In the Heliopolitan
Ennead (a group of nine gods created in the beginning by the one god
Atum or Ra), Geb is the
husband of
Nut, the
sky or visible daytime and nightly firmament, the son of the earlier primordial
elements Tefnut (
moisture) and
Shu ("emptiness"), and the father to the four lesser gods of the system –
Osiris,
Seth,
Isis and
Nephthys.
In this context, Geb was believed to have originally been engaged with Nut and had to be separated from her by Shu, god of the air.[4] Consequently, in mythological depictions, Geb was shown as a man reclining, sometimes with his phallus still pointed towards Nut. Geb and Nut together formed the permanent boundary between the primeval waters and the newly created world.
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