🌬️

Shu

AlsoShu

God of Air and Light Who Pried Sky From Earth

The Beginning of Chaos and Order · Primordial Creators

AirLightBetween Sky and Earth

Who they are

Shu is the first god Atum made, god of air and light. Joined with the moisture goddess Tefnut, he bore the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. So closely did this brother and sister love that they could not be parted, so Shu stands between them forever, arms raised, lifting Nut on high and pressing Geb beneath his feet — and so sky and earth were parted, opening between them the space that air and light fill, the space in which life can exist. Egypt's most iconic image of the cosmos is exactly this: Shu crouched and standing, holding up the star-strewn body of Nut arched into a vault. He is the embodiment of the idea that separation created space, and space held life.

Key stories

Lifting Up the Sky

Geb and Nut clung together, sky and earth pressed flat, and nothing could grow between them. Shu forced himself between, raised the sky goddess Nut high with his arms, and pinned the earth god Geb steady with his feet. From then on the sky was above and the earth below, with the realm of air and light between. This pose he must hold forever — space is no gift given once and for all, but stands unfallen only through one god's ceaseless support. Egyptian coffins and papyri depict this scene over and over: their answer to the question of why the cosmos has a shape.