Nefertem (; possibly "beautiful one who closes" or "one who does not close"; also spelled Nefertum or Nefer-temu) was, in

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyp ...

, originally a lotus flower at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters.Nefertem page a
Ancient Egypt: the Mythology
retrieved June 21, 2008. Nefertem represented both the first sunlight and the delightful smell of the Egyptian blue lotus flower, having arisen from the primal waters within an Egyptian blue water-lily, ''

Nymphaea caerulea ''Nymphaea nouchali'' var. ''caerulea'', is a water lily in the genus ''Nymphaea'', a botanical variety of ''Nymphaea nouchali''. It is an aquatic plant of freshwater lakes, pools and rivers, naturally found throughout most of the eastern half ...

''. Some of the titles of Nefertem were "He Who is Beautiful" and "Water-Lily of the Sun", and a version of the '' Book of the Dead'' says: Nefertem was eventually seen as the son of the creator god

Ptah Ptah ( egy, ptḥ, reconstructed ; grc, Φθά; cop, ⲡⲧⲁϩ; Phoenician: 𐤐𐤕𐤇, romanized: ptḥ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god and patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the hu ...

, and the goddesses

Sekhmet In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis (), also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet among other spellings, cop, Ⲥⲁⲭⲙⲓ, Sakhmi), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. Sekhmet is a solar de ...

and Bast were sometimes called his mother. In

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, Nefertem is usually depicted as a beautiful young man having blue water-lily flowers around his head. As the son of Bastet, he also sometimes has the head of a lion or is a lion or cat reclining. The ancient Egyptians often carried small statuettes of him as good-luck charms. One of the most notable depictions of Nefertem is the

Head of Nefertem The Head of Nefertem (also known as the Head from the Lotus Bloom or Tutankhamun as the Sun God) was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in the Valley of the Kings in West Thebes. It depicts the King ( Pharaoh) as a child and dates from the ...

, a wooden bust depicting a young king

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

as Nefertem with his head emerging from a lotus flower.

Gallery

File:Egyptian - Nefertem - Walters 541972.jpg, Nefertem,

The Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

. File:Nefertoum E3502 mp3h8834.jpg, Closeup of a statuette of Nefertem. File:Tête de Toutânkhamon enfant (musée du Caire Egypte).jpg, The Head of Nefertem, found in the

Tomb of Tutankhamun The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers ...

. File:Memphis Museum 37.jpg, The Colossal Triad of Memphis, with Nefertem depicted standing at Ptah's right and Sekhmet at his left

Gallery

References

Further reading