Egyptian Ra God of the Sun Part 1/2

The Secret Name of Ra and other facts about Ra God
Isis, observing the power and might of Ra God, envied his control over all creatures. She knew that his power, like the breezes, reached to the far corners of the earth and the outermost expanses of the heavens, where he was revered by both humans and gods. In her heart she coveted this power and plotted to discover its secret so that she would be greater than the other gods and would rule over humans. She was well practiced in magic and sought a way of using this art to usurp her great-grandfather's supreme authority.

Ra  God

His power, however, lay in the fact that he alone knew his secret name. Every person and god had many names, but each kept the most potent of them secret in order that others not gain dominion over them through its use. Ra’s secret name was therefore his most carefully guarded possession. He knew that anyone who discovered the name could use it to gain his Power over the world and even to obtain some control over Ra God himself.

Many times he had risen in the morning and made his daily trip through the sky, only to see his radiance sink into the darkness of Tuat every night. The repetition of this act had tired him and he had grown so old and feeble that the saliva dribbled from his mouth and fell upon the earth. Seeing this, Isis quickly took up some of the ground mixed with the spittle and began to mold this clay into the shape of a cobra, the snake associated with the gods and kings of Egypt. The model snake contained Ra’s own substance; therefore he had no defense against its poison.

Isis hid the serpent on the path Ra God took each day on his heavenly journey, and next morning, when Ra God and his followers began their trip, the chief god passed close by the stealthy creature. The snake struck with all its divine force and sank its dart like fangs into the flesh of the father of all the gods. The poison surged through Ra’s body and caused great pain, since it had been created from divine substance.

The cry of rage and pain that escaped from Ra God shook heaven and earth; his followers in the boat gathered round to ask what had caused it. The pain was so great; however, that he could barely answer them. The poison spread through his body as the waters of the Nile spread over the land; his limbs trembled and his teeth chattered. Finally he calmed down enough to tell the gods in the boat that he had been seriously wounded. He was perplexed by the pain because he had thought himself safe from such an attack as long as he kept his name secret. He told them that he had just come out to take a look at the world he had created when something struck him and brought this intense pain, making him burn and shiver at the same time. Then he ordered that his children, the rest of the gods with knowledge of magic, be brought to consult with him.

With weeping and lamentations the gods assembled, but none could relieve the pain since it was caused by Ra’s own substance. None had enough power to find a magical antidote. Naturally, Isis was among those in the crowd, but she said nothing until the others had tried and failed to find a remedy. Calmly she practiced her deceit on the elderly god: “What is this, 0 divine Father? What is this? Has a snake brought pain to you? Has a creation of your hand lifted up its hand against you?” She told him that she would use her magic on his behalf and find a cure.

Still confused by the severe pain, Ra God described the symptoms to her' “I am colder than water, I am hotter than fire. I tremble in all my limbs, and the sweat runs down my face even as in the heat of summer.” This time Isis spoke quietly and softly and offered to help if he would reveal his secret name so that she could use it in her magic: “Tell me your name, 0 divine Father, your true name, your secret name, for only he can live who is called by his name.”

Now let's continue the facts and secrets about Ra God ancient Egyptian God

I am the maker of heaven and earth,
I am the establisher of the mountains,
I am the creator of..... Continue

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Ra God in His Declining Years

Ra Egyptian God in His Declining Years
In many ways Ra God was the personification of numerous human needs recognized by people in early times, among which was the luxury of growing old and retiring from the day-to-day cares of the active world. Like a farmer who has grown too old to spend the entire day in the fields, Ra God tired of the daily routine of rising m the east and setting in the west, always besieged by enemies. He looked forward to turning things over to his children, but like many mortals he was slow to recognize that the time of retirement was approaching, and had to be urged toward it by those around him. Some of the most interesting of his myths are set during this Period of his life.

Ra on the Solar boat

In one story, Ra God complained of fatigue to Nun, the primeval Waters, who set about trying to find him some help with his daily chores. First the sky goddess Nut was instructed to take the form of a cow and carry Ra God through the sky each day (a variation of this story said that Nut gave Ra God the ride to help him escape from the angry human survivors who did not take kindly to Hathor’s destruction of so many of their friends and kin-see Chapter 7 “Hathor”).

Anyway, Nut became responsible for carrying Ra God each day, but the strain was too much for her and her limbs began to tremble. Ra God declared that he would find help for her and commanded her father, Shu, to support her belly (this is a variation of the myth that says Shu holds Nut up as the sky to separate her from the earth). When the men of earth saw Ra God upon Nut’s back, they began to regret their neglect of him. The next morning they appeared fully armed and ready to do battle against his enemies. Encouraged by their support, Ra God immediately forgave humanity’s earlier sins, which he attributed to the wiles of the earth’s serpent population. Geb, as earth god, was held responsible for the trouble caused by these malign creatures, and was ordered to take the necessary steps to see that the problems did not occur again.

Finally Ra God called Thoth to come with haste into the chief god’s court. Thoth was told, from that moment on, to keep a written record of the punishments Ra God had decided for his enemies. Thoth was also to assume the title of asti, Ra’s deputy, and was to become Ra’s representative on earth. In order to ease Thoth’s task, Ra God created the ibis as Thoth’s messenger among men, gave him the use of the power of the sun and moon, and lastly if this part of the inscription is properly understood-brought into being the ape to assist Thoth in driving back his enemies. Thus did Ra God spread out the responsibilities of his divine office and make his life a little less wearisome.

This story was told on the walls of the tomb of Seti I near Luxor that date from the early part of the Nineteenth Dynasty (1320-1200 B.C.). The inscriptions are partly damaged, but most of the myth can be discovered and the rest guessed at. Nearby is a beautiful drawing of Nut as the cow goddess giving Ra God a ride in his solar boats, but the exact connection between the drawing and the story remains the subject of considerable scholarly speculation.

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Ra God and the Phoenix

The Ra - Sun God - and the Phoenix
Sacred at Heliopolis, the phoenix was a mythological bird based on the wingtail or the heron. It was specially attached to Ra God because it seemed to mimic the sun rising from the water when it took flight. Its Egyptian name (for “phoenix” I is Greek) was bennu, which was derived from a word meaning “to shine” or “to rise.” It was depicted with a long straight beak, graceful body, long legs, and two lengthy feathers falling from the back of its head. In the Coffin Texts the dead person viewed himself as rising like the phoenix: “I am that great phoenix that is in Annu, the supervisor of all that exists.”

The Phoenix - fenix bird

Elsewhere the texts associated the bird with Osiris or Horus since these gods and the bird existed for eternity. In the Book of the Dead there was a spell for helping the dead become the bennu bird: “I flew up as the Primeval God and assumed forms...® I am Horus, the god who gives light by means of his body.”

The most elaborate discussion of the J phoenix bird, however, is seen in Herodotus, who had some strange ideas that have become the conventional concept of the bird, even though they do not seem supported by Egyptian texts:

They have also another sacred bird, which, except in a picture, I have never seen; it is called the phoenix. It is very uncommon, even among themselves; for according to the Heliopolitans, it comes there but once in the course of five hundred years, and then only at the decease of the parent bird. If it bear any resemblance to its picture, the wings are partly of a gold and partly of a crimson color, and its form and size are perfectly like the eagle. They relate one thing about it that surpasses all credibility: they say that it comes from Arabia to the temple of the sun, bearing the dead body of its parent, enclosed in myrrh, which it buries. It makes a ball of myrrh, shaped like an egg, as large as it is able to carry, which it proves by experiment. This done it excavates the mass, into which it introduces the body of the dead bird; it again closes the aperture with myrrh, and the whole becomes the same weight as when composed entirely of myrrh; it then proceeds to Egypt to the temple of the sun.

These and other classical myths concerning the bird appear to be misreadings of the Egyptian concept. In Egypt the bird did not achieve immortality through periodic renewal, but it was seen as a symbol for the sun, which did rise-like the bird-each day from the waters to the east. Perhaps the clearest Egyptian use of the bird was in the Book of the Dead where, as a sign of rebirth, it was beautifully depicted in the vignettes.

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The daily voyage of Ra God

Since Ra God, in his various forms and unions with other gods, was the sun god and father of the Great Ennead, his adventures affected the entire universe. His power and brilliance were great, his actions affected other gods and mortals alike. He had created the world and the gods and people who populated it, and he maintained his position of eminence as father of the gods even after others gained equal or greater power. As sun god, his chief function was to travel the skies daily and provide light and heat for the residents of earth; as chief god he was sometimes involved with other gods in events that were closely watched by all who might be influenced.

Ra Statue

The Daily Voyage of Ra
Understanding that the sun was fire, the early Egyptians could not easily conceive of it rising out of water without having been extinguished, yet it obviously came out of the water every day. They therefore pictured the sun as rising from the waters of Nun in a boat that could float and then sail through the air during the day. This daily victory over darkness caused men and women to live, nations to rejoice, and the souls of the dead to sing in joy. With good luck the boat had good winds and safe ports during its voyage. A hymn in the Book of the Dead celebrated Ra’s daily glory:

Millions of years have gone over the world; I cannot tell the numbers of those through which you have passed. Your heart has decreed a day of happiness in the name of the ‘Traveller.’ You pass over and travel

through untold spaces [requiring] millions and hundreds of thousands of years [to pass over]; you pass through them in peace, and you steer your way through the watery abyss to the place you love; this you do in one little moment of time, and then you sink down and make an end of the hours.

Actually there were two boats: Matet (which means “becoming stronger”) for the morning, and Semket (which means “becoming weak”) for the evening. Khepri, Ra God, and Atum, the various forms of the sun god during this journey, sat in the middle of the boat while Horus was the steersman at the rudder. Thoth, the god of wisdom, and Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, wrote down the daily course for the boat and then stood beside Horus to approve the course he set.  

Abtu and Ant were mythological fish that led the boats through the expanses of ocean. The king at his death joined the crew as Ra’s immortal secretary. The king rode in the bow of the ship, where he opened Ra’s boxes, broke open the sealed edicts, sealed his dispatches, sent out his messages, and generally did what Ra God asked of him. He was also responsible for watching over Ra’s jar of cold water during the day. The goddess Nehebka rode in the Matet boat; since she was goddess of “matter revivified,” her presence caused considerable rejoicing among the dead souls who accompanied the ships during their voyages.

The boat settled into Manu, the mountains of the sunset, where as the evening boat it entered the waters of the underworld, called Tuat. As the sun set Horus, Hapi, Isis, and Nephthys were seen in adoration. As if the nightly journey out of sight were not difficult enough, the boat was attacked during the night by its enemies. Although Ra God carried with him a company of strong, wise, and fair gods, of whom he was the strongest, his enemies never hesitated to try to find a weakness and destroy him.

Collectively the enemies were Sebau, a legion of devils, but the most dangerous was Apophis (variant spelling, Apepi) who took the form of a serpent. His attack on the sun god was seen as an attack on the stability of the world, and therefore his defeat was essential. Originally, Apophis had been viewed as the darkness that surrounded Nun, and the first serious obstacle to the creation that Ra God had to overcome. Later, however, Apophis personified the darkest part of the night that Ra God must defeat before he could rise again in the morning. He attacked with mists, eclipses, and other phenomena that hid the light of the sun or moon. Ra God counterattacked with the darts of his sunbeams and sent his scorpions to sting the snake, but at the moment of greatest danger he left the boat and took the shape of a cat, an animal admired for its agility.

In this form he cut off the head of the serpent. The nightly fate of Apophis was ghastly: he was bound in chains, then stabbed with spears, cut and dismembered with red-hot knives, and finally roasted and consumed by fire. Apophis was crafty and had many names to confuse Ra God and his assistants, but the papyri listed them all so that the dead souls could help Ra God to identify his enemy by the use of magic. The pink glow in the sky at evening was attributed to the blood that flowed from the wounded and defeated Apophis.

In the morning Ra God arose again safe from the battles of the night, glorying in his victories over the powers of darkness. His brilliance undiminished, he sailed through the heavens on another of his daily voyages. His renewed presence gave new I hope to those who depended on his light and warmth and was | the cause of much rejoicing.

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Egyptian Ra God of the Sun Part 2/2

Even in pain Ra God recognized a trick; his answer was a devious attempt to give her his names without revealing the ultimate secret:

Ra God of Ancient Egypt

I am the maker of heaven and earth,
I am the establisher of the mountains,
I am the creator of the waters,
I am the maker of the secrets of the two horizons.
I am light and I am darkness,
I aim the maker of the hours, the creator of days.
I am the opener of festivals,
I am the maker of running streams,
I am the creator of living flame.
I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at noontime, and Atum in the evening.

Isis heard all the words, but knew that he had not given her what she wanted. She remained quiet and let the poison work a little more on his old body. She realized that he had not revealed the secret name; the names he had given her were known to many mortals and gods alike. This information could hardly increase her Power. When the pain became more intense, she finally spoke: "Your name, your true name, your secret name, was not among those. Tell me your name in order that the poison may be driven out of your body, for only he whose name I know can be healed by my magic.”

At this moment the pain grew worse and Ra God realized that the time had come to give up something of him in order to find peace. He took Isis aside where the others would not hear and the two began to bargain like merchants in a bazaar, but Ra God was in too much pain to bargain well. Isis demanded that he take an oath to give Horus, her son, his two eyes the sun and moon.

He agreed and whispered the secret name. She was faithful to her bargain and issued the proper cure to relieve the pain: “Depart, poison, go forth from Ra God. 0 Eye of Horus, go forth from the god and shine outside his mouth. It is I who work; it is I who make the vanquished poison fall down upon the earth, for the name of the great god has been taken from him. Let Ra God live, and let the poison die! Let the poison die, and let Ra God live!” She, of course, never revealed the secret name since she had no desire to share her new-found power with anyone else, and so this special name remains hidden from all mortals and gods to this day. Isis finally did not use the power for her own sake, but to increase the power of her son.

Horus replaced his great great-grandfather as the sun god once he had the eyes for his own use. The Eye of Ra God became the Eye of Horus and the elderly god was given a graceful retirement in which he was revered as the creator of all things but did not have daily responsibilities.

Among many early societies it was thought that the real name of a person or god was essential to their existence. This name was the key to their being, for without a name nothing exists. To know the name was to have power over the creature, and the myth of Ra God and Isis was told to illustrate the importance of keeping one s true name secret, or at least reserved for special occasions. Mi accordance with this belief, ancient Egyptian kings always had several names. One of them would probably be compounded with name of a god and would be used only in religious context monuments.

The cartouches of the kings, therefore, may reveal several names, one being reserved for religious purposes. In connection with this myth, too, we may note that the Egyptians did not think of their gods as creatures who freely gave of themselves to the human beings for whom they were responsible. Their gifts-eternal life, for instance-had to be exacted by force, and it was therefore necessary for mortals to gain some sort of power over the gods in order to obtain unusual blessings. One way to this power was the secret name.

This myth has survived in two papyri, one at Turin and the other in the British Museum. The one at Turin, which has been translated by M. A. Murray and E. A. Wallis Budge, dates from the Twentieth Dynasty (about 1200-1085 B.C.). The version given here was based on Murray’s, but it has been modernized and references to Budge’s version have been used to expand it.

This tale was originally told to illustrate the value of curses against serpents, and the text presents magic formulae to cure snake bites. The magician was probably supposed to recite the tale in the hope that the words of magic which could cure a god would have the same effect on the human patient. The original text tells us that these magical spells were to be spoken over images of Atum, Horus, and Isis in order to cure the stricken person of the serpent’s poison.

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Ra Egyptian God of the Sun

Ra God The Sun God
Now we will speak about the most famous God in ancient Egypt ( Ra God ) the God of the Sun our article will consist of some points

Ra ancient Egyptian God

Ra God was a version of the sun god , and Egyptian art often represented him with the solar disk - a circle drawn over the head if deities associated with the sun . Frequently Ra was depicted with the body of a man and head of falcon . Ra's human body and falcon head were often similar to depictions of the god Horus , the difference being that Horus wore a crown on his head while Ra God were the disk of the sun encircled by a cobra .(The association with the cobra suggested his fierce and destructive nature , witch will become apparent in the story of the destruction of humankind to be told in the next chapter ) . Ra was usually shown holding a scepter in one hand and a ankh in the other .

The ankh is one of the most popular Egyptians symbols , both in ancient art and is modern reproductions . A symbol of life , it is shown in many drawings held by a god in front of the kings nostrils , so that the breath of eternal life would enter his body . On some temple walls i Upper Egypt the ankh was used as a sign for water in rituals of purification . Here the king would stand between two gods ( one of whom was usually Thoth ) as they poured over him a stream of libations represented by ankhs . The ankh was also used decoratively on thrones and platforms for kings and gods . Its origins are obscure some believe it was a rendition of sandal strap , or a knot . Guides in Egypt today like to tell tourists that the circle at the top represents the female sexual organ , the stump at the bottom the male organ ,and the crossed line , the children of the union . This interpretation may have long tradition , but scholarly research has so far field to verify it .

The character of Ra God as seen in the book of the Dead is described in a hymn :

You rise m You rise , You shine , you shine , you who are crowned king of the gods .
You are the lord of heaven ,
You are the lord of earth ;
You are the creator of those who swell in the heights and of those who dwell in the depths.
You are the One God who came into being in the beginning of time .
You did create earth , you did fashion man , You make the watery abyss of t he sky
You did create the earth , You did fashion man ,
You did make watery abyess of the sky
You did from Hapi (the Nile)
You did create the watery abyess ,
And you do give life to all therein that is .
You have Knit together the mountains ,
You have made humans and the beasts of the field to come into being ,
You have made the heavens and the earth.

Worshiped be you whom Mat ( The goddess f truth and Justice ) embraces at morn and at eve .

You ravel across the sky with heart swelling with joy ....

Ra God appeared in other forms , depending on the role was playing at the moment i am Khepri in the morning , and Ra at noonday and Atum the evening . Khepri (variant spelling , Khepera) was the god of the scarab beetle , and in Egypt the worship of the scarab was much older than the worship of Ra . That Ra became associated with Khepri ad the scarab is further evidence that the priests of Ra were able to assimilate their more recent god with thew established ones . This particular association , however , had a fascination biological origin . Ancient Egyptian had observed that the scarab beetle laid its egg in dung and then pushed it around on the ground until it became a ball . The Egyptian imagined that the call symbolized the sun because it was round . gave off t heat , and was the source of life , and because it seemed to represent the self - creative powers of the sun god . They then pictured the sun being pushed across the sky by a giant beetle . Eventually this imagery became associated with death and rebirth too , since it appeared that beetle had died and was born again when the larva emerged from the ball .

When the sun god assumed the character of Khepri , he was usually depicted in human from with a scarab either on top of or in place of his head . Like Ra , was most often carrying an ankh and scepter , and he was considered a god of creation . since since the beetle was most often observed in the act of creating itself anew .

Khepri was also associated with the resurrection of the body . since that was what seemed to be happening when the scarab was born . This fact explains why Egyptians placed the scarab in tombs and on bodies of the dead . this , then , was the form of Ra in the morning.

He too his own shape at midday but in the evening he assumed the form of Atum (variant spelling ,Temu , Tem , Atem ) ,

Ra and Amentet from the tomb of Nefertari

... Atum is one of the oldest forms of the sun god to to have been revered by ancient Egyptians , and it was this form that Ra was supposed to have created the universe out of chaos . In in temple drawing he was always represented as fully human , without an animal head . He was especially revered because of his association with souls of the dead . He rode in the solar boat during the final hours of daylight preparing to fight his opponents in the night . It was believed that souls receive recently released from their bodies waited at the beginning of the valley of the That (the underworld ) for the solar boat , which meat that they came aboard just as sun went down into he underworld the time when the pilot of solar boat was Atum , the form of Ra in the evening.

I addition to Ra's manifestations as khepri and Atum , he was linked with numerous other gods throughout his long reign . very early he was linked with Horus to form the assimilated god Herakhty . or Horus as the morning sun ; it was this relationship that led Egyptians to depict Ra with falcon's head . During the middle kingdom . when Amun and his Theban priests dominated Egyptian religion , Ra was assimilated with this god from the south to form Amun -Ra whose , worship in Thebes (now called Luxor) led to building of the temple of karnak , one of the most imposing religious structures mad by human beings .The curious student of 5ra today will find scant remains of the once considerable worship of this god . His character was so much assimilated with those of other gods , or other gods so often acquired his attributes , that only rarely now do we find relics that depict him singly . Of the mighty ,temple at Heliopolis , little remains now but the single obelisk. The exact date of the destruction of this temple in unknown , but some time the Christian era little remained except stones that used for building else where in egypt .

South of Cairo the worship of the sun god almost always involved another god , usually Amun , Walls of the tomb of Seti I , one of the most impressively craved tombs in the Vally of the Kings , depict the myth of the destruction of human king under Ra's order ( see Chapter three) , the adventure of Ra ) . other royal tombs there contain a list if seventy - five praises of Ra that reveal his character . as in this example ; Praise be unto yo u , 0Ra , you exalted power , who enter enter into the hidden place of Anubis ( god of death ) ; behold ; ( your ) body is Khepri .Even further south at Abu Simble , Ra was again worshiped in combination with other gods ; the Great Temple of Ramesses II was dedicated to Ra-Herakhty .

Ra was also depicted in the papyrus scrolls that male up what we call the book of Dead . They contain hymns and prayers to Ra in his various forms , as well as numerous beautiful drawings of him . The papyri are in libraries in Europe now , Bur they can be consulted in published works , some of witch are listed in the Further Resources of this blog. Drawn vignettes in the Papyrus of Ani show Ra as a falcon -headed man wearing the solar disk while while riding in his boat . Other drawings s show khepri and Atum in the solar boat . In the papyrus of Hunefer , Ra us shown with a full falcon body , wearing the solar disk encircled by a cobra . The God is honored by Hunefer and his wife and adored by seven baboons ( presumably on for each day of the week ) . Baboons chatter so much at the rising of the sun that the ancient Egyptian began to associate them with the sun god m an association that can clearly be seen on the face if the Great Temple at Abu Simble . The same papyrus also contains an important tatterdemalion of Ra as the cat with a Knife attacking Apophis , whose story its told in the following article . Hunefer identified himself with those who , like the cat , protect Ra from his enemies . The Papyrus of Anhai contains a beautiful drawing of Nun holding the solar boat . Inside at the center of the boat is not Ra , but as scarab pushing the solar disk skyward , where it is received by Osiris and Nut . Watching the rising rising sun from advantageous positions inside the boat are seven deities , one of whom has a falcon head and may well be Ra.

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