The Religion of Ancient EgyptPetrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
Religion
The Religion of Ancient Egypt
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
Egypt -- Religion
The form of Ra most free from admixture is that of the disk of the sun,
sometimes figured between two hills at rising, sometimes between two
wings, sometimes in the boat in which it floated on the celestial ocean
across the sky. The winged disk has almost always two cobra serpents
attached to it, and often two rams' horns; the meaning of the whole
combination is that Ra protects and preserves, like the vulture
brooding over its young, destroys like the cobra, and creates like the
ram. This is seen by the modification where it is placed over a king's
head, when the destructive cobra is omitted, and the wings are folded
together as embracing and protecting the king.
{53}
This disk form is connected with the hawk-god, by being placed over the
head of the hawk; and this in turn is connected with the human form by
the disc resting on the hawk-headed man, which is one of the most usual
types of Ra. The god is but seldom shown as being purely human, except
when identified with other gods, such as Atmu, Horus, or Amon.
The worship of Ra outshone all others in the nineteenth dynasty.
United to the god of Thebes as Amon Ra, he became 'king of the gods';
and the view that the soul joined Ra in his journey through the hours
of the night absorbed all other views, which only became sections of
this whole (see chap. xi). By the Greek times this belief seems to
have largely given place to others, and it had practically vanished in
the early Christian age.
+Atmu+ (Tum) was the original god of Heliopolis and the Delta side,
round to the gulf of Suez, which formerly reached up to Ismailiyeh.
How far his nature as the setting sun was the result of his being
identified with Ra, is not clear. It may be that he was simply a
creator-god, and that the introduction of Ra led to his being unified
with him. Those who take the view that the names of gods are connected
with tribes, as {54} Set and Suti, Anuke and Anak, might well claim
that Atmu or Atum belonged to the land of Aduma or Etham.
+Khepera+ has no local importance, but is named as the morning sun. He
was worshipped about the time of the nineteenth dynasty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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