Gods, Stars, and Being: Egyptian Astronomy Explained

From the union of Geb and Nut then came many other prominent Egyptian deities such as Osiris, Isis, and Set. Of course, this is an extremely simplified version, but one mythical variation of creation, as many of the major ancient Egyptian cities had their own versions. What does seem to have had a significant amount of similarity, though, is how these deities of the sky and its contents were portrayed in papyri, carvings, and paintings. 

Many Egyptian deities, like in other ancient cultures, were predominately depicted in human or at least human-esque guises. Atum, Ra, and Nut all have personifications of anthropomorphic persuasions with their own unique particularities and meanings that changed throughout time.

Atum, for instance, is most often seen as a man wearing either a divine wig or the dual crown of both Lower and Upper Egypt, signifying his connection to kingship as the creator of the world. In some visual iterations, Atum is depicted as an older man leaning on a stick, referring to his role as the setting sun, while in other solar depictions, he is seen as a scarab beetle. 

Ra, with whom Atum becomes somewhat conflated and combined with in later periods, appears as a composite deity, a form the Egyptian gods were well known for. With the body of a man and the head of a falcon, Ra was the noon-day sun and another creator of the world and life itself. 

In myth, the movement of the sun across the sky mirrored the journey Ra made on his solar barque, carrying the orb from one horizon to the next. Once Ra passed beyond the horizon, it was said that he then journeyed through the underworld, changing form to a ram-headed god and battling foes who would stop his return. 

Upon his victories, he would continue on to the other horizon to begin his journey across the sky anew. The close relationship between Ra as the god of the sun and the giver of life and death is not surprising considering how aptly the rising and setting of the sun describes the cycles of life. Even Atum, the creator of life, was also associated with the world of the dead in his role as the setting sun.

Nut, too, goddess of the sky, was most often seen as a woman, though her appearance varied depending on how she was being invoked. In her role as the sky, Nut’s body is arched over that of her brother and mate’s, Geb (the earth), touching him only at her hands and feet. She is naked in these appearances, her body covered only by an expanse of stars. 

When depicted as such, it was understood that Nut was both the sky, but also the guardian of the world, protecting all within her realm from the chaos that existed beyond the confines of her body in the universe. 

As a protective deity, her image was thus also utilized in rites of death, and she has been found painted inside of sarcophaguses as a means to guard the dead. In other depictions, she was a woman with a water-pot atop her head, and in other images still, she could be seen as a cow.

The cycles of heavenly bodies, though central to many Egyptian beliefs, had more than just religious importance. While the sun, sky, and stars were the subject of countless artistic and mythic creations, they were perhaps even more important to the scientific tracking of time and space itself. 

Ancient Egyptians were master astronomers and were well known for their near modern levels of accuracy in tracking the stars and seasons. Many temples were important centers for such studies, like the Temple of Amun at Karnak, and some temple complexes even included fully functioning astronomical observatories, such as the one most recently discovered at the Temple of Buto/Wadjet in Tell el-Fara’in. 

It would have been places such as these that helped track the Egyptian calendar– a 365 day year not unlike ours today– and thereby also mark their significant religious and agricultural dates, all heavily dictated by the cycles of the sky above.