Egyptian creation myth. 19th-century artwork of a story from the Egyptian creation myths from the third and second millennia BC. The Egyptians told the stories of creation as a series of births and cosmic battles between the gods. Shu the air god (centre) is raising Nut the sky goddess (blue, forming the arch of the sky) to separate her from Geb the earth god (across bottom). Nut is adorned with stars, while Geb is adorned with leaves. The sky, to the Egyptians, was a heavenly Nile, along which the boat of the sun-god Ra (upper left and upper right) sailed from east to west. Artwork from Pioneers of Science (Oliver Lodge, 1893).