Cult of Gods

Nun

Egyptian tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
the primeval waters
Children
Atum
Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.
Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.

Key myth

The dark, formless water from which, in the Heliopolitan account, Atum emerged. Nun is rarely shown with a cult of his own; he is a condition of the world before it was ordered.

Primary sources

  • Coffin Texts (Atum rising from Nun)

All sources for the Egyptian pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

NunAtumRaAmunShuTefnutMaatHathorSekhmetPtahGebNutAnubisThothSobekOsirisIsisSethNephthysHorus

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorseA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.HinduFolio 309r of the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin), c. 800.Celtic (Irish)

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Nun: creation and first beings, sea and waters. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Ymir

first giant, raw material of the world

Norse

Búri

first of the gods

Norse

Borr

father of Odin, Vili and Vé

Norse

Ægir

the sea, brewer of the gods' ale

Norse

Rán

drowning, the sea's net

Mesopotamian

Nammu

the primeval sea, mother of the gods

Compare across cultures