Figure above:
Painted plaster from the tomb of Sennedjem, in the Deir-el-Medina necropolis,
dating to the XIX dynasty (1320-1230 B.C.). The scene represents the
deceased kneeling in front of the goddess Nut emerging from a tree trunk
and holding in her hands a pitcher and some loaves. Nut was principally
a sky goddess, patroness of the upper part of the cosmos, and was linked
to the daily rebirth of the sun, which was swallowed by the goddess
at sunset to be given birth again at sunrise of the following day. During
the New Kingdom, in the funerary paintings, as well as in the Book of
the Dead, the goddess Nut appears in vignettes describing the Netherworld,
in which she is shown as a female figure emerging from a sycamore tree.
To her was attributed the power to quench the thirst and to feed the
souls of the dead and, as illustration of the new life ensured to the
dead in the Afterworld, she is represented in the act of offering them
food and water. The image of the tree is probably linked to the cyclical
conception of an indissoluble bond between life and death.
[Image: http://www.egiptologia.com/arte/104-obras-en-detalle/2517-nut-arborea-en-la-tumba-de-sennedyem.html]
Figure
below:
Relief
from a wall of the tomb of Pabasa, dating to the Saite period (664-525
B.C.), located in a necropolis near Thebes. In this case too, the deceased
is represented facing the goddess Nut, perched on a sycamore tree, while
she is holding in the hands two pitchers, from which water jets are
gushing forth to quench the thirst of the one who comes to the world
of the dead.
[Image: http://www.egiptologia.com/arte/104-obras-en-detalle/2517-nut-arborea-en-la-tumba-de-sennedyem.html]