Looks: Ra took many forms like, a royal child relaxing on a lotus plant, and an ordinary man who has an exceptionally large sun disk over his head. Ra was often seen with Uraeus, which is a giant asp (snake) that spits fire, and destroys other gods. Sometimes he is portrayed as a man with a rams head this form was called "Efu Ra". Efu Ra was the destination of the sun during night time. However, the most popular pictures of him are when he is depicted as a man with a head of a falcon, and large sun disk that is surrounded by Uraeus above his head. When he is in this last form he is usually called "Ra-Harakhte." This form is the great solar god of Heliopolis. Some of the forms of Ra are still not known to this day. When we first discovered the Litanies of the sun "a royal tomb" there was over seventy five different names and embodiments of him.
Significance: He is mostly known as the Sun God, Creator and ruler of the world. He is one of the oldest gods of all time. The word Ra means "creator" in Egyptian. It was said that all the creatures and beings came from the tears of Ra. It was known by all that Ra would be in power of the world as long as he had his youth. This made a lot of men and gods angry. They all wanted the divine power that Ra had. Men and gods started plotting to take Ra's power away. When Ra heard of this notion, he decided to take action. He met with all the gods individually, and conversed about what to do. He finally came to the conclusion that he would use his power to strike down all that opposed him. He sent down a being called his "Divine Eye" and it took the form of goddess Hathor. She massacred anything that opposed his rule, except gods. Ra made sure not to kill the whole human race. He wanted the people to see how powerful he could be, intern this brought great distaste for Ra. Everyone started hating him, and he became bored with the world. He asked goddess Nut to allow him to travel to the vault of heaven. From the very second he left the world his allowance to come back was regulated to the 12 hours a day. He spent the time riding up and down the Nile river. It was thought that whenever the sun would go away during the day (an Eclipse) Ra was fighting with his eternal enemy Apep (check out Apep's page for more info).
Family: He lived in a giant sanctuary in Heliopolis. The priests of Heliopolis said that it was here that Ra first manifested himself in a giant stone obelisk known as Benben. Benben means "Palace of the obelisk." It was thought that prior to Ra's manifestation; he took the name Atum, in the Bosom of Nun, the Primordial Ocean. No one knows what sparked his appearance. Some priests believed he was getting weary of his own impersonality. Everyone was thought to be Ra's children. To this day you can go to Egypt and see the Obelisk that Ra was said to come from.
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