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Ra

Ra’s physical appearance

This article is about the Egyptian Sun god Ra or Re. For the chemical element, see Radium


In Egyptian mythology, Ra was the god of the sun, light, day, creation, life, ressurection, truth, prophecy, sight, sky, heaven, order and kings . He was the most important god in Ancient Egypt.

He had many names, such as Amun-Ra. It was said he was born each morning in the East, and died each night in the West. In the night he travelled through the underworld. This is why the west side of the Nile was known as the land of the dead. He had the head of a Falcon, the body of a man, and was the king of the Egyptian gods.

Name

Ra was thought to be the god of the sun and creation. Ra’s name came from Re and Amun. The name Re was from Upper Egypt and the name Amun came from Lower Egypt. When Upper and Lower Egypt came together they changed the name to Amun-Re. Over thousands of years the name Amun-Re evolved into Amun-Ra and then just to Ra. From then on people called him Re or Ra. Ra used to mean “mouth” in the Egyptian language. Some names are: Re, the Creator, Khepry, etc.

Looks

Ra has many forms. His best-known form is the man with the head of a falcon and the sun disk above him. He may also be depicted as a scarab beetle or a man. One is Amun-Ra, which is a ram and the other, Ra-Hakorthaty which is a sky sun god.

Ra Media

  • RaBarque

  • Jewelry of Ra as a falcon with spread wings, adorned with the sun-disk and holding the ankh, the hieroglyphic symbol of life

  • Inlay depicting the squatting Ra with the sun-disk placed atop his falcon head

  • Ra in his ram-headed form traveling through the underworld in his solar barque on the subterrestrial Nile, from the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I (KV16)

  • Ra and Imentet from the tomb of Nefertari, 13th century BC

  • A woman worships Ra-Horakhty, who blesses her with rays of light.[1]

  • Ra and Amun, from the tomb of Ramses IV.

  • Pyramidion of Khonsu, with the image of Ra-Horakhty in the middle.

  • Sculpture of Thutmose III (now headless), who stands hand in hand with the god Montu-Ra (falcon-headed) and the goddess Hathor.

  • Ra in the form of Great Cat, slays Apophis

References

  1. Remler, Pat, Egyptian Mythology from A-Z 180-181
  2. Watterson, Barbara, Gods of ancient Egypt
  3. Wilkinson, Richard, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
  4. John, Banes and Jaromir, Malek, The Cultural Atlas of the World: Ancient Egypt 173

Other websites

  1. ↑ Wilkinson 2003, p. 33.
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