Egyptian Gods

Nekhbet was an ancient Egyptian Goddess of Vulture since the predynastic period. Her name Nekhbet also spelled as Nekhebet or Nechbet, is the same Egyptian name for ‘mother’. She was a guardian of mothers and children of the royal family and however, during the New Kingdom she seems to have extended her protection beyond the royal family to the common people.

She is one of the nebty (the ‘two ladies’) of the pharaoh or the two protective goddesses of Egypt. Nekhbat was the patron of the city of Nekheb and became the great goddess of Upper Egypt, while Wadjet become the goddess of Lower Egypt. These two goddesses became the protecting deities for all of Egypt. They appeared together in many pieces of art as symbols of the Two Lands, a united Egypt.

Her appearance portrayed as a woman wearing white crown of Upper Egypt or the vulture headdress. Sometimes, she was depicted as a woman with the head of a vulture or as a white vulture itself with white crown of Upper Egypt on the head and wide spread wings while clutching a shem symbol in her claws. She was often called ‘Hedjet’ (White Crown) in reference to the crown of Upper Egypt and her link with the rulership.

Nekhbet always seen as a white vulture with her wings spread above the royal image and clutching a shem symbol in her claws on the front of pharaoh’s double crown. She was also shown in reliefs offering their nurturing breasts to the King and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers, and the Great White Cow of Nekheb (depicted as having very large breasts). She was also considered one of the mythical mothers of the King.

Nekhbet became connected with the “Eye of Ra” and this also connected to the other goddesses who took this title such as Bast, Bast, Tefnut, Sekhmet, Hathor, Isis, and her ‘twin’ in duality, Wadjet. She was worshipped throughout Egypt and her cult center was built to honour her at the city of Nekheb which included a birth house, a series of small temples, a sacred lake and some early cemeteries.