Renenutet

Other Names:
Renenet

(Renenet) - "Nurse" Patron Name of the New Year which brought the Inundation to Kemet and marked the return to the season of fertility after the long Shomu season of dryness and famine, Renenet is depicted as a cobra or, more unusually, as a woman with a cobra's head, as is Wadjet, protectress of Lower Kemet. Renenet was invoked as a form of "fate" upon a newborn, who was said to "have Renenet upon his shoulder from his first day." She represents the cyclical nature of time and that which is foreordained, as a form of destiny or fate in accordance with Ma'at. In some myths, Renenet is attributed as the Name who gives the ren, or soul name (a pun on Renenet's own name makes it "She Who is in the Name") to the newborn child, the name which defines his or her life purpose.