Egyptian Mythology

Explore the gods of ancient Egypt — from Ra and the Ennead of Heliopolis to Osiris, Isis, Horus and Set — as a living family tree of divine births, unions and journeys mapped on RootsLore.

People in this family tree

• Atum · ? — The self-created creator god of Heliopolis, who rose from the primordial waters of Nun and is identified with the sun-god Ra (Ra-Atum). Father of the Ennead, he brought forth the first divine pair, Shu and Tefnut, from himself alone — the beginning of the ordered world. (Pyramid Texts)
• Shu · ? — God of air, light and the void between earth and sky, the first-born of the creator Atum. With his sister-wife Tefnut he fathered the earth and the heavens, and it is he who holds the sky-goddess Nut aloft, keeping her forever parted from her husband the earth below.
• Tefnut · ? — Goddess of moisture, rain and dew, brought forth with her brother Shu by the creator Atum. As the first divine couple they bore Geb the earth and Nut the sky; in one myth she withdrew in anger to Nubia as a lioness, and the sun-god had to coax her home.
• Geb · ? — God of the earth, son of Shu and Tefnut, whose body is the land itself and whose laughter was said to be the earthquake. With his sister-wife Nut, the sky, he fathered the next generation — Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys — before the two were forced apart by their father Shu.
• Nut · ? — Goddess of the sky, daughter of Shu and Tefnut, shown as a star-spangled woman arched protectively over the earth. Each night she swallows the sun to give it new birth at dawn; with her brother Geb she bore Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
• Osiris · ? — God of the afterlife, resurrection and the fertile Nile, and the first divine king of Egypt. Murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Set, he was restored by his wife Isis long enough to father Horus, then descended to rule the dead as the judge of every soul.
• Isis · ? — Great goddess of magic, healing and motherhood, sister and wife of Osiris. When Set slew her husband, she gathered his scattered body and revived him by her spells long enough to conceive their son Horus, whom she hid and raised in the marshes to one day avenge his father.
• Set · ? — God of storms, the desert, violence and disorder, son of Geb and Nut. Out of envy he murdered his brother Osiris and seized the throne, igniting the great struggle of Egyptian myth; defeated at last by his nephew Horus, he was cast out as the very embodiment of chaos.
• Nephthys · ? — Protective funerary goddess, sister and wife of Set, who stands with Isis at the head and foot of the bier to mourn and guard the dead. Despite her marriage to the murderer Set, she took the side of Isis, helping to seek out and restore the slain Osiris.
• Horus · ? — Falcon-headed god of kingship and the sky, son of Osiris and Isis, conceived to avenge his murdered father. After a long contest with his uncle Set he won the throne of Egypt, and every living pharaoh was held to be Horus in earthly form — the divine warrant of kingship itself.
• Anubis · ? — Jackal-headed god of embalming, mummification and the passage to the afterlife, who weighs each heart against the feather of truth. Here he is the son of Set and Nephthys — though another tradition makes him the son of Osiris by Nephthys; either way, it is he who guards and guides the dead.