Nephthys is the Egyptian Goddess of rivers. She is the youngest child of Geb who represents the Earth and Nut who represents the Sky. She is the sister-wife of Seth and the sister of Isis. Nephthys and Isis look similar and are considered as twin sisters who can be differentiated by their head-dresses. They are also seen in tombs as they were both present at the mummification of Osiris. Nephthys wears typical Egyptian clothes, generally red or light blue robes engraved in silver designs and has a crown or tiara. Her magical staff which has an Egyptian shabti is symbolised for good luck. She was a kind and gentle goddess, and is the mother of Anubis, the god of funeral rites.

Her wings are believed to be the symbolic representation of the shelter that she provides to the dead souls when they are roaming in the afterlife and hence people link her as the bridge between the air and the heaven. Nephthys is worshipped as she is believed to guard the hearts of the dead souls along with the God Hapi who protects the lungs of the dead souls. It was believed that if the heart and lungs were in good condition, the dead souls would get additional time to find heaven and hence Nephthys was considered a very important Goddess.

Nephthys also had a mastery on spells and magic.

Mythology says that Nephthys didn’t like her husband Seth very much and had got smitten by Osiris. Hence, she used magic and disguised herself as Isis and enjoyed some moments of love with Osiris. She also conceived the jackle-headed God Anubis after her union with Osiris.

The other myth around Anubis, states that when Nephthys realised that she had made a mistake of adultery by giving birth to Anubis, to save herself from Seth’s wrath, she abandoned Anubis and left him to die. Fortunately Isis found him and adopted him despite knowing that he was the child of Osiris and Nephthys. This angered Seth who was anyways jealous of Osiris and created misunderstanding between Osiris and Seth due to which Osiris got killed by Seth. Nephthys then helped Isis search the body parts of Osiris’ and collect his body pieces and bind them together to restore his life.