Nebt-ankhiu
one of the four goddesses seated on serpents in the Eleventh Division
What is claimed
The census carries this name with the following description, taken verbatim from the aggregate list it was extracted from:
A goddess with two serpents
Identified
Group: the four goddesses seated on serpents in the Eleventh Division of the Am-Tuat — the division called Re-en-Qerert-Apt-Khatu [budge-1905]. Budge describes the leader in detail and then names the other three:
A goddess, seated on the backs of two serpents which lie side by side, and appear to issue from her feet; her left hand grasps the body of one serpent, and her right is held up before her face. Her name is Nebt-ankhiu. In front of her are three other goddesses, who are similarly seated; their names are Nebt-khu, Nert-abui, and Mer-ent-neteru.
Four goddesses, each sitting on a pair of snakes that come out of her own feet.
And the text says what they are doing:
Those who are in this picture have their arms on the earth and their feet and legs in the darkness. When this great god crieth to them in their own bodies, they utter cries; they do not depart from… [budge-1905]
Arms in the world above, legs in the dark. They are drawn across the boundary — half in the land of the living, half in the Tuat — and the sun-god's voice reaches them inside their own bodies and makes them cry out.
Under the companies rule (C246) this is a pointer rather than an entry. Found by locating the name and reading the scene (C393); the same name also appears in Budge's alphabetical index, where its neighbours mean nothing (C395).
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-1905] | *Book of Am-Tuat* I, **Eleventh Division** (Re-en-Qerert-Apt-Khatu), pp. 247–248 | **Nebt-ankhiu** among the four seated goddesses; **Nebt-ankhiu** on two serpents issuing from her feet, one grasped in her left hand, right hand raised before her face; the other three **Nebt-khu, Nert-abui, Mer-ent-neteru** |
[budge-1905] | *ibid.* | "their **arms on the earth and their feet and legs in the darkness**"; the god cries to them "in their own bodies" and they utter cries |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* II, index | listed among the gods of the Book of the Dead — **alphabetically, not as a roster** |
Sources
[budge-1905]— Budge, The Book of Am-Tuat (1905), vol. I. Public domain, archived. A described scene with the names transcribed beneath it, which is Budge at his most dependable.[budge-1904]— Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (1904), vol. II. Public domain, archived. Index only.
Open questions
- Nert-abui and Mer-ent-neteru, the other two of the four, are not in the census — the standing pattern (C397).
- Which serpents? The Eleventh Division is Re-en-Qerert-Apt-Khatu, and qerert is the cavern-word documented at qerti. Establish whether the serpents under these goddesses are named anywhere.
- "Arms on the earth, feet and legs in the darkness." A posture that straddles the two worlds. Check whether it recurs — the corpus already tracks the reversed-head posture across divisions (C299, C318) and this may be a second such marker.
- Serpents issuing from her own feet is unusual even by Am-Tuat standards. Look for other figures generated from a body part; the fabrication dossier (C230, C280) is the right home.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ⇄duplicate — A second spelling or roster listing of a name entered elsewhere.
"Nebt-ankhiu", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded duplicate, retrieved 2026-08-10.