Editing Tefnut (section)

{{short description|Ancient Egyptian goddess}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Egyptian
| name = Tefnut
| image = Tefnut.svg
| image_upright = .7
| alt = 
| caption = The goddess Tefnut portrayed as a woman with the head of a lioness and a sun disc resting on her head.
| hiero = <hiero>t:f-n:t-I13</hiero> or <hiero>D26</hiero>
| cult_center = [[Heliopolis (Ancient Egypt)|Heliopolis]], [[Leontopolis]]
| symbol = [[Lion]]ess, [[Aten|Sun Disk]]
| parents = [[Ra]] or [[Atum]]
| siblings = [[Shu (Egyptian god)|Shu]], [[Hathor]], [[Maat]], [[Anhur]], [[Sekhmet]], [[Bastet]], [[Mafdet]], [[Satis (goddess)|Satet]]
| consort = [[Shu (Egyptian god)|Shu]], [[Geb]]
| offspring = [[Geb]] and [[Nut (goddess)|Nut]]
}}
'''Tefnut''' ({{langx|egy| }} {{Transliteration|egy|[[wikt:tfnwt|tfn.t]]}}; {{langx|cop|ⲧϥⲏⲛⲉ}} {{Transliteration|cop|tfēne}})<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thesaurus-linguae-aegyptiae.de/lemma/171880|title=Tfn.t (Lemma ID 171880)|website=Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Love|first=Edward O. D.|title=Script Switching in Roman Egypt|chapter=Innovative Scripts and Spellings at Narmoute/Narmouthis|publisher=de Gruyter|date=2021|page=312|doi=10.1515/9783110768435-014|isbn=9783110768435 |s2cid=245076169 }}</ref> is a [[ancient Egyptian deities|deity]] in [[Ancient Egyptian religion]], the feminine counterpart of the air god [[Shu (god)|Shu]]. Her mythological function is less clear than that of Shu,<ref>{{cite book|last=Allen|first=James P.|author-link=James Peter Allen|title=Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts|publisher=Yale Egyptological Seminar|year=1988| isbn=978-0-912532-14-1 |page=9}}</ref> but Egyptologists have suggested she is connected with moisture, based on a passage in the [[Pyramid Texts]] in which she produces water, and on parallelism with Shu's connection with dry air.<ref name="Hart 156">{{cite book|last=Hart|first=George|title=The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Second Edition|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-02362-4|page=156}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pinch|first=Geraldine |title=Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt|year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517024-5|pages=195–196}}</ref> She was also one of the goddesses who could function as the fiery [[Eye of Ra]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Pinch|first=Geraldine |title=Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt|year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517024-5|page=197}}</ref>