Geb (deity)
Geb is a prominent primeval deity in ancient Egyptian mythology, revered as the god of the earth. He is the offspring of Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, with Atum as his grandfather, the original creator. Geb's laughter is said to cause earthquakes, while areas lacking his blessings become desolate and barren. As the earth god, he embodies fertility and abundance, with vegetation said to grow from his body and fresh water as his gift to humanity. Geb is also associated with healing, particularly for ailments like scorpion stings, and he represents the grave, believed to confine the dead within the earth.
In mythology, Geb's relationship with his sister and consort, Nut, is central, as their secret marriage led to their separation by their father, Shu. Together, they parented five significant deities including Osiris and Isis. Geb played a crucial role in the myth of Osiris’s murder and the subsequent struggle for kingship between Osiris's son, Horus, and his brother, Seth. Though he presided over the divine judgement of kingship, Geb ultimately favored Horus. While he was widely worshipped across Egypt, he lacked a dedicated cult center, with a notable shrine in Heliopolis, the center of Ra worship. Geb's imagery often includes depictions of him reclining beneath Nut, symbolizing the earth's landscape, and he is sometimes represented as a goose, reflecting his association with creation.
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Subject Terms
Geb (deity)
Symbols: Goose
Country: Egypt
Mother: Tefnut
Father: Shu
Siblings: Nut
Children: Osiris; Iris; Horus the Elder; Seth; Nephthys
Geb was a primeval Egyptian god of the earth. He was the son of Shu, god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of moisture; and he was the grandson of Atum, the primeval creator. His laughter created earthquakes and areas that didn’t have his blessings were barren and dry.
As the earth god, Geb was the source of fresh water and all that the earth produced, thereby providing food and nourishment to all. Vegetation was said to grow from his back and grain from his ribs. In this way he was directly associated with fertility and abundance. Geb was also responsible for the other riches of the earth, like mineral resources. He was also associated with healing, particularly for curing scorpion stings and headaches, for which the khenem plant of Geb was supposed to be especially potent.
The god’s darker aspect was that he also represented the grave. Egyptians believed that he had the ability to imprison the dead within him (the earth), thus preventing free movement in the afterlife. Therefore, dead kings were advised not to enter or sleep in Geb’s house.
Geb inherited the divine kingship of Egypt from his father Shu. Geb’s first-born, Osiris, was his heir and became king of Egypt after him. One of Egypt’s most popular and enduring myths springs from the rivalry between Geb’s two sons (Osiris and Seth) for the throne of Egypt.
His sister-consort was Nut, the sky goddess, and together they created five powerful gods in the Egyptian pantheon—Osiris, Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys. Many depictions show Geb lying underneath Nut, whose elongated body is stretched out above him depicting the sky. Geb is shown reclining on his side, with one knee bent, supporting himself with one arm and stretching up towards Nut. In this depiction his body is reminiscent of the mountains, valleys and hilly terrain of the earth. At times Geb’s body was painted green, indicating the vegetation that grew from him and the fertile nature of the earth.
Occasionally Geb was also shown as a man wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt or as a white-fronted goose (an animal associated with creation) or as a goose-headed man or as a man with a goose on his head. Geb was also called the Great Cackler, in reference to a variation of the creation myth that said that Geb laid the cosmic egg (symbol of creation) from which the sun sprung.
In Mythology
When the sun god Ra discovered that Geb and Nut had married in secret without his permission, he had the couple separated. Shu, their father, raised Nut into the heavens as the sky, forever keeping the husband and wife apart. Geb was heartbroken and wept for his loss. His tears formed the oceans and seas on Earth. The relationship between Geb and Shu soured after this. Geb, angry at his father for separating him from Nut, challenged Shu and forced him to leave the earth and kingship and retire to the sky.
Ra also said that Nut couldn’t give birth to children in any month of the year. Thoth, the god of wisdom and learning, took pity on the couple and helped them out. Thoth gambled with the moon and won a seventy-second part of the moon’s light, and from that part, he created five new days in the year. Thus, Nut was able to give birth to five children—Osiris, Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys—who were all great gods and key figures in Egyptian pantheon and mythology.
A popular Egyptian myth describes how Geb’s eldest son and heir Osiris, the king of Egypt, was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Seth. Osiris’s wife Isis managed to find all the scattered pieces and, together with other deities, she joined the fragments, restored Osiris and gave birth to their son Horus. When Horus came of age, he battled his uncle Seth for the throne of Egypt. Geb was part of the divine tribunal that convened in the Broad Hall of Geb to decide between the two contenders. In one variation of the myth, it was Geb who took the final decision as to who was the rightful heir to the throne. In his judgement, Geb divided Egypt into half and entrusted Upper Egypt to Seth and Lower Egypt to Horus. But he soon regretted his decision and made Horus king over all of Egypt. Thus Geb became the god who awarded kingship and protected the king from any harm. Kings were called the heirs of Geb and said to sit upon the Seat of Geb.
In another myth, Geb had the golden box that contained the sun god Ra’s Uraeus opened in front of him. (The Uraeus is the cobra worn on the royal headdress or crown that is a superhuman force of destruction.) Ra had kept the box, along with his cane and a lock of his hair, on the eastern boundary of his empire as a dangerous talisman. When the box was opened, the cobra’s breath killed all of Geb’s companions and seriously burned Geb. The wound was only healed when Ra’s lock of hair was applied.
Origins and Cults
Geb was a powerful god, worshipped all over Egypt. But as with most other primeval Egyptian gods, he didn’t have a cult center of his own or elaborate temples dedicated to him. He did have a shrine in Heliopolis, an ancient Egyptian city that was the seat of worship for the sun god Ra. Geb is also represented in many Egyptian temple scenes and religious texts.
Bibliography
Wilkinson, Richard. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. New York: Thames, 2003. Print.
Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Watterson, Barbara. Gods of Ancient Egypt. Stroud: History, 2013. Print.
The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames. London: Hamlyn, 1959. Print.
Bunson, Margaret. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File, 2012. Print.
Tyldesley, Joyce. The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. London: Penguin, 2010. Print