Renenutet was the Egyptian cobra-goddess of the harvest, nourishment, nursing and protective fate — the goddess who watched over the granaries and the crops, nourished and named the newborn child, and protected and determined the destiny of each person. A goddess of both the harvest and the nurturing of life, she is the serpent who guards the grain and the fortune of every life.
The Cobra of the Harvest
Renenutet (Egyptian Renenutet, “the nourishing snake” or “she who rears/nourishes”) was a goddess depicted as a cobra, or as a woman with a cobra's head, or a cobra-headed woman nursing a child. She was the goddess of the harvest, agriculture and the granary — the protective serpent who watched over the fields and the stored grain. As a cobra in the fields and granaries (where snakes did indeed keep down the rodents that threatened the grain), she guarded the harvest and ensured the abundance and protection of the crops on which life depended. Her festival was tied to the harvest, and she was honoured as the giver and protector of the food-supply.
The Nourisher and Namer
Renenutet was a goddess of nourishment, nursing and the raising of children. Her name connected her to nourishing and rearing, and she was believed to suckle and nourish the newborn child, giving it the milk and sustenance to grow. More than this, she was thought to give the child its name and its fortune at birth — for the name and the destiny were closely linked in Egyptian thought, and Renenutet, present at each birth, bestowed both. She was thus a goddess of fate as well as nourishment: she nursed the child's body and determined its destiny, watching over each person from the cradle. The name itself was a kind of protective and fate-giving gift, and Renenutet was its giver.
The Goddess of Protective Fate
Renenutet was associated with fate, fortune and protection. As the goddess who gave each person their name and destiny, she was a deity of the individual's fate — and she was often linked with the god Shai (destiny) as a pair governing fortune and fate. As a cobra-goddess, she also had a fierce, protective and even fiery aspect, able to defend with the deadly power of the serpent (linked, like other cobra-goddesses, to the protective uraeus and the Eye of Ra). She protected the king, the harvest, the child and the dead, her serpent-power turned to guarding what was in her care. In the afterlife she was associated with the linen wrappings of the mummy and the protection of the dead.
The Nourishing Serpent of Fate
Renenutet endures as the Egyptian cobra-goddess of the harvest, nourishment and protective fate — the serpent who guarded the grain and the granaries, nourished and named the newborn child, and bestowed each person's destiny. She embodies the Egyptian linking of the harvest, nourishment, naming and fate into a single nurturing-yet-fierce goddess; and she stands as the protective serpent who watched over both the food that sustained the body and the name and fortune that shaped the life — the nourishing snake who guarded the harvest and the destiny of every person from birth.
The nourishing cobra who guards the grain in the granaries and nurses the newborn child — giving each person their name and their fate, the serpent of harvest and destiny.