Editing Neith (section)

==Syncretic relationships==
[[File:P1070098 Louvre statuette de Neith E3730 rwk.JPG|upright|thumb|right|Statuette of Neith - Louvre]]
The Greek historian [[Herodotus]] ({{Circa|484|425 BC}}) noted that the Egyptian citizens of [[Sais]] in Egypt worshipped Neith.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} In his [[Socratic dialogue|dialogue]] ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', the Greek philosopher [[Plato]] has [[Critias]] say that the Greek name of Neith is Athena.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plato, Timaeus, section 21e |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0180:text=Tim.:section=21e |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

The English Egyptologist [[E. A. Wallis Budge]] suggested that the Christian biblical account of the [[flight into Egypt]] as recorded in the [[apocryphal gospels]] was directly influenced by stories about [[Isis]] and Horus; Budge argued that the writers of these gospels ascribed to [[Mary mother of Jesus|Mary, the mother of Jesus]], many peculiarities which, at the time of the [[rise of Christianity]], were perceived as belonging to both Isis and Neith, for example, the [[parthenogenesis]] concept shared by both Neith and Mary.{{sfn|Budge|1904|p=220}}

Neith has been speculated by some scholars, such as [[J. Gwyn Griffiths]] and [[Jan Assmann]], to be the actual goddess depicted in the first and second century Greek historian [[Plutarch]]'s description of the [[Veil of Isis]] in his ''On Isis and Osiris.'' The veiled Isis is a motif which associates her with mystery and [[ceremonial magic]]. Plutarch described the statue of a seated and veiled goddess in the Egyptian city of [[Sais]].{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=131}}{{sfn|Assmann|1997|pp=118–119}} He identified the goddess as "Athena, whom [the Egyptians] consider to be Isis."{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=131}} However, Sais was the cult center of the goddess Neith, whom the Greeks [[interpretatio graeca|compared]] to their goddess [[Athena]], and could have been the goddess that Plutarch spoke of.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=283}} More than 300 years after Plutarch, the [[Neoplatonist]] philosopher [[Proclus]] wrote of the same statue in Book I of his ''Commentaries on Plato's "Timaeus"''. In this version, a statement is added: "The fruit of my womb was the sun",{{sfn|Assmann|1997|pp=118–119}} which could further be associated with Neith, due to her being the mother of the Sun god [[Ra]].