Story of Ra: (Egyptian Mythology)

STORY OF RA
(Egyptian Mythology)
Egyptian Mythology: Background
• Ancient Egypt's gods and goddesses looked at
least partly like humans and behaved a bit
like us, too. Some deities had animal
features, like heads, on top of humanoid
bodies. Since they were gods, people were
supposed to worship them. There wasn't one
right way to do this throughout all of
Egyptian history and in all places. Different
cities and different pharaohs favored one set
of gods over another.
Egyptian Mythology:
Gods and Goddesses
• Anubis
– The god of funerals. He is
depicted as half man, half jackal.
• Bastet
– The goddess of protection. She
was seen as half human, half cat.
• Horus
– Was the son of Isis and Osiris.
The protector of pharaohs.
Viewed as half falcon, half
human.
• Isis
– Osiris’s wife and sister. She was
the goddess of life. Shown as a
beautiful woman
Egyptian Mythology:
Gods and Goddesses (continued)
• Nut
– The goddess of the sky. She is depicted as
blue with stars covering her body and the
sky on her back.
• Osiris
– The god of death. Osiris is depicted a s a
pharaoh. He is brother of Set and Isis (also
her husband). He is the son of Nut and the
father of Horus.
• Re/Ra
– The god of the sun. He was the ruler
of everything.
• Set
– Brother of Osiris, he is the god of chaos,
evil, and storms. He is depicted as
composite animals.
RA (THE SUPREME GOD)
The sun god. He was the most
important god of the ancient Egyptians.
Appearance:
• Man with hawk head and
headdress with a sun disk
ancient Egyptians
believed that Ra was
swallowed every night
by the sky goddess Nut,
and was reborn every
morning.
Ra or Re was the ancient Egyptian
solar deity. By the Fifth Dynasty (2494 to
2345 BC) he had become a major god
in ancient Egyptian religion, identified
primarily with the midday sun. The
meaning of the name is uncertain, but it
is thought that if not a word for 'sun' it
may be a variant of or linked to words
meaning 'creative power' and 'creator'.
Ra as creator
With the Ancient Egyptian's complicated polytheistic beliefs,
Ra was worshipped as the creator god to some Ancient
Egyptians, specifically his followers at Heliopolis. It was
believed that Ra wept, and from the tears he wept came
man. These cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created,
while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah.
It is believed that this is the reason for pyramids of Old
Kingdom worshippers at Heliopolis rarely mentioning Ra. In a
passage of the Book of the Dead, Ra cuts himself, and his
blood transforms into two intellectual personifications: Hu, or
authority, and Sia, or mind. Ra is also accredited with the
creation of the seasons, months, plants, and animals
Ra and the sun
To the Egyptians, the sun represented light,
warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity
very important as the sun was seen as the ruler
of all that he created. The sun disk was either
seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father
of Shu and Tefnut who he created through
masturbation. Shu was the god of the wind and
Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet
was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in
Ra's eye. She was a violent lioness.
Ra in the underworld
Ra was thought to travel on two solar boats called
the Mandjet (the Boat of Millions of Years), or morning boat
and the Mesektet, or evening boat. These boats took him on
his journey through the sky and the Duat, the literal
underworld of Egypt. While Ra was on the Mesektet, he was
in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat
he was accompanied by various other deities
includingSia (perception) and Hu (command) as well
as Heka (magic power). Sometimes members of
the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set who
overcame the serpent Apophis and Mehen who defended
against the monsters of the underworld. When Ra was in
the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms.
Apophis, the God of chaos, was an enormous serpent who
attempted to stop the sun boat's journey every night by
consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic
stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set
as Atum or in the form of a ram. The Mesektet, or the Night
boat, would carry him through the underworld and back
towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. These myths
of Ra represented the sun rising as the rebirth of the sun by
the sky goddess Nut; thus attributing the concept of rebirth
and renewal to Ra and strengthening his role as a creator
god as well. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged
with Osiris, the God of the dead, and through it became the
god of the dead as well.
-The story of Ra -
The story of Ra wandering through the Duat was called the Solar Barge.
The story is told like this…
In order to move through the Duat , the underworld, every night, so that
he will rise again each morning, Ra was forced to use a boat so the fiery
god would not be extinguished by the waters.
This became Maat, the antithesis of chaos, that guided the course of the
boat. At the helm was Thoth, the god of wisdom and representative of
the moon, who stood next to Horus, who during the early Egyptian times
represented the sky, and whose dark eye was the moon.
It was Horus who steered. Some other gods traveled the boat with them
to shield it from attack so the sun could rise.
It was Seth that prevented the main attack from Apep. The temporary
failure to protect Ra was said to be the cause of solar eclipses.
The sun, Ra, was the creator of the Earth. It was where the gods and
humans alike drew their power.

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STORY OF RA

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