First fruitsGrainBreadBeerMilkGrapesThe speaking of a child nameActs of feeding people
Invocation Approach
Tone
Warm and provident
Address
RenenutetLady of the Fertile LandThe Nourisher
Relationship
The one who feeds and names
Warning
She is a cobra as well as a nurse
Resonance
Farmers parents and those who feed others
Symbols
CobraGrainSickleCradle
Mythology Summary
Renenutet is the cobra goddess of grain and nourishment, whose name means 'she who rears', depicted as a cobra or as a woman with a cobra's head, and worshipped above all at Terenuthis in the western Delta. She nurses the child — in some texts the young king or Horus — and grants the 'good name' and good fortune, and the harvest festival in her name was one of the popular festivals of the Egyptian year. In the Greco-Roman period she is paired with Sobek and with the Agathodaimon serpent in the Fayum, and appears as Isis-Thermuthis.
Modern Practice
Renenutet is worked with in gratitude for food, in the blessing of a garden, at the naming of a child, and in nursing. The practice is material: cook, feed, give thanks for what the ground gave.