Nekhbet

In Egyptian mythology, Nekhbet ("of Nekheb") was a vulture-goddess, patron of the city of Nekheb and later, with Buto, the patron of the pharaohs. Some of the titles of Nekhbet were “Mother of Mothers” and “Eye of Ra.” Nekhbet was a very ancient goddess of childbirth, and the patron of Upper Egypt. She was the white vulture (representing purification), always seen on the front of pharaoh’s double crown. The vulture hieroglyphic was used in words such as “mother,” “prosperous,” “grandmother,” and “ruler.” Nekhbet was associated with royal women; the pharaoh’s regal wife wore a golden vulture headdress to symbolize her role as the great mother of Egypt. Egypt’s oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekhen (modern Al-Kab), the original “necropolis” or city of the dead. The priestesses of Nekhbet were called “muu” (mothers), and wore robes of vulture feathers.

To the ancient Egyptians, the vulture personified resurrection in the underworld; a predatory bird who takes into its body dead flesh and spins out new life when she lays her eggs. Nekhbet was usually depicted as a vulture hovering with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching an ankh in her claws. She was also pictured as a vulture-headed woman, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, or as a white cow. In her most ancient form Nekhbet was a wild sky-goddess, with “streaming hair and swollen breasts.” The daughter of Ra, Nekhbet’s husband was thought to be the Nile-god Hapi.

In the Book of the Dead Nekhbet is called “the Father of Fathers, the Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the Beginning and is Creatrix of the World.”

Alternative: Nechbet, Nekhebit