From Nun to Horus: how ancient Egypt told the story of creation

In the beginning, the ancient Egyptians said, there was neither sky nor earth, only Nun, a formless ocean that contained everything and nothing. From that dark water the first god is born, and from him, step by step, the sun, the fertile Nile, kingship, and the realm of the dead.

Egyptian mythology is the body of myths through which ancient Egypt explained the cosmos by way of the gods' actions and relationships. Its oldest records are the Pyramid Texts, discovered in 1881 by Gaston Maspero in the pyramid of Unas: they are the oldest known religious writings, more than 4,500 years old, and they gather formulas meant to help the pharaoh's soul on its journey to the other world.

The Egyptians told the myth in various forms, in different cities and eras. The version that follows comes from a video called Creation and Egyptian Mythology, which says it draws on the pyramid texts and the temples of the Nile, and it is a summary of a single narration. What it calls spiritual meaning is interpretation, not something proven.

Chaos and the first god

Before time, everything was Nun, a sea of silent chaos in which the potential for all creation lay dormant. In this version, the vastness is inhabited by Apep, a serpent identified as the spirit of the waters and as chaos not yet made manifest.

From Nun itself arises Atum, the first god. With him, the One becomes Two, and creation begins. Apep tries to reabsorb Atum and snuff out the newborn spark, but the god transforms into Khepri, the scarab, a figure of becoming, and escapes. It is the first victory of light over chaos.

The children, the earth, and the sun

Alone, Atum generates Shu, the air, and Tefnut, moisture, from his own heart and word. The two wander off and become lost at the far edges of Nun. To bring them back, the god sends his Divine Eye, which shines like a beacon.

When it returns, the Eye feels betrayed, because another has taken its place. Atum appeases it by setting it upon his brow, as the royal protector. From the god's heart then rises the Primordial Mound, the first solid ground.

On the mound lands Bennu, the phoenix, who lays the Egg of Creation. From the egg springs the Lotus of Dawn, and from the lotus is born the sun, the light of Ra. The darkness of Nun recedes.

The divine family

Shu and Tefnut have two children: Geb, the Earth, and Nut, the Sky. Nut swallows the sun every night and gives birth to it every morning, an image of light's endless rebirth.

Geb and Nut give rise to five gods. Osiris, linked to renewal and fertility. Isis, goddess of magic and love. Nephthys, guardian of the threshold between life and death. Set, god of storm and chaos. And Horus, heir to the light.

Osiris, Set, and Horus

Osiris and Isis fertilize the land and create a fertile Egypt. Set, consumed by envy, kills his brother and scatters his body across the four corners of the country.

Isis and Nephthys, with the help of Anubis, embalm Osiris. Through Isis's magic, he revives for one night, long enough for her to conceive Horus, the son who will avenge him.

Horus confronts Set for years and loses an eye, which is restored by Thoth, god of wisdom. Atum judges the dispute and proclaims Horus the first pharaoh of Egypt. Osiris, after the rites of resurrection, becomes lord of the underworld, where he reigns over the dead.

The pharaoh and the cycle of light

The myth ties into the Egyptian idea of kingship. In life, the pharaoh was the incarnation of Horus and guardian of the country. In death, he became Osiris and joined Ra on the solar barque, which crosses the underworld at night to be reborn at dawn.

The narration sees in this sequence of chaos, light, fall, and rebuilding a metaphor for each person's spiritual journey. It is a modern-day reading, one the ancient texts, concerned with the king's survival, do not themselves make. Even so, the image of the sun rising from the lotus each morning remains among Egypt's most enduring.