Neb-Aa
third of the twelve who praise Ra at dawn
Identified
Group: the twelve gods who praise Ra at dawn, in the Twelfth Division of the Am-Tuat, called Then-neteru [budge-1906]. Budge: "Twelve gods, each of whom stands upright, and has both hands raised in adoration before him; their names are:"
1. Neb-ankh · 2. Hr… · 3. Neb-Aa · 4. Neb-Tuat · 5. Netchem-ab · 6–8. …Unnu · 9. Sensaht · 10. Ma-tepu-neteru · 11. Thes-tepu-neteru · 12. Hekenu
And the text: "Those who are in this picture sing praises unto this great god from dawn, when he taketh…"
Twelve figures standing upright with both hands raised, in the last hour of the night — the division where the sun is reborn. The register immediately before them is described as gods whose "work upon the earth is to drive away those who are in the darkness by the flames of their uraei… and they guide Ra along, and they smite Apep for him in the sky" [budge-1906].
So the Twelfth has both jobs in adjacent registers: fighting, and then applauding.
Under the companies rule (C246) this is a pointer rather than an entry. Found by locating the name and reading the register (C393).
Not the Am-Tuat's only Neb-aa
The census also carries
neb-aatti-adjacent material: the Ninth Division has a Neb-aatti among the nine gods under Heru-her-she-tuati. The two are not merged — one letter and three divisions apart (C336).
The record
Every claim above traces to a row here. Source, exact place in that source, and what it actually supports.
| Source | Locus | Attests |
|---|---|---|
[budge-1906] | *Egyptian Heaven and Hell* I, **Twelfth Division (Then-neteru)**, pp. 268–269 | **Neb-Aa**, third of twelve gods "**each of whom stands upright, and has both hands raised in adoration**"; the full roster; "they **sing praises unto this great god from dawn**" |
[budge-1906] | *ibid.*, the preceding register | gods who "drive away those who are in the darkness by **the flames of their uraei**… and they **smite Apep** for him in the sky" |
[budge-1905] | *Book of Am-Tuat* I | the same division in the parallel scan |
Sources
[budge-1906]— Budge, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell (1906), vol. I, alternative scan. Public domain, archived. The OCR of this roster is damaged — positions 2, 6, 7 and 8 are partly or wholly lost, and Budge's own caption ("Six gods who praise Ra at dawn") does not match his count of twelve.[budge-1905]— Budge, The Book of Am-Tuat (1905), vol. I. Public domain, archived.
Open questions
- Twelve or six? Budge's running text says twelve gods; the plate caption on the same page says "Six gods who praise Ra at dawn." One of them is wrong and the entry does not choose. A cleaner scan would settle it.
- Recover the lost names — positions 2 and 6–8 are damaged. Ma-tepu-neteru and Thes-tepu-neteru are a matched pair ("who make the heads of the gods" / "who raise the heads of the gods"?) and worth translating.
- None of the other eleven is in the census except Neb-ankh — see below.
- Is this the same Neb-aa as the Ninth Division's Neb-aatti? One letter apart. Do not merge without the hieroglyphs.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ⇄duplicate — A second spelling or roster listing of a name entered elsewhere.
"Neb-Aa", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded duplicate, retrieved 2026-08-10.