Shu: the work of holding space open

Coming forth with Tefnut

In the creation passages of Papyrus Bremner-Rhind, Shu and Tefnut are the first pair brought forth by the creator. The account employs bodily processes and wordplay to express their emergence. Their relation to the creator establishes a way for an initially solitary being to become a populated divine world. This is one creation formulation among several, not a mandatory opening chapter for every Egyptian account. The presence of two adjacent versions in the papyrus itself warns us that religious writing could preserve variation rather than insist on one unchanging narrative of the first generation.

Source: Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations · Chapter I, Creation A and B, emergence of Shu and Tefnut

Supporting Nut

In the Heavenly Cow, Shu receives an explicit task after Nut carries Ra upward: he is to stand beneath her and maintain the supports of heaven. The god’s body makes the cosmic arrangement habitable and durable. This image is more informative than a bare label such as “air god,” because it shows what the divine power does. Nut’s fear at the height is met through practical support, and the ordered world depends on a sustained relationship among sky, sun, and the being who bears them. Creation includes maintenance as well as a first act of making.

Source: Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations · Chapter II, Heavenly Cow, section III, Ra’s instructions to Shu

More than one explanation in a spell

Book of the Dead 17 contains explanatory alternatives within the text. A passage about the great cat beside the ished-tree identifies it with Ra, then offers Shu in the act of preparing an inheritance for Geb and Osiris as another interpretation. Elsewhere, the souls of Shu and Tefnut are among the explanations of a divine encounter. Such glosses are not a simple biography of transformations performed one after another. They show the text making connections among cosmic functions, divine identities, and succession. Shu’s relevance can therefore extend from the physical support of heaven into the learned interpretive work of funerary writing.

Source: Book of the Dead Chapter 17 · Book of the Dead 17, Allen part a, sections 14–15

Time & the surviving record

Period / witness: Selected New Kingdom religious compositions and Papyrus Bremner-Rhind, 311 BCE.
Recording context: Book of the Heavenly Cow in royal funerary copies; Book of the Dead 17 in numerous papyri; Bremner-Rhind EA10188.

A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.

Explore time & place →