In Egyptian mythology, Shu (meaning dryness and he who rises up) is one of the primordial gods, a personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He was created by Atum from his breath, resulting from an act of masturbation or autofellatio in the city of Heliopolis. With his sister, Tefnut (moisture), he was the father of Nuit and Seb. His daughter, Nuit, was the sky goddess whom he held over the Earth (Seb), separating the two. Hieroglyphs on an Egyptian funerary stela Hieroglyphs at the Memphis museum with Ramses II statue on the back. ... Egyptian mythology (or Egyptian religion) is the name for the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt until the coming of Christianity and Islam. ... The Ennead (a word derived from Greek, meaning the nine) were the nine most important gods and goddesses in the early Egyptian mythology of Heliopolis. ... Heliopolis (Greek Ἡλίου πόλις) was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome. ... This article is about the Egyptian god. ... Breath is one of the few bodily functions which can be controlled both consciously and unconsciously. ... Masturbation is the manual excitation of the sexual organs, most often to the point of orgasm. ... Autofellatio: oral sex performed by a man on himself Autofellatio_2. ... Heliopolis (Greek Ἡλίου πόλις) was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome. ... In Egyptian mythology, Tefnut is a goddess of water and fertility. ... In Egyptian mythology, Nuit or Nut was the sky goddess, in contrast to most other mythologies, which usually have a sky father. ... In Egyptian mythology, Geb was the personification of the earth, the god of agriculture. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, and pacifier. Due to the association with air, calm, and thus Maat, Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. This article concerns the military rank of Maat. ... Resources ArtLex. ... Binomial name Struthio camelus Linnaeus, 1758 The Ostrich (Struthio camelus, Greek sparrow camel) is the largest living bird, reaching a height of up to 2. ... Closeup on a single white feather A feather is one of the epidermal growths that forms the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on a bird. ...

In a much later myth, representing the terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut (moisture) left Egypt for Nubia (which was always more temperate). It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return. The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization complexity and achievement - this was the first of three so-called Kingdom periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the Nile Valley (the... In geography, temperate latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. ... Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) This article is about the domestic cat. ... Thoth (Ramesseum, Luxor) In Egyptian mythology, Thoth (also spelt Thot), pronounced tot, is the Greek name given to Djehuty (also spelt Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, Tetu) - the original pronunciation of his name is disputed, and may have been approximately Tee-HOW-ti -, who was originally the deification of the moon...

Due to the shared headdress, and Shu's position as the one who holds up the sky, Shu was later identified as Anhur, whose name could mean Sky Bearer, becoming Anhur-Shu. Since Anhur was the more popular and significant deity, and, indeed, Shu was more a concept than a god, Shu was eventually absorbed completely into Anhur. In Egyptian mythology, Anhur was a god of war and hunting, later identified with Horus and worshipped particularly in Thinis. ...