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Nephthys

AlsoNephthys

Goddess of the Dark Night Who Mourns the Dead and Guards the Coffin

Death and Resurrection · The Osiris Cycle

MourningThe DeadNight

Who they are

Nephthys is the fourth child of Geb and Nut, wife of Set and sister of Isis. Against her husband Set's chaos, she stands on the side of Osiris: after his murder, she and her sister Isis both took the form of birds and traveled to recover the dismembered body, weeping and keeping vigil for the dead. She is the goddess of funerals and mourning, guarding the two ends of the coffin together with Isis — excavated coffins often show this pair of sisters with wings outspread over the departed. She is also the mother of the jackal god Anubis (by one account borne to her by Osiris). Nephthys represents the tender side of Egyptian funerary belief: death has a sister weeping beside it and a goddess guarding it with outspread wings, and the departed never walks toward judgment alone.

Key stories

The Weeping of the Sisters

After Osiris was killed, Isis and Nephthys took the form of two kites, searching, mourning, and keeping vigil across Egypt. Their weeping became the archetype of the "two mourners" rite at Egyptian funerals — two women would play Isis and Nephthys and wail for the departed. The two ends of coffins are often carved with this pair of winged sister goddesses, guarding the dead between them. What Nephthys taught the Egyptians is this: mourning is itself sacred, and to weep for the dead is something a goddess has done, worth doing with all solemnity.