Did Egyptian Goddess Nut Depict the Milky Way?

Ancient Egyptian civilization kept a wary eye on the heavens and the celestial bodies that moved in it. While their reverence for the Sun, Moon, and planets is well-documented, the Milky Way’s name and role in ancient Egyptian culture remain unclear.

One suggestion is that the Milky Way may have been a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut. A scientific article tries to combine astronomical simulations of the ancient Egyptian night sky with primary Egyptian sources to map the goddess Nut onto the Milky Way[1]. With her head and groin firmly associated by primary texts with the western and eastern horizons, respectively, the author argues that the summer and winter orientations of the Milky Way could be construed as figurative markers of Nut’s torso (or backbone) and her arms, respectively.

Drawing upon a diverse array of ancient Egyptian texts such as the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Book of Nut, alongside advanced astronomical simulations, Or Graur, the author, presents a compelling argument that Nut, the celestial goddess of the sky, stars, and the universe, served indeed as a symbolic representation of the Milky Way.

Nut, often depicted as a star-adorned woman arching over her brother Geb, the earth god, played a pivotal role in Egyptian cosmology. She safeguarded the earth from the encroaching void and orchestrated the solar cycle, symbolically swallowing the Sun at dusk and giving birth to it at dawn. Nut also has an important role in guiding the departed souls to the afterlife and she is associated with annual bird migrations.

Or then tried to test his assumption by examining Nut's visual depictions on ancient Egyptian coffins[2]. He assembled a catalogue of 555 coffin elements, which included 118 cosmological vignettes from the 21st|22nd Dynasties. He discovered that the cosmological vignette on the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet bears a unique feature: a thick, undulating black curve that bisects Nut's star-studded body and recalls the Great Rift that cleaves the Milky Way in two.

He argues that the undulating curve on Nut's body is the first visual representation of the Milky Way identified in the Egyptian archaeological record. However, though Nut and the Milky Way are linked, they are not synonymous. Instead of acting as a representation of Nut, the Milky Way is one more celestial phenomenon that, like the Sun and the stars, is associated with Nut in her role as the sky.

[1] Graur: The ancient Egyptian personification of the Milky Way as the Sky-Goddess Nut: an astronomical and cross-cultural analysis in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage – 2024
[2] Graur: The ancient Egyptian cosmological vignette: first visual evidence of the Milky Way and trends in coffin depictions of the sky goddess Nut in Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage – 2025