In Egyptian mythology, Mut ("mother") is the patron goddess of Thebes. Some of Mut’s titles included “World-Mother,” “Eye of Ra,” “Queen of the Goddesses,” ”Lady of Heaven,” “Mother of the Gods,” and “She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any.” Often pictured as a vulture, the reason why Mut may have been seen as being able to have conceived herself was the ancient Egyptian belief that there were no male vultures (the Egyptian vulture has no significant markings differing between the female and the male of the species.) They believed that this bird was conceived with the wind, or that it “willed itself into being.”
In Southern Africa, the name for an Egyptian vulture is synonymous with the term applied to lovers, for vultures like pigeons are always seen in pairs. Thus mother and child remain closely bonded together. Pairing, bonding, protecting, and loving are essential attributes associated with a vulture. Because of its immense size and its ability to soar high up in the sky, the vulture was thought to be close to the gods who resided in the sky. The Egyptians considered the vulture to be an excellent mother, and its wide wingspan was seen as all-encompassing and providing a protective cover to its infants. The vulture hieroglyphic was used in words such as “mother,” “prosperous,” “grandmother,” and “ruler.”
Mut was associated with motherhood, and was sometimes thought to have given birth to the sun. She was pictured as a woman with the wings of a vulture, a woman wearing the united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and a dress of bright red or blue decorated with a pattern of the feathers of Maat, a cobra, a cow, a cat, or as a lioness. During the Festival of Mut, a statue of the goddess was placed on a boat and sailed around the small crescent-shaped sacred lake at her temple at Ipet-Isut (Karnak). Mut was thought to be the wife of Amun and the mother of Khons (adopted) and Montu. She was sometimes considered to be the mother of Shu, Tefnut, and Sekhmet. In spite of her marriage to Amun, Mut was thought to be bisexual and self-created, perhaps to reinforce her position as the mother of all things.
With Amun, she was the mother of Chons. Mut, Amon, and Chons were known as the Theban Triad (Egyptian religion). She was associated with Sekhmet.
Mut is also the name of a town in Sudan.
