Editing Mut (section)

{{short description|Ancient Egyptian mother goddess}}
{{Other uses}}
{{distinguish|Maat}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Egyptian
| name = Mut
| image = Mut.svg
| caption = A contemporary image of goddess Mut, depicted as a woman wearing the [[pschent|double crown]] plus a royal vulture headdress, associating her with [[Nekhbet]].
| hiero = <hiero>G14-t:H8-B1</hiero> or <hiero>mt:t-B1</hiero><ref>Faulkner's concise dictionary of middle Egyptian, 1962, page 120.</ref>
| cult_center = [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]
| symbol = the [[Vulture (hieroglyph)|Vulture]]
| parents = [[Ra]]
| siblings = [[Sekhmet]], [[Hathor]], [[Ma'at]] and [[Bastet]]
| consort = [[Amun]]
| offspring = [[Khonsu]]
}}
[[File:Mut nursing Seti I.jpg|thumb|Mut nursing the pharaoh, [[Seti I]], in relief from the second hypostyle hall of Seti's mortuary temple in Abydos.]]

'''Mut''' ({{langx|egy|[[wikt:mut|mut]]}}; also transliterated as '''Maut''' and '''Mout''') was a [[mother goddess]] worshipped in [[ancient Egypt]]. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient [[Egyptian language]].<ref>{{citation |last=te Velde |first=Herman |year=2002 |chapter=Mut |editor-first=D. B. |editor-last=Redford |title=The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion |page=238 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over the thousands of years of ancient Egyptian culture.

Mut was considered a primal deity, associated with the primordial waters of [[Nu (mythology)|Nu]] from which everything in the world was born. Mut was sometimes said to have given birth to the world through [[parthenogenesis]], but more often she was said to have a husband, the solar creator god [[Amun-Ra]]. Although Mut was believed by her followers to be the mother of everything in the world, she was particularly associated as the mother of the lunar child god [[Khonsu]]. At the [[Temple of Karnak]] in Egypt's capital city of [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], the family of Amun-Ra, Mut and Khonsu were worshipped together as the [[Theban Triad]].

In art, Mut was usually depicted as a woman wearing the double crown of the kings of Egypt, representing her power over the whole of the land.

During the high point of Mut's cult, the rulers of Egypt would support her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule through an association with Mut. Mut was involved in many ancient Egyptian festivals such as the [[Opet Festival]] and the [[Beautiful Festival of the Valley]].
Today, Mut is one of the 4 feminine deities that are part of "Dea" (Dea, ae, f. Lat. - Goddess). 
Mutteism (the Religion that the Mother is the greatest sanctity; that the love of the Mother is the closest one can be to "The Divine") got it's name from the Goddess Mut, since Mut means Mother.