Introduction
Nephthys is the goddess of mourning, night, and the dead, sister to Isis, Osiris, and Set, and wife to Set despite her close mythic alignment with her sister Isis rather than her husband.
Family
- Father: Geb
- Mother: Nut
- Spouse: Set (Seth) (married)
- Siblings: Horus the Elder, Isis, Osiris, Set (Seth)
Mourner and Ally
Despite her marriage to Set, Nephthys is consistently portrayed alongside Isis as a devoted mourner and helper in the Osiris myth, assisting in the search for and restoration of Osiris's body and in protecting the infant Horus. The two sisters are frequently depicted together flanking funerary imagery, including the canopic shrines and coffins of the deceased, as the twin embodiments of grief and protective care.
Ancient Egyptian religion spanned three millennia and many regional cult centers, so parentage, roles and even gender pairings for a given deity often differ between the Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Memphite and Theban theological systems; the account above follows the most widely attested classical version.