Nut & Geb

In Egyptian myth, before Creation of the World took place, the universe existed as a boundless sea of dark, inert waters known as Nun. From this primordial chaos arose the first god, Atum, self-created and eternal, who emerged atop the sacred mound, which came to be a symbol of the first land to rise from the deep. In his solitude, Atum brought forth the first divine pair: Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of moisture. From this union of breath and mist, two more deities were born; Geb, the god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky.

In the earliest days of existence, Geb and Nut lay entwined in a tight embrace, their bodies locked together in an eternal union. The world had yet to form; all was closeness and stillness. No space existed for life, no light to awaken the cosmos.

Seeing this, Atum (or in later traditions, Ra, the sun god), realised that creation could not proceed while Earth and sky remained inseparable. Thus, he commanded Shu, the air god, to intervene. With great sorrow and divine strength, Shu placed himself between the lovers, lifting Nut high above Geb, stretching her arched body over him to form the heavens.

Nut’s star-strewn form became the firmament, curving from horizon to horizon, while Geb, now pressed beneath, became the green and fertile Earth. Though forever parted, their longing endured. Each day, Nut swallows the sun at dusk, and each morning she gives birth to it anew, allowing Ra to sail across her celestial belly in his golden barque.

This mythological separation was not merely a tale of divine sunderings, but a necessary act of cosmic balance, Ma’at. It created the very conditions for life to flourish: sky above, earth below, and air in between. Through this sacred division, the ordered world was born, and from it came all things, including gods, kings, creatures, and the rhythms of day and night.

Papyrus of Serimen

The Papyrus of Serimen, dating from Ancient Egypt’s 21st Dynasty (c. 1075–950 B.C.), offers a vivid portrayal of the Ancient Egyptian creation myth, particularly the divine separation of Geb (Earth) and Nut (Sky). Created for Serimen, a priest of Amun, this funerary papyrus serves as both a sacred text and a richly symbolic visual narrative of cosmic beginnings.

In this depiction, Nut is shown as an elegantly arched figure stretching across the heavens, her body adorned with stars to symbolise the night sky. Her fingertips and toes touch the eastern and western horizons, encasing the world beneath her celestial form. Below her lies Geb, the Earth god, reclining with limbs outstretched and often depicted with verdant motifs or crops growing from his body, embodying the fertile land of Egypt.

Between them stands Shu, god of air and light, tasked with the eternal duty of keeping the lovers apart. With arms raised, Shu holds Nut aloft, creating the vital space between Earth and sky through which air, life, and light may flow. This divine act of separation was believed to mark the birth of the ordered world, where the cycle of life, death, and rebirth could begin.

The scene is more than mythological, it encapsulates the principle of Ma’at, the sacred balance upon which all life depended. Commonly featured in funerary papyri, such imagery linked the deceased to this divine order, evoking hopes of resurrection and harmony in the afterlife. As Ra sailed nightly through Nut’s starry body, only to be born anew each dawn, so too would the soul of the departed rise again.

The Papyrus of Serimen thus stands as a testament to the Egyptians’ profound interweaving of religion, cosmology, and art, a sacred illustration of how heaven and earth were once lovers, forever held apart so that all creation might thrive in the space between.