Egyptian

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Egyptian

Nephthys

The Lady of Lamentation

Domain: Mourning, Death & Protection
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Vessel of Tears

Speak with Nephthys

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Egyptians

Region

Nile Valley, Egypt

Period

c. 3100 BC – 400 AD

The Egyptian gods were worshipped for over three millennia along the banks of the Nile, with monumental temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Heliopolis. The pharaohs were held to be divine, and life revolved around cosmic order (Maat) and preparation for the afterlife. The cult endured until the rise of Christianity in Roman Egypt.

At the Opet festival, Amun's sacred barque sailed from Karnak to Luxor amid celebrating crowds. In the temples, priests woke, dressed, and fed the god's statue every day, and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley carried the deities to visit the shore of the dead.

At a glance

Nephthys (Nebet-Het) appears in the Pyramid Texts of the late Old Kingdom as a sister of Osiris and a companion of Isis in protecting the dead king: she holds the body, gathers the limbs, nurses and calls out to the deceased. Ritual songs and lamentations of the late period give her speeches of her own before Osiris, and Plutarch, in Roman times, adds a Greek account about Seth and the birth of Anubis. Each witness speaks of a different age and a different use.

13 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The vessel and basket upon the head, the kite (bird) and the funerary linen

Family

Parents

Geb Nut

Siblings

Isis Osiris Seth

Nephthys

Unions

Seth

Children

Anubis

Genealogy according to Textos das Pirâmides (Unis, Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, Pepi II), trad. Allen; Cantos de Ísis e Néftis (BM EA 10188); Lamentações de Ísis e Néftis (P. Berlim 3008); Plutarco, Sobre Ísis e Osíris 12–14, 38, 44, 59, 63

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

James P. Allen (tradutor), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2005): Unis, Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, Pepi II. read
R. O. Faulkner (tradutor), Songs of Isis and Nephthys, Bremner-Rhind Papyrus (BM EA 10188). read
R. O. Faulkner (tradutor), Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, Papyrus Berlin 3008. read
Plutarco (trad. Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936), On Isis and Osiris (Moralia V), part A. read
Plutarco (trad. Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936), On Isis and Osiris (Moralia V), part B. read
Plutarco (trad. Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936), On Isis and Osiris (Moralia V), part C. read
Plutarco (trad. Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936), On Isis and Osiris (Moralia V), part D. read

Studies

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead (British Museum guide). 1920. open
R. O. Faulkner, The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys (Mélanges Maspero, 1934, pp. 337–348), presented on the translation page. 1934. open
R. O. Faulkner, The Songs of Isis and Nephthys (Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 1936, pp. 121–140), presented on the translation page. 1936. open

Name and epithets

Nephthys is the Greek form of the Egyptian name Nebet-Het, transliterated Nbt-ḥwt and conventionally translated “Lady of the House”.

In the ancient sources

Pyramid Texts of Unis, late Fifth Dynasty, Old Kingdom. Nephthys is invoked beside the Nightboat, summoned with Seth as messenger and called nurse of the king. Pyramid Texts of Teti, early Sixth Dynasty.

The myths

Nut gives the sisters to the king. In the Pyramid Texts of Teti, in the first utterance of the burial chamber, on the sarcophagus, Nut speaks twice to the dead king.

Worship and archaeology

The evidence for cult comes from two performance rubrics. The one in the Bremner-Rhind Papyrus places the “Festival of the Two Kites” in the temple of Osiris, First of the Westerners, at Abydos, from the 22nd to the 26t…

How the god was depicted

The texts read describe few images of Nephthys. The papyri describe, rather, women who represent her: names written on their arms, tambourines in one case and faience jars and cakes in the other.

What scholars debate

Centuries between the witnesses. The Pyramid Texts belong to the late Old Kingdom, the Songs and the Lamentations to the last centuries before Christ, and Plutarch to the Roman period.

After antiquity

The version most cited in modern summaries is Plutarch’s: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys, the hidden son and the raising of Anubis.

Did you know?

In the Songs of Isis and Nephthys, the women who represent the goddesses must have their bodies depilated, wear wigs and bear the names of Isis and Nephthys written on their arms.

Codex relic

Vessel of Tears. A ritual vessel that gathers the weeping for the dead and protects souls in their passage.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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