Home Art Book Charities

Sacred Blue Lily of the Nile

Nymphaea caerulea

Status: Endangered. While they have been propagated around the world, their native origins are in the Nile delta. But as the river is greatly polluted now, the flowers are rarely found there, and this is a reflection of the state of the entire wetlands ecosystem in the region.

The sacred blue lily of the Nile's silken petals form a cup of cerulean blue. It is a vibrant color that nature rarely offers up in plants, and thus makes the flower all the more striking. It grows up through murky waters to sit pristine on delicate stalks above the water's surface.

Originally native to the delta of the Nile, they were abundantly depicted in ancient Egyptian carvings and paintings, and the hallucinogenic and narcotic properties were utilized in rituals. Blooming for three days, opening and closing with the rising and setting of the sun, it became a plant that was tied with cycles of death and resurrection, and often used in funerary iconography to adorn jars and offerings.

Nefertum was a beautiful and youthful deity. His dominion was over beauty, fragrance, and cosmetics. He was born from a blue lily bud at the beginning of time. Because he was alone at the world's dawn, he cried, and his tears fell to the earth and became the first humans. Each morning, he was reborn at sunrise, and each sunset he died as the sun traversed into the underworld.

 

References:
Emboden, W. A. (1978). The Sacred Narcotic Lily of the Nile: Nymphaea caerulea. Economic Botany, 32(4), 395-407. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4253981

Encyclopedia Brittanica. "Nefertem", 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nefertem