Ra

The Self-Made Sun

Ra is the supreme sun god of ancient Egypt and, in the Heliopolitan tradition, the creator who brought himself into being on the first mound rising from the primordial waters of Nun. From him sprang the first divine couple, Osiris's grandparents Shu and Tefnut, beginning the line that produced the great gods of earth and sky.

His name, written simply as rꜥ, means "sun" itself. By the New Kingdom he merged with Amun to become Amun-Ra, king of the gods, and fused with the falcon-headed Horus as Ra-Horakhty, "Ra-Horus of the Two Horizons."

Voyage of the Sun

Egyptians pictured Ra sailing the solar barque across the heavens each day, then descending into the underworld at night. There he battled Apophis, the serpent of chaos, and was reborn at dawn — a daily victory that mirrored Egypt's hope for resurrection. Pharaohs called themselves "Son of Ra," binding kingship to the sun's eternal authority.

Ra's age is marked across the day: at dawn he was Khepri, the scarab-headed god who rolls the sun above the horizon just as a dung beetle rolls its ball; at noon he rode in full strength as Ra; and by evening he became the aged, sinking Atum, folding back into the primeval waters of Nun to be reborn again at sunrise. His principal cult center was Heliopolis — the Greek name for Iunu, "the Place of Pillars" — where priests maintained sun temples oriented to track his daily and seasonal course, according to Wikipedia's history of Heliopolis.

Ra was also famously outwitted by his own descendant Isis, who fashioned a serpent from earth mixed with his spittle and let it bite him with a venom none of the other gods could cure. In agony, Ra was forced to whisper his true, secret name into her ear so she could heal him — and in doing so handed her a share of his own power, magic she later used to revive Osiris and protect their son.

Forms & Fusions

• Khepri — the scarab-headed form of Ra at dawn, rolling the rising sun into the sky
• Atum — the aged, sinking form of Ra at dusk, folding back into the waters of Nun
• Atum-Ra — merged with the Heliopolitan creator god as the self-made source of the Ennead
• Amun-Ra — fused with Thebes's Amun to become king of the gods in the New Kingdom
• Ra-Horakhty — combined with Horus as "Ra-Horus of the Two Horizons"

As the root of the Ennead's family tree, Ra's daily death and rebirth set the pattern that every generation of Egyptian mythology after him would repeat.

Common Questions