Ra: Ancient Egyptian solar deity

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.

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.

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.

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

• http://www.fruitofthenile.com/Ra.htm Archived 2010-05-06 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.egyptartsite.com/Ra.html
• http://ancient-egypt-online.com/egypt-god-amon-re.html Archived 2015-02-26 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.ancient-mythology.com./egyptian/ra.php