Ra

   1) The first appearance of this Egyptian sun god is as the grandson of Rat and son of Nut over whose arched back he travelled each day, dying at dusk as an old man, and being reborn at dawn. At a later stage in religious development he superseded his grandmother and was depicted as sailing the skies in his celestial boat by day, and as combating the powers of evil in the Tuat by night. He is also associated with an early catastrophe legend in which he was a ruler who sent forth Hathor and Sekhmet to destroy his rebellious subjects, but after they had partially done so and were wading in their blood, he repented and caused the goddesses to become intoxicated and cease from slaughter; he then withdrew to the Tuat, or Fields of Peace.

   Although he is a typical sun god, the above legend would indicate that he had been linked with an earthly ruler in whose reign occured a cosmic disaster followed by a flood. Whether his worship or that of Hathor was originally accompanied by blood sacrifices cannot be said, but there appears to be no record of this in dynastic times. The boat and the nightly combat with the powers of darkness are among the attributes of typical solar gods. There is also a sun god of the same name in the Pacific Islands. Ra was one of the Ennead in the Heliopolis company of gods, and as such the father of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys by Nut. The Morning Boat of Ra was called Mantchet or Manjet, and the Evening Boat was Mesektet.

   Atmu, a local god of Heliopolis, was merged with Ra-Tem.

   More information in connection with Ra will be found under Af, Hu, Neith, and Saa.

   2) See Roua