Both the goddess and the concept of the starry heavens. Nut was the sky personified -- especially the starry sky of nighttime which all people can look up into and see Eternity.

Nut was often depicted as a tall or long woman, colored dark blue and spangled with five-pointed stars, bending over the body of Her consort/husband/brother Geb ("Earth").

Metaphorically, the earliest forms of funerary literature speak of the deceased rising to become one with Nut in the heavens, to be "an immortal star in Her bosom". Nut's star-studded body was often painted on the inside of coffins and sarcophagi with outstretched
arms, so that she may "embrace the deceased.

As Hathor was often considered the goddess of the daytime sky, Nut was the goddess of the nighttime sky, and the two share many titles and symbols, including the ritual sistrum rattle and the cow.