Then Osiris departed to the Otherworld to rule over the deceased, thus ensuring resurrection and the cycle of life. Yet the myths do not end there. While the aging Ra was fine-tuning his creations, humanity rebelled against him. The god decided on extermination, asking his tear-giving eye again for help. To fulfill her task, the eye transformed herself into a fierce lioness and began slaughtering humanity, delighted in her feeding. This led to his journey to the Otherworld, where Ra created the 12 hours of day by sailing the sky from the Eastern horizon to the West, illuminating the world and allowing all creations to flourish under his rays.
Reaching the Western horizon, Ra then left the earth in darkness for 12 hours of night while he sailed the Underworld, illuminating the dead, destroying the enemies of creation, and regenerating himself in a union with Osiris, the god of resurrection.
But Ra had other forms. 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. When a king died, his actions were judged in the afterworld by Osiris , a form of the sun god and ruler of the underworld.
If they were considered just, the king was transformed into a form of the sun god. Back to Exhibitions. Re, the Sun God T he sun god was considered the central and original power of creation. People in ancient Egypt took the sun to be the source of life and the power. Light, energy, and warmth of the sun were what helped the crops grow every season, thus the cult of Ra was said to possess great power and was popularly followed by many citizens.
By the fourth dynasty, the pharaohs were believed to be incarnations of Ra and began exercising absolute powers. Many kings got temples and pyramids constructed in the honor of Ra to keep him happy and to guarantee a long and prosperous rule as a pharaoh. Another belief about Ra by the ancient Egyptians was that he was swallowed every night by the sky goddess Nut, and was reborn every morning.
Another belief was that Ra traveled through the underworld at night in which form he was represented as a man having the head of a ram. Ra was worshipped widely throughout ancient Egypt and he was referred as the principal sun god for centuries. Even today some Egyptologists and followers of Kemeticism believe Ra to be the supreme god of the sun and still honor him greatly. Ra was the almost universally-worshipped king of the gods and the all-father of creation. Ra was so powerful and popular and his worship was so enduring that some modern commentators have argued that the Egyptian religion was in fact a form of veiled monotheism with Ra as the one god.
This seems to be somewhat of an overstatement, but underlines his primary position within religious texts throughout Egyptian history. It is sometimes proposed that the pyramids represent the rays of light extending from the sun and thus these great monuments connected the king with Ra.
The Egyptians also built solar temples in honour of Ra. Unlike the standard type of Egyptian temple, these temples were open to the sunlight and did not feature a statue of the god because he was represented by the sunlight itself.
Instead the temple centred on an obelisk and altar. Ra was an ancient god, but not the oldest of the gods; the first references to Ra date from the Second Dynasty. However, by the Fifth Dynasty he was a powerful god who was closely associated with the pharaoh. By the Fifth Dynasty the pharaoh was referred to as the son of Ra and the name of Ra was incorporated into the throne name of every king from that point onward.
Many Old Kingdom pharaohs built sun temples in which to worship Ra. The Middle Kingdom saw the rise to prominence of Amun of Thebes.
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