Introduction
Nun is the personification of the infinite, inert, undifferentiated waters that Egyptian cosmogony holds existed before creation itself — not a created being but the primordial condition out of which creation arose.
Family
- Spouse: Naunet (married)
Before Creation
In both the Hermopolitan and Heliopolitan cosmogonies, the self-created god Atum (or, in solar theology, Ra) emerged from Nun's waters upon a primeval mound, the benben, to begin the ordered world. Even after creation, Nun was thought to persist at the edges of existence and beneath the earth, the chaotic waters that the sun god's barque must cross each night and that could, in principle, one day reclaim creation. Nun paired with his female counterpart Naunet as one of the four couples of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad.
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.