Aker- Egyptian GodDeity"Guardian of the Horizon"

The Double Lion

Each evening, Ra's solar barque descended through the western horizon into the underworld. Two lions waited at the gate: Sef, "Yesterday," and Duau, "Tomorrow," facing opposite directions. Between them they cradled the akhet, the sun disk resting between two mountains that formed the horizon hieroglyph. Each morning, after Ra triumphed over Apophis in the twelve hours of night, he emerged through the eastern gate and the lions released the dawn. Aker was both guardians at once, one of Egypt's oldest earth gods, older than the great state cults of Heliopolis and Memphis.

The Earth Beneath Ra

In some representations, Aker was a narrow strip of land with a lion head at each end, the sun traveling along his back. The earth was his body: Ra journeyed across its surface by day and through its interior by night. The Pyramid Texts name him among the powers the dead must pass to reach the afterlife, and the Coffin Texts invoke his protection for the same transit Ra makes each night. The Book of the Earth in New Kingdom royal tombs depicts him still at his post. No temple was built for Aker and no priesthood served him. He was the gate itself, and every soul that passed through the horizon passed through him.