Deity · Egyptian · c. 2600 BCE
Shu
Also called Dewa Shu, Chou, Šu (per Wikidata)
The Egyptian god of air, who holds Nut off Geb with his own body — the reason there is a gap between sky and earth at all.
Well sourced
Air, and the space it holds open. His act is the separation of Nut from Geb — the sky lifted off the earth and held there — which is the founding event that makes a habitable world, and Egyptian art draws it literally, a kneeling man with arms raised under the arch of the sky. The Pyramid Texts add the detail that turns a cosmological fact into a route: the dead king ascends on the arms of Shu. The gap between earth and sky is not empty in this system; it is a god, and it can be climbed.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
No independent cult of note, beyond a share in the Ennead at Heliopolis and a Late Period presence at Leontopolis.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- The Pyramid Texts · c. 2350–2100 BCE
- Rank
- God of Air
- Pantheon
- Egyptian
- Order
- Egyptian pantheon
- Base of operations
- No independent cult of note, beyond a share in the Ennead at Heliopolis and a Late Period presence at Leontopolis.
- Era
- c. 2600 BCE
- Traditions
- Egyptian
- Placed in
- The Heliopolitan Ennead
Traits
- Domain
- Air, light, the space between earth and sky
- Traditional form
- A man with a feather, kneeling with arms raised to hold up the sky
2 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 2 offices attributed to Shu, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- martial1
- material1
2 texts
Which texts say so?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Shu, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 800 years
Air and the space it occupies, and the god the dead king is repeatedly said to climb on: the texts have him ascend on the arms of Shu, which treats the separation of sky from earth as a structure with a route up it rather than as a one-off event.
Separates sky from earth and holds them apart; the air and the light that fill the space.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Shu?
What rank is Shu?
How else is Shu spelled?
What is Shu said to do?
How old is Shu?
Nearest in the corpus
If Shu is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Khepri
The Morning Sun · Egyptian
The sun at dawn, in the form of a scarab beetle rolling it up over the horizon — one of the three daily aspects of the sun, and a pun on the word for coming into being.
Anubis
Guide of the Dead · Egyptian
Embalmer and psychopomp, who leads the dead to the scales — the office Western tradition eventually gives to Michael and to Azrael.
Horus
Falcon King · Egyptian
Son of Osiris, who contends eighty years with Set for the throne. Every living pharaoh was understood to be his incarnation.
Isis
Great of Magic · Egyptian
The great magician who reassembles Osiris and tricks Ra into surrendering his secret name. Her cult eventually reached as far as Roman Britain.
Nephthys
Lady of the House · Egyptian
Set's wife who sides with her sister Isis against him, and mourns Osiris at the head of the bier.
Osiris
Lord of the Dead · Egyptian
Murdered by Set, reassembled by Isis, and installed as judge of the dead. He is the earliest fully developed dying-and-rising sovereign we have.
The books behind Shu
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The Pyramid Texts
Anonymous; carved for the kings and queens of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties · c. 2350–2100 BCE · Old Egyptian
Read The Pyramid Texts in full ↗The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Anonymous; tr. E. A. Wallis Budge · c. 1550 BCE onward · Egyptian
Read The Egyptian Book of the Dead in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Hunefer · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.