Also called Tefenet, the Distant Goddess.
Their story
Tefnut is Shu's twin, the moist counterpart to his dry air, and the mother of Geb and Nut. In the myth of the Distant Goddess she quarrels with her father the sun and leaves Egypt for Nubia in the form of a raging lioness. Thoth, in the shape of a baboon, persuades her with stories and fables to come home, and she returns as a gentle goddess, bringing life-giving water. The fullest version survives in a Demotic papyrus of the Roman period.
Best times to give to them
- dawn
- the epagomenal days
- Wepet Renpet
What they like being given
- cool water
- a bowl of water left out overnight for dew
- incense
- flowers
How to honour them
- Offer cool water and ask for softness where things have become dry or bitter.
- Tell or read the story of her return as an act of making peace.
How they can help you
- reconciliation
- bringing back someone estranged
- cooling anger
- nourishment
Symbols
- lioness head
- sun disc with uraeus
- water
Several goddesses, including Hathor and Sekhmet, play the Distant Goddess in different versions.
Sources
- Demotic Myth of the Sun's Eye (Papyrus Leiden I 384)
- Pyramid Texts
- Pinch, Egyptian Mythology
More Egyptian goddesses
- Isis Great of Magic, mother of Horus
- Bastet Protector of the home, lady of joy
- Hathor The Golden One, lady of love and music
- Sekhmet The Powerful One, healer and protector
- Maat Truth, balance and right order
- Nephthys Lady of the House, comforter of the grieving
- Taweret The Great One, guardian of mothers
- Amunet The hidden goddess of the primordial eight