Mut Meaning: The Egyptian Mother Goddess of Thebes

Mut was a major goddess of ancient Egypt whose name is simply the Egyptian word for "mother". She rose to prominence at Thebes, where she was worshipped as the consort of Amun and the mother of the moon god Khonsu, and her imagery joined motherhood with royal power.

The mother of Thebes

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Mut as a major mother goddess and notes that her name means "mother". With Amun and Khonsu she formed the divine family of Thebes, worshipped at the great temple complex of Karnak, where she had her own temple precinct.

Vulture and lioness

Mut could be shown as a woman wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, as a vulture or as a lioness. The vulture is more than an attribute: the hieroglyph of a vulture writes her name, and a scarab in the Met shows her in vulture form for exactly that reason. Vulture imagery was bound up with divine motherhood and royal protection in Egyptian art.

Mother goddess and royal goddess

A stela in the Met shows Mut alongside Taweret in a context connected with pregnancy and childbirth, and describes her as embodying the principle of motherhood. Her marriage to Amun, king of the gods, also made her a royal goddess: queens could be shown with imagery associated with her.

Mut and Sekhmet

Mut's temple precinct at Karnak held hundreds of statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, and the two could share a fierce, leonine aspect. They were nevertheless distinct goddesses.

Mut in jewellery

A Mut design can reference motherhood, the city of Thebes or the goddess's vulture and lioness forms. See the AURYN Mut charm, read about the royal cobra, the Uraeus, or return to our guide to ancient Egyptian symbols.