| >> | 1598951501843.png -(222516B / 217.30KB, 574x1197) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size. ![]() Ra the Sun God
> No matter the origin story, Egyptian lore held that most of the major Egyptian gods were direct descendants of Ra. The Pharaohs also claimed direct descent from Ra, and used it to justify their rule.
> His worship likely originated in a town the Egyptians called Iunu.
> Greeks referred to this place as Heliopolis, or “city of the sun god.”
>While Ra was most famous as the Egyptian creator deity(basically their god), he fulfilled other roles as well. His other titles included god of the sun, god of kings, and god of order.
> Ra could be depicted in a variety of ways.
> He most commonly appeared as a solar disk—a circle drawn over the head of various sun deities(halo) Ra was also frequently represented as a man with the head of a falcon.
>Imagery of Ra often depicted him wielding both a scepter and an ankh.
Last bit here explains why Ra and Horus are often confused as one another, and Osiris.
> The Egyptians believed that names held power, so much so that gods went by pseudonyms to keep their power safe. It was for this reason the goddess Isis embarked on a mission to discover Ra’s secret name.
> Ra had grown old and feeble; he napped and drooled as he sat upon his throne. Surreptitiously, Isis collected some of this drool and combined it with a handful of earth. Using her magic, she shaped this mixture into a venomous snake.
Since Ra was a creature of habit, and strolled the same route each day to survey his creation... Isis set the snake loose at a crossroads and waited.
The snake struck as soon as Ra had arrived at the crossroads.
While Ra was normally immune to such attacks, this poison had come from his own being, and as such he had no immunity to it and was beset by great pain.
After all of the others had tried and failed, Isis told Ra she could help him, provided that he told her his true name. Sensing there was trickery at play, Ra answered:
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 the light and I am darkness,
I am 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.
Unimpressed with his prevarications, Isis insisted that without his true name she could not cure him. Wracked with pain, Ra eventually conceded and told Isis his true name. Reciting a magical incantation, Isis dispelled the poison from Ra’s body. In exchange for her ‘help,’ she demanded that Ra give her yet-to-be-born son Horus both of his eyes: the sun and the moon.
When Horus was old enough, he took over Ra’s position as sun god, allowing the elderly deity to retire from his tiresome daily responsibilities. |
