Egyptian Gods
Ancient Egyptian Gods, Goddesses and Religion
Tree Goddess
Several Egyptian gods were associated with trees: Horus
with the acacia, Osiris with the willow, Ra with the
sycamore and Wepwawet with the tamarisk, for example; but
none of these male Egyptian gods held associations with
trees as closely as did a number of female goddesses.
The sycamore was especially regarded as a manifestation of
the goddesses Nut, Isis, and Hathor - who was given the
epithet 'Lady of the Sycamore', and there were also a
number of minor tree goddesses. These deities were
represented in a variety of ways.
Images of trees labelled as goddesses are known and fully
anthropomorphic personfications of tree goddesses are also
found, though the most usual depiction consisted of a
composite of the upper body of the goddess rising from the
trunk at the center of a tree. Many such representations
show Hathor, Nut, or some other goddess reaching out from a
tree to offer the deceased food and water. Sometimes only
the arms of the goddess were shown proffering food or
water, and in the well-known representation in the tomb of
Tuthmosis III the king is shown being nursed at the breast
of 'his mother Isis' in the form of a sycamore tree. The
identification of several maternal deities as tree
goddesses also meant that burial in a wooden coffin was
viewed as a return into the womb of the mother
goddess.
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