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Renenūtet (also transliterated Ernūtet and Renenet) was an Egyptian goddess of nourishment and the harvest, who was the spouse of Sobek. She was the mother of the god Nepri.

Description[]

She was depicted as a raised cobra with the sun disk and horns on her head, or two tall feathers and the solar disk. Alternately, Renenutet was shown as a woman with a snake's head, sometimes nursing her son Nepri.

Sometimes, as the goddess of nourishment, Renenutet was seen as having a husband, Sobek. He was represented as the Nile River, the annual flooding of which deposited the fertile silt that enabled abundant harvests.

Overview[]

During the Old Kingdom, Renenutet was the guardian of the king on earth and in the afterlife as the uraeus. She spit fire on his enemies from her perch on his brow. In the Pyramid Texts, she was said to nourish the ka of the pharoah. Renenutet was also a protector of the king's linen robe, and later the linen bandages that wrapped mummies. Later, she became associated with Buto, who became the premier uraeus cobra.

Renenutet was often seen as a cobra goddess that acted as or was the female counterpart of Shai, "destiny", who represented the positive destiny of the child. Along with this, Renenutet was also the Thermouthis, or Hermouthis in Greek. She embodied the fertility of the fields and was the protecter of the royal office and power.

As time passed, Renenutet assumed the role of guarding the harvest. Farmers especially revered her, and shrines to her were placed in granaries. Her son, Nepri, was the personification of corn. Nepri was associated with Osiris, as Osiris was also a god of vegetation who brought the knowledge of farming to Egypt.

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