Ra essays

Ra essays R was the centerpiece of the ancient Egyptian culture. Like other ancient cultures the Egyptians had a primary god who was believed to have created the universe and all its beings. This belief structured their entire religious and political doctrine. With this dogma their culture was unified and successful. The belief in the Sun god began by a small cult in the city Helioplis, a few miles north of Cairo. The ideology of R explains to its followers the phenomena of nature and creation. Soon the belief became popular and spread over Egypt. R was known or represented as many things. In human form R was called Atum. Atum wore a double crown, one red crown for lower Eygpt and the other a white crown for Upper Egypt, showing his unification of rule. R is also known as the sacred beetle Khepra. They associated the beetle with R because they saw it come from the ground and it was believed that they were self created. Other depictions of R show him as a man with the head of a falcon with a solar disc toped with a cobra. All different versions of R united the same myth, which governed all Egypt. The myth of R starts with the morning. He is supposed to rise from the mountains and sail across the sky in his boat of a million years. Some believed that R was born anew at sunrise and aged as the day progressed. At midday he was a hero and at sunset an old man. He had two boats; the first was Manjet, the boat that sailed crossed the day, and Mesektet, the boat that sailed him through the underworld. Other gods where have said to travel with him on his voyages. Before R begat other gods he existed alone in a watery mass of Nun which filled up the universe. He had sexual union with him self and bore Shu, the god of the air and Tefnut, the goddess of moister. Shu and Tefnut then produced Geb, the god of earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. Geb and Nut produced Osir...