Ra

Journey of the Sun According to Egyptian myth, when Ra became too old and weary to reign on Earth, he relinquished and went to the skies. As the Sun god, his duty was to carry the Sun across the sky on his solar barque to light the day. When the sun set and twilight came, he and his vessel passed through the akhet, the horizon, in the west, and traveled to the underworld. At times, the horizon has been described as a gate or door that leads to the Duat. There, he would have to sail on the subterrestrial Nile and crossed through the twelve gates and regions. Through the course of his underworld journey, he would transform into his Ram-headed form. Every night, Apophis would attack Ra in an attempt to stop the sun-boat's journey. After defeating the snake, Ra would leave the underworld, returning at dawn, lighting the day once again. He was said to have traveled across the sky in his falcon-headed form on the Mandjet Barque through the hours of the day, and then switch to the Mesektet Barque in his ram-headed form to descend into the underworld for the hours of the night. Sun as a creator , the hieroglyphic symbol of life The Sun is the giver of life, controlling the ripening of crops that were worked by man. Because of the life-giving qualities of the Sun, the Egyptians worshipped the Sun as a god. The creator of the universe and the giver of life, the Sun or Ra represented life, warmth and growth. Since the people regarded Ra as a principal god, creator of the universe and the source of life, he had a strong influence on them, which led to him being one of the most worshipped of all the Egyptian gods and even considered King of the Gods. At an early period in Egyptian history, his influence spread throughout the whole country, bringing multiple representations in form and in name. The most common form combinations are with Atum (his human form), Khepri (the scarab beetle) and Horus (the falcon). The form in which he usually appears is that of a man with a falcon's head, which is due to his combination with Horus, another sky-god. On top of his head sits a solar disc with a cobra, which in many myths represents the Eye of Ra. At the beginning of time, when there was nothing but chaos, the sun-god existed alone in the watery mass of Nun which filled the universe. The universe was enrapt by a vast mass of primordial waters, and the Benben, a pyramid mound, emerged amid this primal chaos. There was a lotus flower with Benben, and from this, when it blossomed, emerged Ra. "I am Atum when he was alone in Nun, I am Ra when he dawned, when he began to rule that which he had made." When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead. == Iconography ==

from the tomb of Nefertari, 13th century BC Ra was portrayed as a man with the head of most likely either a lanner or peregrine falcon, adorned with a sun disk with a Cobra around it, and shared characteristics with the sky-god Horus. Ra was represented in a variety of forms. Other common forms are a man with the head of a beetle (in his form as Khepri), or a man with the head of a ram. Ra was also pictured as a full-bodied ram, beetle, phoenix, heron, serpent, bull, cat, or lion, among others. He was most commonly featured with a ram's head in the Underworld. In this form, Ra is described as being the "ram of the west" or "ram in charge of his harem. In some literature, Ra is described as an aging king with golden flesh, silver bones, and hair of lapis lazuli. ==Worship==

The chief cultic center of Ra was Iunu "the Place of Pillars", later known to the Ptolemaic Kingdom as Heliopolis (,  "Sun City") and today located in the suburbs of Cairo. He was identified with the local sun god Atum. As Atum or Atum-Ra, he was reckoned the first being and the originator of the Ennead ("The Nine"), consisting of Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris, Set, Isis and Nephthys. Ra's local cult began to grow from roughly the Second Dynasty, establishing him as a sun-deity. By the Fourth Dynasty, pharaohs were seen as Ra's manifestations on Earth, referred to as "Sons of Ra". Ra was called the first king of Egypt, thus it was believed pharaohs were his descendants and successors. His worship increased massively in the Fifth Dynasty, when Ra became a state-deity and pharaohs had specially aligned pyramids, obelisks, and sun temples built in his honor. The rulers of the Fifth Dynasty told their followers that they were sons of Ra himself and the wife of the high priest of Heliopolis. ==Relationship to other gods==

Gods merged with Ra As with most widely worshipped Egyptian deities, Ra's identity was often combined with other gods', forming an interconnection between deities. ;Amun and Amun-Ra : , from the tomb of Ramses IV.Amun was a member of the Ogdoad, representing creation-energies with Amaunet, a very early patron of Thebes. He was believed to create via breath and thus was identified with the wind rather than the Sun. As the cults of Amun and Ra became increasingly popular in Upper and Lower Egypt respectively, they were combined to create Amun-Ra, a solar creator god. It is hard to distinguish exactly when this combination happened, but references to Amun-Ra appeared in pyramid texts as early as the Fifth Dynasty. The most common belief is that Amun-Ra was invented as a new state-deity by the Theban rulers of the New Kingdom to unite worshippers of Amun with the older cult of Ra around the 18th Dynasty. Amun-Ra was given the official title "King of the Gods" by worshippers, and images show the combined deity as a red-eyed man with a lion's head that had a surrounding solar disk. (as a sunrise-oriented aspect of Horus) to Ra. It has been suggested that Ra-Horakhty simply refers to the sun's journey from horizon to horizon as Ra, or that it means to show Ra as a symbolic deity of hope and rebirth. (See earlier section #Journey of the Sun). :He is proclaimed king of the gods in the tomb of Horemheb. Pharaoh Thutmose III dedicated the pillars of Heliopolis to Horakhty. :Ra-Horakhty is very present in the Book of the Dead of the 3rd Intermediate Period. He can be seen sitting on his throne in the Book of the Dead of Nedjmet, Padikhons, Nestanebetisheru, Djedkhonsiusankh, Tameniu and in the Amduat Papyrus Inscribed for Nesitaset. ;Khepri and Khnum : Khepri was a scarab beetle who rolled up the Sun in the mornings and was sometimes seen as the morning manifestation of Ra. Similarly, the ram-headed god Khnum was also seen as the evening manifestation of Ra. The idea of different deities (or different aspects of Ra) ruling over different times of the day was fairly common but variable. With Khepri and Khnum taking precedence over sunrise and sunset, Ra often was the representation of midday when the sun reached its peak at noon. Sometimes different aspects of Horus were used instead of Ra's aspects. ;Montu and Montu-Ra : (now headless), who stands hand in hand with the god Montu-Ra (falcon-headed) and the goddess Hathor. A very ancient god, Montu was originally a manifestation of the scorching effect of Ra, the sun – and as such often appeared under the epithet Montu-Ra. It is possible that Montu-Ra and Atum-Ra symbolized the two kingships, respectively, of Upper and Lower Egypt. Montu had several consorts, including a female aspect of Ra, Raet-Tawy. In Egyptian art, Montu was depicted with his head surmounted by the solar disk, because of his conceptual link with Ra. ;Raet-Tawy :Raet or Raet-Tawy was a female aspect of Ra; she did not have much importance independent of him. In some myths she was considered to be either Ra's wife or his daughter, as well as Montu's wife. Images File:Ra-Khepri (solar disc and scarab beetle).svg|Ra-Khepri was sometimes depicted as a scarab pushing a sun disk. File:Ra as falcon.svg|Ra-Horakhty depicted as a falcon wearing a sun disk File:Ra depicded as a ram headed falcon with spread wings.png|The ba of Ra depicted as a ram-headed falcon based on a depiction in KV14, the joint tomb of Tausert and Setnakhte File:Re-Horakhty.svg|Ra-Horakhty was depicted like Horus, but wearing a sun disk instead of a Pschent, in modern and ancient times, Ra proper is often just represented like this. File:Khnum-Ra.svg|While in the underworld, Ra (Khnum-Ra) was depicted with the head of a ram and a sun disk. Amun-Ra post Amarna (azure skin color).svg|Amun-Ra was depicted similar to Amun but had a sun disk on his headdress. File:Amun-Ra-Min.svg|Amun-Ra (himself a combination of Amun and Ra) was occasionally equated with Min to form a God called Amun-Ra-Kamutef, who was depicted similar to Min but had a sun disk on his headdress. Gods created by Ra In some myths, Ra was thought to have created almost every other Egyptian god. ;Bastet :Bastet (also called Bast) is sometimes known as the "cat of Ra". She is also his daughter by Isis and is associated with Ra's instrument of vengeance, the sun-god's eye. Sekhmet was depicted as a lioness or large cat, and was an "eye of Ra", or an instrument of the sun god's vengeance. ;Hathor : Hathor is another daughter of Ra. When Ra feared that humankind was plotting against him, he sent Hathor as an "eye of Ra". Other gods ;Ptah :Ptah is rarely mentioned in the literature of Old Kingdom pyramids. This is believed by some to be a result of the Ra-worshipping people of Heliopolis being the main writers of these inscriptions. ;Isis : In one myth, Isis created a serpent to poison Ra and only gave him the antidote when he revealed his true name to her. Isis passed this name on to Horus, bolstering his royal authority. ;Apep : Apep, also called Apophis, was the god of chaos and Ra's arch-enemy. He was said to lie just below the horizon line, trying to devour Ra as Ra traveled through the underworld. ;Aten : Aten was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and was originally an aspect of Ra. ==See also==