Neith
bronze
© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Of all the Egyptian goddesses, Neith was one of the oldest of the Egyptian goddesses. She was associated with the annual flood of the Nile and considered to be the mother of the sun.

In northeast Africa, along the banks of the Nile River, a long, narrow strip of land - surrounded by barren desert - provided a secluded, fertile setting, which allowed the Egyptian culture to develop and flourish in relative isolation.

Within this insulated environment, the Egyptians evolved a complex society, of which we have been able to learn much.

Cycles of the Nile River
The Nile River was essential to Egyptian civilization. Not only did it provide material bounty, but its cycle of flooding and ebbing provided a metaphor that held the key to cosmic order.

Every year the banks of the river flooded for three months. This annual flood initiated the beginning of the Egyptian year. As the river receded, a rich deposit of mud - fertile soil carried from the river's source deep in the African continent - would enrich the land along the banks. The crops were sown in November, tended through March, and harvested in April and May. In July, the river would again swell over the land and leave another residue of rich soil. Because the Nile River provided such fertile farmland, a stable, agrarian population was able to settle along its banks.

The river, central to the length and life of Egypt, brought fish, waterfowl, hippopotami and crocodiles to the population along with the fertile silt. It provided a means of transportation and commerce and connected the Upper Kingdom, in the south, with the Lower Kingdom, located in the river's delta area to the north.

Besides the material bounty, the dramatic inundation followed by advantageous farming weather provided a foundation for a sensibility founded upon cycles. Central to their lives were the facts that fertility followed flooding and the sunrise followed the moonrise. Egyptians perceived the world in terms of cycles. Because the world seemed so obviously based upon a cyclic system, rebirth must follow death, as day follows night.