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In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity, a woman wearing the Red Crown, occasionally holding or using the [[bow and arrow]], in others, a [[harpoon]]. Neith also is a goddess of war and of hunting and that is the symbolism depicted most often. Her symbol was two arrows crossed over a shield.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|p=158}} The hieroglyphs of her name usually are followed by a determinative containing the archery elements, with the shield symbol of the name being explained as either double bows (facing one another), intersected by two arrows (usually lashed to the bows), or, by other imagery associated with her worship. As she is connected with weaving, the symbol is sometimes suggested to be a [[shuttle (weaving)|shuttle]].<ref name="brooklyn">{{cite web |title=Neith |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/neith |website=brooklynmuseum.org |access-date=6 July 2024}}</ref>{{sfn|Watterson|1984|p=174}} Her symbol also identified the city of Sais.{{sfn|Fleming|Lothian|1997|p=62}} This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art. In her form as a [[war goddess|goddess of war]], she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died.
As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the [[Was (sceptre)|was]] scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the [[ankh]] (symbol of life). She is associated with [[Mehet-Weret]], as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily, whose name means "Great Flood."<ref name="touregy">{{cite web |title=
Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient Egyptian culture. [[Flinders Petrie]]{{sfn|Petrie|Mace|1901|p=16}} noted the earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic periods, as can be seen from a representation of a barque bearing her crossed arrow standards in the Predynastic Period, as is displayed in the [[Ashmolean Museum]], Oxford.
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{{More citations needed section|date=June 2022}}
[[File:Aegis of Neith-H1550-IMG 0172.jpg|thumb|left|[[Aegis]] of Neith, [[Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt]] - [[Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon]]]]
An analysis of her attributes shows Neith was a goddess with many roles. From predynastic and early dynasty periods, she was referred to as an "Opener of the Ways" (same as Wepwawet)<ref name="touregy" />, which may have referred, not only to her leadership in hunting and war but also as a psychopomp in cosmic and underworld pathways, escorting souls. References to Neith as the "Opener of Paths" occurs in Dynasty Four through Dynasty Six, and Neith is seen in the titles of women serving as priestesses of the goddess. Such epithets include: "''Priestess of Neith who opens all the (path)ways''", "''Priestess of Neith who opens the good pathways''", "''Priestess of Neith who opens the way in all her places''". (el-Sayed, '''I''': 67-69). el-Sayed asserts his belief that Neith should be seen as a parallel to Wepwawet, the ancient jackal god of Upper Egypt, who was associated in that southern region with both royalty in victory and as a psychopomp for the dead.
The main imagery of Neith as ''Wepwawet'' was as the deity of the unseen and limitless sky, as opposed to representations of Nut and Hathor, who respectively represented the manifested night and day skies.<ref name="celewep">{{
Georges St. Clair noted that Neith is represented at times as a cow goddess with a line of stars across her back{{sfn|St. Clair|1898|p=176}} (as opposed to representations of Nut with stars across the belly) [See el-Sayed, II, Doc. 644], and maintained this indicated that Neith represents the full ecliptic circle around the sky (above and below), and is seen iconographically in ancient texts as both the regular and the inverted determinative for the heavenly vault, indicating the cosmos below the horizon. St. Clair maintained it was this realm that Neith personified, for she is the complete sky that surrounds the upper (Nut) and lower (Nunet?) sky, and who exists beyond the horizon, and thereby, beyond the skies themselves. Neith, then, is that portion of the cosmos that is not seen, and in which the sun is reborn daily, below the horizon (which may reflect the statement assigned to Neith as "I come at dawn and at sunset daily").{{sfn|St. Clair|1898|p=177}}
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