Re | Description, Meaning, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

What are 5 facts about Ra, the Egyptian god? ›

Ra ruled in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was believed to have ruled as the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He was the god of the sun, order, kings and the sky.

The god who personified the sun was one of the most important and widely-venerated of Egypt's deities. Re was considered a demiurge, or creator god, who brought himself and the rest of the pantheon into being at the beginning of time. He was also central to the ideology of kingship.

Sometimes Ra is shown in animal form; most commonly, Ra is shown as a hawk, but sometimes also a beetle, lion, ram, or snake, as all of these were considered powerful animals in ancient Egypt.

Ra, the chief god and sun god, has a secret name, which is the secret to his power. The goddess Isis (healing, childbirth, "throne") wants "to rule over the earth jointly with [Ra]" (204). She thought she could get this power by learning Ra's secret name.

Among the first and oldest gods, Ra has existed for eternity. He brought all creation to life and in addition to creating many gods, he brought to life two sons: Osiris and Set. When Egypt was created, Ra's burden was to battle the demonic serpent Apophis every single night for eternity.

Hathor ascended with Ra and became his mythological wife, and thus divine mother of the pharaoh.

The Eye of Ra symbolized power, fury, and violence. It was the eye of Ra, god of the sun, and was the embodiment of Ra's daughter. Ra sent his daughter to punish his disrespectful followers, leading the eye to be associated with power and violence.

One of oldest deities in the Egyptian pantheon, Ra's human form typically had the head of a falcon, on which the sun disc rested, sometimes encircled by a sacred cobra named Uraeus.

Ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra, a falcon-headed god who carried the sun disk on his headdress. Every day, Ra would cross the sky in "solar boats."

Given this story, the Sun God Ra has always been the greatest god in Egypt. In the Old Kingdom (2800 BCE), when Egypt established its institutions and expressed its royal ideology, the divinized king of Egypt was considered the son of the Sun God.

Why did Isis poison Ra? ›

For example, Isis' reason for poisoning Ra is sometimes because Ra (the sun) is too close to the earth and burning people up, so she tricks him to help others. In another version, Isis poisons him to get the power needed to either make her husband, Osiris, king of Egypt, or to miraculously give birth to her son Horus.

She was frequently invoked on behalf of the sick, and, with the goddesses Nephthys, Neith, and Selket, she protected the dead. Isis became associated with various other goddesses, including Bastet, Nut, and Hathor, and thus her nature and her powers became increasingly diverse. Isis became known, like other fierce ...

Ra was the king of the deities and the father of all creation. He was the patron of the sun, heaven, kingship, power, and light. He was not only the deity who governed the actions of the sun, he could also be the physical sun itself, as well as the day.

Ra's children, Shu and Tefnut, gave birth to Geb and Nut. Contrary to most mythologies, the male Geb ruled the earth while the goddess Nut ruled of the sky.

Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld, the "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners". In the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC) the pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra who, after his death, ascended to join Ra in the sky.

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.

By midday the sun-god was again Ra and represented by the sun-disk. At sunset he became Atum, an old man who had completed his life cycle and was ready to disappear to be regenerated for a new day. Given this story, the Sun God Ra has always been the greatest god in Egypt.

He was thus said to be the secretary and counselor of the Sun god Ra, and with Ma'at (truth/order) stood next to Ra on the nightly voyage across the sky. Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing (hieroglyphs), and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld.