(also spelled Nun), in ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, the primordial watery chaos from which the universe was created. Nu gave rise to Atum (Ra-Tem), who fathered all the gods and goddesses. Nu was personified as a human male holding a scepter, as a human male with the head of a frog surmounted by a beetle, or as a human male with the head of snake. Originally the goddess Nut was his female counterpart. In earliest times, the Egyptians believed that Nu was the boundless watery mass from which everything in existence had been created; in later times, the ocean and the Nile were sometimes also identified with Nu. The hieroglyphs representing Nu consisted of three vases of water, the sign for outstretched heaven, the determinative for water, and the sign for god. Together these indicated that Nu was god of a watery mass of the sky. |