parisons of Tefênet to the rain-clouds or the dew are quite unfounded; if she and Shu are later said to cause the growth of plants, this refers to other celestial functions than to furnishing moisture, which in Egypt so rarely comes from the sky.[1] The Egyptian texts speak rather of Tefênet as sending flaming heat (i.e. as solar) and describe her as a true daughter or eye of the sun-god or as the disk on his head.
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Fig. 41. The Nile, his Wife Nekhbet, and the Ocean
The pictures likewise always connect her with the sun. As a female counterpart of Shu she can be identified with such goddesses of the sky as Isis, whence in some places she is called the mother of the moon; but she is also termed mother of the sky (in other words, of Nut) and, contrariwise, daughter of the sky (i. e. of Nut or Ḥat-ḥôr). She and her brother Shu are likewise named "the two lions"[2] (cf. the explanation of Fig. 37). The idea of the wicked Sêth as a god of thunder storms and clouds, which developed at a fairly early period, will be discussed on pp. 103-04.
Turning to the element of water, we must first mention its nearest representative, Ḥa‘pi, the Nile, which is depicted as
