Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to take
a look at the Ennead, which was a group of nine gods the Heliopolitan creation myth revolved
around.
Let’s get into it.
In the beginning, before creation, before the first breath was drawn, before the inexorable
flow of time, there existed only the primordial waters of Nun - dark, watery, and infinite.
There was no end to them. In these primordial waters were all of the elements of creation,
but in a boundless liquid state, they were almost inert; for nothing could be formed
by them, combined as they were. It would take the touch of the divine for anything to happen.
Within the water of Nun, the god Atum created himself from the watery darkness that churned
about him. He then impregnated himself by masterbating and ejacualting into his own
mouth. Atum’s mouth functioned as a womb, and through his will and thought, his seed
quickened into the fetuses of his two children. After a period of gestation, the divine twins
Shu and Teftnut were expelled from the surrogate womb in which they grew. One was spat out.
The other was sneezed out. Shu was the god of dry, life-giving air and sunlight, and
tefnut was the goddess of moisture.
Atum shed his hermaphroditic nature, and his sexual identity crystallized to that of a
man when he took up the mantle of fatherhood. His hand, known as the Hand of Atum, later
became personified as the goddess with which he sired his children, and because the hand
was part of the creator, it was viewed as both daughter and consort to Atum.
Initially, Atum and his two children clung to each other so that it was as if they were
a single entity. Atum then gave an additional aspect to each of his two children, speaking
them into existence. Shu was named as life, and Tefnut was named as Maat, which was, essentially,
a trinity of virtues: order, justice, and truth.
Now imbued with new depth, Shu and Tefnut left their father’s embrace. The two of
them then joined in a sexual union and produced two children of their own, a son, Geb, and
a daughter, Nut. Geb was the personification of the earth, and Nut was the personification
of the sky. But like their parents before them, Geb and
Nut also clung to each other in a tight embrace. In fact, they were so close that nothing could
exist between them. Life could not flourish until they became separated. Nut was pregnant
with several children, but she either would not or could not birth them. Shu intervened
and separated his two children. He pushed Nut over his head and pressed Geb down below
his feet. Creation could continue now that the sky and the earth were extricated from
each other. Air filled the space between so that life could exist, and the sun rose for
the first time, burning away the dark that had dominated for so long. The first sunrise
was extolled as the perfect moment in ancient Egyptian mythology, and it was like a second
birth for the creator god; and from that moment on, Atum existed as either Ra or Atum-Ra.
With its three dimensions, the sky, the atmosphere, and the earth, the outer-limits of the world
became defined and fixed, yet the Primordial waters still and always would engulf the world,
like some hollow glass orb sunk deep in the dark of the ocean.
The separation of Nut and Geb also allowed their many children to finally be born. These
children were Osiris, the ruler of the underworld, Set, lord of the deep desert, Isis, a master
of magic and healing, and Nephthys, a goddess of protection. Isis was Osiris’ consort,
and Nephthys was Set’s consort, making two divine brother-sister pairings. Some sources
also included a fifth child, an ancient and powerful incarnation of Horus whose eyes were
the sun and the moon.
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