Introduction
Shu is the god of air and light, one of the first two beings created directly by Atum, twinned with his sister and consort Tefnut.
Family
Separator of Sky and Earth
Shu's defining mythic role is holding apart his children Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), who according to Egyptian cosmology had been locked in an embrace until Shu forced them apart, creating the habitable space between them in which the rest of the world exists. Later solar mythology also names Shu as one of the deities aiding Ra against the forces of chaos.
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.