Monotheistic worship of Neith the Ancient Egyptian Goddess

The Ancient Egyptian goddess Neith seems very interesting.

How could a religion with Neith as its monotheistic god emerge? Where might it grow and thrive? The Cult of Isis, for example, spread to Rome. A syncretic religion of some sort is okay, as long as God is referred to as Neith (and as She, at least in languages that lack gender neutral pronouns) and has at least some aspects from her lore.

Where might this religion flourish? What impact would it have on the world? In a butterfly filled scenario, how different might the world end up? Conversely, how close could the world be to ours with this religion becoming at least somewhat widespread?

Wikipedia said:
Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two arrows crossed over a shield. However, she is a far more complex goddess than is generally known, and of whom ancient texts only hint of her true nature.

Wikipedia said:
As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life). She is also called such cosmic epithets as the "Cow of Heaven", a sky-goddess similar to Nut, and as the Great Flood, Mehet-Weret (MHt wr.t), as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily. In these forms, she is associated with creation of both the primeval time and daily "re-creation". As protectress of the Royal House, she is represented as a uraeus, and functions with the fiery fury of the sun, In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation. She is identified as a great mother goddess in this role as a creator. As a female deity and personification of the primeval waters, Neith encompasses masculine elements, making her able to give birth (create) without the opposite sex. She is a feminine version of Ptah-Nun, with her feminine nature complemented with masculine attributes symbolized with her association with the bow and arrow. In the same manner, her personification as the primeval waters is Mehetweret (MHt wr.t), the Great Flood, conceptualized as streaming water, related to another use of the verb sti, meaning 'to pour'.

Wikipedia said:
As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to reweave the world on her loom daily. An interior wall of the temple at Esna records an account of creation in which Neith brings forth from the primeval waters of the Nun the first land. All that she conceived in her heart comes into being including the thirty gods. Having no known husband she has been described as "Virgin Mother Goddess":

Unique Goddess, mysterious and great who came to be in the beginning and caused everything to come to be . . . the divine mother of Ra, who shines on the horizon...[4]

Proclus (412–485 AD) wrote that the adyton of the temple of Neith in Sais (of which nothing now remains) carried the following inscription:

I am the things that are, that will be, and that have been. No one has ever laid open the garment by which I am concealed. The fruit which I brought forth was the sun.[5]
 
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According to Ancient Egypt Online:
When she is referred to as the creator of the world her name is written using the hieroglyph of an ejaculating phallus, indicating that she was considered as an androgynous creator.
Noting this, She could be viewed as being beyond sex, being referred to as She/Her due to tradition, much as the Abrahamic God is referred to as He/Him, but often considered genderless.

Another thought, the Egyptian gods were sometimes combined with each other due to similarities they shared. One of these combinations was apparently Neith-Osiris. (I can't find the source for this atm) Could this combined Neith-Osiris be absorbed into the Cult of Isis, with the combined name shortened to simply Neith? This would end up making Neith into Isis's mate, which would certainly be unique. :D
 
I'm not really an expert on this sort of thing, but...

Which dynasty decides to champion this, one wonders? Putting it in the Hellenistic era would be a bit too late for such a religion to prosper like the Abrahamic religions. Any Neith cult in the Greco-Roman world would be as the rest of the cults of the Roman Empire: fading into the melting pot, just another cult like that of Horus or Zeus-Serapis or Jupiter-Ammon. I think you'd have to go farther back for such a religion.

There was a TL with an Egyptian monotheistic religion prospering, though that was centered on the sort of genderless Aten. It was interesting, though. The high clergy was mostly women, something about the Divine Chantresses being brides of the King-in-Heaven.

Was there ever a Pharaoh who held Neith to be their patron? Or maybe a founder of an ATL dynasty takes her as a patron, and it has something like the daughters of that dynasty reforming the religion of Egypt like Akhenaten tried to, focusing on Neith as patroness of the waters and bringer of life.

But IDK. Not really an expert on Egyptian religion. :p
 
According to Ancient Egypt Online:

When she is referred to as the creator of the world her name is written using the hieroglyph of an ejaculating phallus, indicating that she was considered as an androgynous creator.

Noting this, She could be viewed as being beyond sex, being referred to as She/Her due to tradition, much as the Abrahamic God is referred to as He/Him, but often considered genderless.

There was a section of the Wikipedia article that mentioned that Neith was also seen as analogous to Nut the sky goddess and steadily took on a syncretic role of various dieties.

The symbol of the ejaculating penis with reference to Neith as a Creator quite possibly refers to the very old myth of Creation in Ancient Egypt between Nut and Amun.

Amun walked the dead Earth alone and every night he stared up at the sky until he became enamoured with the Sky goddess Nut, but he could never reach her as he was stuck on earth and she could not come down from the heavens. One night overcome with lust he lay on his back and blew off a load that hit Nut in the face (ancient myths are full of lot of this kind of stuff). She in response spat it back at him and hit the earth creating life.

Every year the Priests of Amun would all gather and reinact this creation event and the Priestesses (not to be left out) would fellate the statues of Amun.

If you are looking for an interesting creator goddess with great capacity for a flourishing religion I would recommend Atargatis. Her largest temple in Syria (she was also called De Dea Syria or The Syrian Goddess) had a statue of her that was incredibly imposing with a terrifying glare.

Egypt is far too isolated and inward looking for a far reaching religion, far more so if Neiths' Cult centre is far to the south. The Cult of Isis was spread more by foreigners than by prosetylising Egyptians.
 
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Egypt is far too isolated and inward looking for a far reaching religion, far more so if Neiths' Cult centre is far to the south. The Cult of Isis was spread more by foreigners than by prosetylising Egyptians.
Doesn't matter to me who spreads it. Could the Neith cult be spread like the Isis cult was, and later reform so as not to disappear into the Roman pantheon as Isis did? Certainly important would be practices open to all with no secret rites.
 
Doesn't matter to me who spreads it. Could the Neith cult be spread like the Isis cult was, and later reform so as not to disappear into the Roman pantheon as Isis did? Certainly important would be practices open to all with no secret rites.

That's rather tough. Isis spread so quickly and thoroughly in the Roman Empire due a very beneficial combiniation of factors. Isis was patron and protector of sailors. Every major port in the Mediterranean had a shrine or temple to Isis. She was also protector of slaves and the poor which grounded her Cult within the port cities among the downtrodden and common people. Her imagery was subsumed by the Vigin Mary and Christianity eventually eclipsed her Cult.

There needs to be a good factor to draw people to a temple of Neith to spread the word. Sobek had a monstrous Croc in Crocodileopolis that the authorities used to feed criminals to and Basts temple had a cacophony of sacred cats.

Neiths temple could be established as a famous weaving school that could draw many foreign visitors for their talent and to learn a bit of magic on the side. Greek priests and up and coming prophets used to visit Egypt for lessons in magic and prophecy before preaching in their own nations (for instance a Dacian high priest called Deceneus and even Jesus grew up in Egypt).

The weavers of Neith could be developed as a school that draws the Indian Oceans silk trade through their city for additional adornment. Religious communities are very well known for developing certain high value items to keep them well funded. The French monastery of Chartreuse has its famous liqueur and older monasteries produced books. Essenes in Judea produced Torahs. The Greeks had their oracles (money up front of course).

So it may start off as a group of Priestesses weaving in their spare time, developing into a fully fledged industry and teaching others who visited while preaching of Neith weaving patterns of the Universe while they work. Students go on to set up their own minor schools back in their home nations and continue the practice, producing a class of religious weavers. Word spreads through business and people begin attending ceremonies waiting for products or listening to the Weavers of the Heavens.

Greece and Mesopotamia may be tougher to crack for the religion. Weaving is seen as a woman's skill and these regions are rather notorious for their chauvinistic attitudes.

Hope this helps.
 
Egypt is far too isolated and inward looking for a far reaching religion, far more so if Neiths' Cult centre is far to the south. The Cult of Isis was spread more by foreigners than by prosetylising Egyptians.

This is why we need a Bronze Age PoD. A full-fledged proselytizing monotheism from Egypt would be difficult in later, more isolationist periods of Egypt's history.
 
So it may start off as a group of Priestesses weaving in their spare time, developing into a fully fledged industry and teaching others who visited while preaching of Neith weaving patterns of the Universe while they work. Students go on to set up their own minor schools back in their home nations and continue the practice, producing a class of religious weavers. Word spreads through business and people begin attending ceremonies waiting for products or listening to the Weavers of the Heavens.

Greece and Mesopotamia may be tougher to crack for the religion. Weaving is seen as a woman's skill and these regions are rather notorious for their chauvinistic attitudes.

Hope this helps.
It does very much, thank you. I really like this idea. Would it be possible for this form of Neith worship to spread to Latin speaking Roman areas like Iberia, Gaul, or North Africa? How would it stand up to Christianity? Could it replace it as the dominant religion? If not, could it survive as a minority religion like Judaism did?

I had an idea where Neith worship survives despite Christianity coming to power and the Neith worshippers get their own place to call home during the colonial era, similar to Jodensavanne. Maybe it could be on a Caribbean or Pacific island(s)? If they come from a Romance speaking area, they could have a unique language along the lines of Judeo-Spanish, or something derived from a minority Romance language like Catalan or Occitan. It would be cool if they could eventually forge their own independent nation, allowing a rather unique nation to exist in a world similar enough to ours to be recognizable. Is this at all feasible?

On the other hand, if it replaces Christianity as Rome's dominant religion, how different would the world be? I'd imagine (hopefully) gender equality would come sooner.
 
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It does very much, thank you. I really like this idea. Would it be possible for this form of Neith worship to spread to Latin speaking Roman areas like Iberia, Gaul, or North Africa? How would it stand up to Christianity? Could it replace it as the dominant religion? If not, could it survive as a minority religion like Judaism did?

It depends on how established it is by its equivalent of the Hellenistic era. I doubt it would ever be a dominant religion unless it had the patronage of an expansionist pharaoh. Needless to say, Rome would be butterflied with such a PoD.
 
How would it stand up to Christianity? Could it replace it as the dominant religion? If not, could it survive as a minority religion like Judaism did?

I had an idea where Neith worship survives despite Christianity coming to power and the Neith worshippers get their own place to call home during the colonial era, similar to Jodensavanne. Maybe it could be on a Caribbean or Pacific island(s)? If they come from a Romance speaking area, they could have a unique language along the lines of Judeo-Spanish, or something derived from a minority Romance language like Catalan or Occitan. It would be cool if they could eventually forge their own independent nation, allowing a rather unique nation to exist in a world similar enough to ours to be recognizable. Is this at all feasible?

On the other hand, if it replaces Christianity as Rome's dominant religion, how different would the world be? I'd imagine (hopefully) gender equality would come sooner.

It would be incredibly difficult to have Rome and Christianity side by side with a successful Cult of Neith. Christianity could not possibly co-exist without the danger of Neith becoming little more than a patron saint of weaving. It happened to popular gods like the goddess Brigid in Ireland and some other dieties throughout Europe. They even canonised The Buddha as Saint Barlam and Josaphat.

The early days of Christianity's growing dominance were particularly violent. Tens of thousands of people died in riots due to religious arguments about just how divine Jesus was, whether he became god on his death, before or more weirdly was a living ghost projected upon the earth from heaven. Neith worshippers may end up sharing the fate of Hypatia.

Christianity's male dominance, like the other Abrahamic faiths, appealed to Rome and the Greeks already male dominant culture. Even early Egypt steadily began sidelining Neiths importance as cosmic creator despite her exceptional importance in the pre-dynastic period of ancient Egypt.

I would suggest that Neiths Cult is spread by the Phoenicians and if you want to give Neith importance in Iberia have there be temples in Gades and allow it to gather momentum from there. Phoenicians traded a lot through the Mediterranean and I could see them wanting to have skilled schools of weavers in their cities.

This may end up conflicting with your idea of a world like ours but with a cult of Neith as that would be extremely difficult to ensure the cults survival. A successful Cult may be taken by Rome and, as they did with many gods, have a temple set up within the Rome itself. Though it may still fall I to danger of being destroyed by the rise of Christianity like all the other dieties.

Also I read a bit about Neith also and found something you may like to include if you want. The symbol of the shield and arrows is actually, apparently, the symbol for a click beetle that were found close to the shore of the Nile. They used to escape the floods by leaping into the air with a loud click giving them their name.

Neith is so venerable in divinity that the Egyptians themselves forgot this connection as the very early relics of Neith show that the symbol for the shield is clearly the local symbol for a click beetle. Perhaps in religious ceremonies the Priestesses clicked their fingers, like a beatnik poetry circle, after reciting prayers and after millennia forgot the reason why it was related to their goddess.
 
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Christianity's male dominance, like the other Abrahamic faiths, appealed to Rome and the Greeks already male dominant culture. Even early Egypt steadily began sidelining Neiths importance as cosmic creator despite her exceptional importance in there dynastic period of ancient Egypt.

I would suggest that Neiths Cult is spread by the Phoenicians and if you want to give Neith importance in Iberia have there be temples in Gades and allow it to gather momentum from there. Phoenicians traded a lot through the Mediterranean and I could see them wanting to have skilled schools of weavers in their cities.

Yeah, a truly monotheistic cult of Neith that's strong enough to combat anything similar to Christianity would have to butterfly it away, along with Rome and even ancient Greece and Achaemenid Persia. A strong Egypt under a stable dynasty dedicated to the mother of the waters asserting its power over the religion of Egypt.
 
Also I read a bit about Neith also and found something you may like to include if you want. The symbol of the shield and arrows is actually, apparently, the symbol for a click beetle that were found close to the shore of the Nile. They used to escape the floods by leaping into the air with a loud click giving them their name.

Neith is so venerable in divinity that the Egyptians themselves forgot this connection as the very early relics of Neith show that the symbol for the shield is clearly the local symbol for a click beetle. Perhaps in religious ceremonies the Priestesses clicked their fingers, like a beatnik poetry circle, after reciting prayers and after millennia forgot the reason why it was related to their goddess.

I like this idea. Very cool. On a side note, I've also heard that the shield symbol might have represented two bows.

Yeah, a truly monotheistic cult of Neith that's strong enough to combat anything similar to Christianity would have to butterfly it away, along with Rome and even ancient Greece and Achaemenid Persia. A strong Egypt under a stable dynasty dedicated to the mother of the waters asserting its power over the religion of Egypt.

How different might such a world end up? Could there be an equivalent to Rome (but maybe less sexist), speaking a language similar to Latin, or would that be too similar to OTL? If *Rome does form, Neith worship could spread there (especially if it lacks OTL Rome's male bias). Would whatever Neith based religion ends up dominating *Rome use *Latin as its liturgical language, like how OTL Christianity used Latin in OTL Rome?

How different would this alternate Egypt be? Might they be expansionistic? How would the Med look with no Rome, no Greece, no Achaemenid Persia, and a dominant Egypt? Would the Egyptian language spread like Latin and Greek did OTL?

Also, what might a Neith based religion be called? Typing "Neith worship" each time is a bit tedious, but "Neithism" seems kinda plain.
 
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