war; this is why the Greeks believed they recognized, in the Neith of Sais, their Athene , the Minerva of the Latins, a divinity equally protective of both the wise and the warriors.

The Egyptians dedicated the vulture to Neith , an animal which, in26their ideas, was the fixed symbol, and of the feminine sex , and of maternity. This emblem related perfectly to the goddess Nèith, the female principle of the universe, to the mother goddess of all created beings.

Egyptian monuments show us Neith standing, or seated on a throne, next to Amon-Re, the first male principle. The goddess, whose flesh is sometimes painted blue like that of her husband, but more commonly yellow, like all the women depicted on Egyptian bas-reliefs, has a vulture for her headdress , with outstretched wings, a bird which was specially dedicated to her. It is surmounted by the Pschent , a royal headdress, emblem of omnipotence. The tunic, formed of feathers, is supported by straps which pass under a rich necklace. Four bracelets adorn the arms of the goddess; the lower parts of her body are covered by the folds of two large vulture wings. The emblem of divine life is in her right hand; the left carries the scepter ending in the blossoming lotus flowers, a scepter common to all Egyptian goddesses.

The ordinary legend of Neith is that which accompanies her image in our plate. Her name is formed from the segment of the sphere, T, a feminine article in the Egyptian language, and also from the vulture , emblem and first letter of the word Mother ( Mou or Mout ), in hieroglyphic writing. This abbreviated legend reads ⲧⲙⲟⲩ ⲛⲏⲃ ⲙⲡⲧⲡⲉ and means: The mother , lady of the upper region . The monuments are therefore in perfect agreement with Horapollo, who also says formally that the Egyptians wishing to write Athene ( Neith ), painted a vulture , and, moreover, that this goddess presided over the upper hemisphere of the sky .

As the protector of warriors, Neith is shown on the bas-reliefs of Thebes, receiving the homage of the conquering kings, who lead the vanquished foreigners to her feet. It is before the colossal images of Neith that the victorious kings, sculpted on the pylons of the great buildings, seem to strike a confused group of prisoners raising their supplicating arms; finally, it is the vulture of Neith , carrying in its talons the emblem of victory, which hovers above the heads of the Egyptian heroes, during the combat, and after the victory, as in the ceremony of their triumph.