Primeval Deity.
It is thought that her name has associations with water: Nit/Nun/Nunet, and in the latest periods she was regarded as a primeval deity with both male and female properties. She was then called 'Father of the
Fathers' and 'Mother of the Mothers'.
Creatrix at Esna
During the Ptolemaic period there was built at Esna a temple to the ram-headed god Khnum, who was the lord of the cataract area of the Nile. Here are traces of a cult of Nit to be found, perhaps because of her connection as a creator deity to the Primeval Waters. Several depictions of her is found here as well as of her sacred lates-fish. On the inner north wall of the temple, a creation myth is told, which depicted Nit as emerging from the Primeval Waters in the form of a cow, uttering those commands that causes the first land to be created. This is the only text source which speaks of Nit as a Creatrix, and probably it was brought there by the powerful priesthood at Sais.
In this text Nit is seen as a goddess with both male and female powers:
You are the Lady of Sais...whose two-thirds are masculine
and one-third is feminine
Unique Goddess, mysterious and great
who came to be in the beginning
and caused everything to come to be...
the divine mother of Re, who shines in the horison
the mysterious one who radiates her brightness
She was further said to have "appeared out of herself while the land was in twilight and no land had yet come forth..."
Then the text says:
And this place became land in the midst of the primeval water,
just as she said,
and thus came into being "the land of the waters" and Sais...
All in all there was seven utterances made before everything was created and she needed no male help as she incorporated both male and female properties within her. After she had created thirty gods she created her son Re, who in his turn created mankind out of tears from his eyes.
Being a creator deity the step wasn´t too far to her being the mother of the gods. In the story of The Contendings of Heru and Set from the New Kingdom (1304-1075) she is called upon to settle their dispute of who was to rule Egypt.
It is not certain this story is a religious text, as it makes the important gods look childish and even ridiculous. Nit is here called "the Eldest, the Mother of the gods, who shone on the first face" and she is the only deity in the myth which is treated with respect.
In the famous tomb of Tutankhamon, there was found four small golden statuettes of four goddesses, which stood around the canopy shrine, with hands protectively outstretched. These are Aset (Isis), Nebt-Het (Nephtys), Serqet (Selket) and Nit (Neith).
In this context, which goes back to Old Kingdom funerary habits, Nit is one of the protectors of the deceased, she is mentioned in the Book of Going Forth By Day, the collection of spells which were supplied in the tombs to ensure the deceased a life in the hereafter.
In the 18th Dynasty the linen wrappings which were used to wrap the mummies were said to have been woven by the weavers of Nit. The wrappings were thus under her protection, as she was their spiritual source.
Nit at Sais
During the Late Period there was a cult center to Nit at Zau (Gr: Sais) in Lower Egypt, which was then the capital of the Two Lands, and her influence as a state deity was nationwide. She was then called the mother of Sobek and of Re, and therefore again given the epithet 'Mother of Gods'. She was incorporated into the Greek pantheon and associated with the concept of the Dark Mother and with the warrior deity Athena. The Romans associated her with the childless warrior virgin Diana.
