Why Is Ra So Important To The Ancient Egyptian God

Ra, also known as Re, was the sun god and the most important of the ancient Egyptian gods. He was a man with a hawk head and wore a headdress with a sun disk. It is believed that people were created from his tears and that if a person goes to Egypt and looks at the noon sun they will see his eye. He created himself out of a mound and also created Shu and Tefnut to shape the Earth, but now he travels in his solar boat across the sky. It was believed that every night he was eaten by Nut, the sky goddess, and had to fight her terrible insides, first he must make his way through 12 gates each taking an hour to do so, then he must defeat Apep, the snake god. After he gets past these dangers he is reborn to greet a new day. Ancient Egyptians also believed that at night he made trips through the underworld, but while he was in the underworld he had the head of a ram instead of his usual hawk head.

Ra, along with others who had to go through Nut’s terrible insides relaxed, sunbathed, and drank cocktails as they told stories from their night time journeys in the boats. The others that had to go through Nut’s terrible insides were Thoth, Maat, Hathor, and Horus were the top operators. While Abtu and Anet were warning systems and Khepri, the dung beetle was the mascot. Nut is often seen as Ra’s mother, but no one knows for sure. Ra was very popular. Many of the other gods looked up to him and added his name to their name to add glory. The most remarkable one of them was Amun-Ra. It seems that Ra has decided to retire, but his appearance still exists in Egypt for the public eye to