Neith is a goddess of presumed Lower-Egyptian origin, whose most important cult centre was located at Sais, in the Nile Delta. During the Greek-Roman period, she also had an important cult centre in the Upper-Egyptian city of Esna, between Thebes and Edfu.
She is often represented as a woman wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, holding a bow and arrows in her hand. This qualifies her as a hunting and a war goddess. Her aggressive nature is used to repel evil in general and Egypt's foes in particular, which makes her a protectress as well as a war goddess. She is one of the 4 goddesses who protect the mummified organs of the deceased.
Another type of headgear she is often represented with is some sort of spindle, which is also used as the hieroglyph to represent her name.
The meaning of her name has been a point of discussion: it may mean "the one who belongs to the Red Crown", confirming the importance of Neith in Lower-Egypt, or "the one who belongs to the (primeval) floods", which would qualify her as an aquatic goddess. The latter interpretation could also explain Neith's motherhood of the crocodile god Sobek, as well as her rather unique creation myth, in which she is described as the personification of the primaeval waters out of which the entire creation was born. Her aquatic character may also be the reason why she shared the Esna-temple with Khnum, the god venerated on the island of Elephantine as the source of the Nile's inundation.
Her importance varies throughout Ancient Egyptian history: she was one of the most important Lower-Egyptian deities from before the unification of the Two Lands until the end of the Old Kingdom. With the move of the nation's capital to her cult-centre Sais during the 26th Dynasty, she regains the importance she had lost at the end of the Old Kingdom.
- Neith -
The goddess Neith in the tomb of queen Nefertari.
