Nephthys

The tale of Nephthys

Nephthys is one of the five children born to the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb on the five extra days that Thoth won from the moon. Her siblings are Osiris, Isis, Set and Horus the Elder. Her name, Nebet-het, means "Lady of the House", and on her head she wears its sign: a house with a basket on top. She is shown as a woman with long wings, the twin and constant companion of her sister Isis.

She is a goddess of the night, of mourning and of the dead, and a protector of the living. Where Isis is the goddess of life and birth, Nephthys is the goddess of the end of life, and of what comes after. The two sisters are always found together: at a birth, at a death, at a coffin.

Wife of Set

Nephthys was married to her brother Set, the god of chaos. When Set murdered Osiris and seized the throne, she did not take her husband's side. She went to her sister, cut her hair in mourning, and helped Isis search the length of Egypt for the pieces of Osiris's body. As the game's Nephthys says: she was the one who knew where the pieces were.

One old story says she had loved Osiris, and that she had a son by him: Anubis, the jackal god. Fearing Set's anger, she hid the baby in the marshes, and Isis found him and raised him as her own.

The two kites

When the body of Osiris was put back together, the two sisters took the form of kites, birds of prey whose high, sad cry sounds like a mourner's wail. Isis stood at his feet and Nephthys at his head, and together they sang their lamentation over him until he lived again.

From then on every Egyptian hoped that the two goddesses would watch over their own coffin. On many sarcophagi Isis is carved at the foot and Nephthys at the head, their wings spread over the dead. At real funerals, two women playing the roles of Isis and Nephthys walked beside the coffin, weeping and singing the old laments.

Nephthys in Battle of Myths

Nephthys is a cost 2 Egyptian mystic and mage. Her ability, Mourning Veil, falls over an enemy like grief, dealing magic damage, and over her two weakest allies like comfort, healing them. With every Egyptian hero she shares the Sun Cycle: by day the Egyptians strike faster, and at nightfall they are shielded.

Did you know?

• Nephthys is one of the four goddesses who guard the canopic jars of the dead, together with Isis, Neith and Serket.
• In the Pyramid Texts she is a protector of the pharaoh's soul as it rises to the sky.