Ra- Egyptian GodDeity"Sun God"

The First Dawn

In the beginning there was only Nun: dark, formless, infinite water stretching in every direction. From these primordial depths Ra emerged, self-created, needing no parent or maker. Some traditions say he rose on a lotus flower, others that a sacred mound lifted him above the flood, others still that he rolled the first sun into the sky like a scarab pushing its ball of dung.

Ra spoke the world into being. He named himself, and naming gave him power over all things that followed. He wept, and his tears became humanity, for "remyt" meant tears and "remet" meant people. He uttered the names of things and they sprang into existence. From his own body he brought forth Shu, god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of moisture. From them came Geb the earth and Nut the sky. From Geb and Nut came Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. This was the Ennead of Heliopolis, nine gods cascading from the first divine act.

At Heliopolis, the benben stone marked the spot where Ra first appeared. Every pharaoh bore the title "Son of Ra" from the Fourth Dynasty onward, the name enclosed in a cartouche as one of the king's five great names.

The Solar Barque

Each day Ra sails across the sky in the Mandjet, the Barque of Millions of Years. He is born at dawn as Khepri the scarab, the young sun pushing the solar disk above the horizon. He reaches full strength at noon as Ra the falcon-headed, blazing at the zenith. By sunset he becomes the aged Atum, sinking toward the western horizon. At nightfall he transfers to the Mesektet, the evening barque, for his passage through the Duat.

Priests chanted dawn hymns to welcome his rebirth and performed evening rites to strengthen him for the battles ahead. The great pyramids of Giza were solar symbols, their pointed peaks catching the first and last rays of each day. Obelisks stood before temples as petrified sunbeams.

The Destruction of Mankind

Ra grew old. His bones became silver, his flesh gold, his hair lapis lazuli. Humanity saw his aging and conspired against him. Ra sent his Eye, the feminine solar power that could separate from him and act independently, to punish them. The Eye took the form of Sekhmet, and the lioness slaughtered so many that the fields ran with blood.

Ra was horrified at what he had unleashed. He ordered seven thousand jars of beer dyed red with ochre poured across the fields. Sekhmet mistook it for blood, drank herself into stupor, and humanity survived. But Ra, weary of ruling and grieved by his subjects' rebellion, withdrew from the earth. He rode into the sky on the back of Nut, who took the form of a great celestial cow, and from there continued his daily journey across the heavens. He never again walked among mortals.

The Book of the Heavenly Cow, preserved in the tomb of Seti I, tells this story in full.

The Secret Name

Isis fashioned a serpent from Ra's own spittle mixed with earth and set it in his path. When the serpent bit him, Ra was wracked with a poison that even he could not cure. His limbs trembled. His vision dimmed. The fire of the sun guttered within him.

Ra called the other gods to heal him, but none possessed the knowledge. Isis offered her cure, but only if he revealed his secret name, the hidden word of power that was the source of his authority over all creation. Ra tried to deflect her, offering his known titles: "I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at noon, and Atum in the evening." Isis recognized these were public names, not the true name hidden in his body. As the venom burned deeper, Ra could resist no longer. He commanded the other gods to stand apart, and the secret name passed from his heart to hers.

With it came the knowledge that made Isis the greatest of all magicians. She healed Ra, but the transfer was irreversible. The Papyrus Turin preserves the story, and the power Isis gained would ultimately serve her son Horus's claim to the throne.

The Nightly Battle

At sunset Ra descends into the Duat, beginning a twelve-hour journey through darkness. The Amduat charts each hour: the dead line the banks of the underworld river, briefly illuminated and revived as the barque passes, receiving a moment of warmth before returning to stillness.

In the seventh hour, at the darkest point, Ra faces Apophis. The serpent seeks to devour the sun and end creation. Set stands at the prow of the barque wielding his iron harpoon. With Set's strength and Isis's magic, Ra defeats Apophis each night. Priests across Egypt recited spells from the Book of Overthrowing Apophis to aid this struggle. Dawn was not inevitable. It was a victory.

The Seventy-Five Forms

The Litany of Ra, a New Kingdom funerary text, enumerated seventy-five forms of the sun god: Ra-Horakhty of the two horizons, Khepri-Ra of the dawn, Ra-Atum of the evening return, and dozens more, each a distinct aspect with its own image and invocation. Ra's nature was fluid. He merged with other gods as Egyptian religion evolved.

The most consequential merging came when Thebes rose as Egypt's imperial capital and Ra joined with the local hidden god to become Amun-Ra, "King of the Gods." Amun was Ra's hidden essence, invisible and unknowable. Ra was Amun's visible face in the sun. Their temple at Karnak grew into the largest religious complex in Egypt, and the priests of Amun-Ra wielded influence that at times rivaled the pharaohs themselves.