The seventy-four forms of the Sun God Ra, and Their names found in KV34 (The Litany of Ra)

(the images are from the “House of Eternity” of the King Thutmosis III, inscribed on the two pillars of the Burial chamber)

To read this read right to left top to bottom

1-The Becoming One
2-Ra of the Great Disk
3-He of the Severe Face
4-He Who punishes with the Stake
5-He Who gives Light to the Bodies
6-The Becoming One
7-The Goddess Tefnut
8-The Goddess Nut
9-The Goddess Nephthys
10-The Watery Abyss (the God Nun)
11-The Decomposed One
12-The Great Ram
13-The Divine Eye
14-The One of the Cavern
15-He of the Hidden Members
16-The Ever becoming One
17-The Ejector
18-He Who causes to Breathe
19-The Resting Ba
20-The Flaming One
21-The Brilliant One
22-The Hidden One
23-The Jubilating One
24-He Whose ways are correct
25-The Lightning One
26-The Shining Horn
27-He of the Exalted Forms
28-The Distant Ba
29-The High Ba
30-He of the Two Children
31-The Blazing One in the Earth
32-He of the Caldron
33-The Watchers
34-The Baboon of the Netherworld
35-The Eternal One
36-Lord of Might
37-Lord of Darkness
38-The One Joined Together
39-He at the Head of His Cavern
40-He who protects the Ba
41-The Wind in the Ba
42-The Dark One
43-The Ba of Ra
44-The God Atum
45-The God Shu

46-The God Geb
47-The Goddess Isis
48-The God Horus
49-The Weeper 50-Those of the Adu-fish
51-The God Netuty
52-The West, the Netherworld
53-The Mourner
54-He at the Head of the Westerners
55-The One of the Cat
56-He of the Coffin
57-The God Shay
58-He of the Hidden Bodies
59-Lord of the Netherworld
60-He with Reassembled Members
61-The Provider of the Earth
62-The Venerable One
63-The Traveller

64-The Maker of Bodies

67-The Great Cat

65-The Hidden One 

68-He Whose Brilliant Eye Speaks

66-The Elevated One 

69-The God Iuty

70-He of the Dark Face 

71-The Binder 

72-The Exalted Earth

73-The Outflow-The Walker 

74-The Renewer of the Earth-He of the House of the Obelisk 

Lecture Egyptian Sun-God Worship Part 3

Kheperȧ-rā-temu

In the Myth of Rā and Isis Rā is made to say,

“I am Kheperȧ in the morning, and Rā at noonday, and Temu in the evening.”

From which we may understand that the day and the night were divided into three parts, each of which was presided over by one of the three forms of Rā here mentioned. In the time of the Middle Empire Tem is often mentioned with Ḥeru-khuti, Rā, and Kheperȧ, and the priests of Heliopolis always attempted to prove that he was the ancestor of all the other forms of the Sun-god.

In the Book of the Dead (xvii. 5 ff.) the deceased is made to identify himself with Tem as the oldest of the gods, and he says,

“I am Tem in rising ; I am the only One ; I came into being in Nu. I am Rā who rose in the beginning.”

The statement is followed by the question, “Who then is this?” and the answer is,

“It is Rā when at the beginning he rose in the city of Suten-ḥenen, crowned like a king in rising. The pillars of Shu were not as yet created when he was upon the high ground of him lUSAASET AND NEBT-HETEPthat dwelleth in Khemennu” (i.e., Thoth).

Thus it is clear that the Heliopolitans made out that it was Tern who was the first god to exist in primeval matter, and they consistently coupled him with Harmachis,, and with Kheperȧ,, as forms of the rising sun ; on the other hand, they often, with fine inconsistency, identified him with the setting sun, and made the wind of evening, which gave refreshment to mortals and breath to the dead, to go forth from him.

Shrines of Tem

It is difficult to say definitely where the original shrine of Tem was situated, but it appears to have been in the Eighth Nome of Lower Egypt, (, Nefer Ȧbt, the Heroopolites of the Greeks), at the place which is called both Thuket, , and Pa-Ȧtemt, , and it is described as the “gate of the East.” Under the form “Pithom” the sacred name of the city Pa-Ȧtemt is familiar to all from the Bible. The site of Pa-Ȧtemt or Pithom was long thought to be buried beneath the ruins called by the Arabs Tell al-Maskhûtah, which are situated close to the modern village of Tell el-Kebîr, and the excavations made on the spot by M. Naville prove that this view is correct.

The inscriptions prove beyond all doubt that the great god of Pithom was Tem, and from the allusions which are made in them to the “Holy serpent” therein, and from the fact that one part of the temple buildings was called Pa-Qerḥet, , or Ȧst-qerḥet, , that is, “the house of the snake-god Qerḥet,” it is tolerably certain that one of the forms under which Tem was worshipped was a huge serpent. A town situated as Pithom was on the large canal joining the Red Sea and the Nile, and on the highway from Arabia to Heliopolis must have contained a very mixed population, which would include a number of merchants and others from Western Asia.

These probably brought in with them a number of strange  practices connected with the worship of their own gods, which having been adopted by the indigenous peoples in the district modified their worship. From a passage in the Pyramid Texts already quoted it seems that the original form of the worship of Tem was phallic in character, but if it was . nothing is known about it; some scholars have regarded obelisks as phallic emblems, and have pointed to their earliest forms, in which their tops were surmounted by disks, in proof of the correctness of their view.

Iusāaset And Nebt-ḥetep

Attached to the god Tem were two female counterparts called respectively Iusāaset,, and Nebt-Ḥetep, , and they formed members of the company of the gods of Heliopolis, being mentioned with Tem, lord of the two lands of Ȧnnu, Rā, and Ḥeru-khuti. Iusāaset, the Σαωσις of Plutarch, is called the “mistress of Ȧnnu,” and the “Eye of Rā,” , and she is regarded as the mother, and wife, and daughter of Tem according to the requirements of the texts; as the wife of Tem she is said to be the mother of Shu and Tefnut.

She is depicted in the form of a woman who holds the sceptre, , in her right hand, and “life,” , in her left; on her head she wears the vulture head-dress surmounted by a uraeus, and a disk between a pair of horns. In this form she is called the “mistress of Ȧnnu,” , and was the wife of Tem-Ḥeru-khuti. The goddess Nebt-ḥetep appears to have been nothing but a form of Iusāaset, for in the scene in which she is represented in the form of a cow she is called “mistress of the gods, Iusāaset-Nebt-ḥetep.”

According to Brugsch Tem was joined to the god Osiris under the phase Tem-Ȧsȧr, and formed with Hathor of Ȧnnu, or Ānt, , and Ḥeru-sma-taui, , the head of the triad of Heroopolis. As local forms of the god Tem-Rā he enumerates Khnemu in Elephantine, Khnemu-Ḥeru-shefit in Heracleopolis Magna, and Khnemu-Ba-neb-Ṭeṭṭeṭ in Mendes.

Kheperȧ

Kheperȧ .

The third form of Rā, the Sun-god, was Kheperȧ kheper-tchesee, , i.e., Kheperȧ the self-produced, whose type and symbol was a beetle ; he is usually represented in human form with a beetle upon the head, but sometimes a beetle takes the place of the thuman head. In one scene figured by Lanzone he is represented seated on the ground, and from his knees projects the head of the hawk of Horus, which is surmounted by , “life.”

In the section which treats of the Creation we have already translated and discussed the text which tells how the Sun-god Rā came into being under the form of Kheperȧ from out of the primeval watery mass of Nu, and how by means of his soul, which lived therein with him, he made a place whereon to stand, and straightway created the gods Shu and Tefnut, from whom proceeded the other gods.

The worship of the beetle was, however, far older than that of Rā in Egypt, and it is pretty certain that the identification of Rā with the beetle-god is only another example of the means adopted by the priests, who grafted new religious opinions and beliefs upon old ones. The worship of the beetle, or at all events, the reverence which was paid to it, was spread over the whole country, and the ideas which were associated with it maintained their hold upon the dynastic Egyptians, and some of them appear to survive among the modern inhabitants of the Nile valley.

The particular beetle which the Egyptians introduced into their mythology belongs to the family called Scarabæiciae (Coprophagi), of which the Scarabaeus sacer is the type. These insects compose a very numerous group of dung-feeding Lamellicorns, of which, however, the majority live in tropical countries; they are usually black, but many are adorned with bright, metallic colours. They fly during the hottest hours of the day, and it was undoubtedly this peculiarity which caused the primitive Egyptians to associate them with the sun. Thus as far back as the VIth Dynasty the dead king Pepi is said

“to fly like a bird, and to alight like a beetle upon the empty throne in the boat of Rā.”

According to Latreille it was the species of a fine green colour (Ateuchus Aegyptiorum) which was first identified with the sun. The insect lays a vast numbers of eggs in a mass of dung, which it proceeds to push about with its legs until it gradually assumes the form of a ball, and then rolls it along to a hole which it has previously dug.

A ball of dung containing eggs varies in size from one to two inches in diameter, and in rolling it along the beetle stands almost upon its head, with its head turned away from the ball; in due course the larvae are hatched by the heat of the sun’s rays beating down into the hole wherein it has been placed by the beetle, and they feed upon the covering of dung which protected them. The mind of the primitive Egyptian associated the ball of the beetle containing potential germs of life with the ball of the sun, which seemed to be rolled across the sky daily, and which was the source of all life.

The beetle shows great perseverance in conveying the egg-laden balls of dung to the holes in which the larvae are to be hatched, and they frequently carry them over rough ground on the broad, flat surface of their heads, and seek, when unable singly to complete the work, the assistance of their fellows. It is this habit of the beetle which is represented in mythological scenes where we see the disk or ball of the sun on the head of the beetle, . A curious view was held by the ancient writers Aelian, Porphyry, and Horapollo to the effect that beetles were all males (Κάνθαρος γὰς πᾶς ἄῤῥην), and that as there were no females among them, the males were, like the Sun-god Rā, self-produced.

This erroneous idea probably sprang up because the male and female scarabaeus are very much alike, and because both sexes appear to divide the care of the preservation of their offspring equally between them, but in any case, it is a very ancient one, for in the Egyptian story of the Creation the god, whose type and symbol was a beetle, not only produced himself, but also begot, conceived, and brought forth two deities, one male (Shu), and the other female (Tefnut).

The Father of the Gods

In the Egyptian texts Kheperȧ is called the “father of the gods,”, and in the Book of the Dead (xvii. 116) the deceased addresses him, saying, Hail, Kheperȧ in thy boat, the “double company of the gods is thy body,” but the form of the Sun-god with which he is most closely allied is that of Ḥeru-khuti, or Harmachis. In the Book of the Dead Kheperȧ plays a prominent part in connection with Osiris; he is called the “creator of the gods” (Ani, 1, 2); “Ḥeru-khuti-Temu-Ḥeru-Kheperȧ” (Qenna, 2, 15), and whatever forms he takes, or has taken, the deceased claims the right to take also. Moreover, the god Kheperȧ becomes in a manner a type of the dead body, that is to say, he represents matter containing a living germ which is about to pass from a state of inertness into one of active life.

As he was a living germ in the abyss of Nu, and made himself to emerge therefrom in the form of the rising sun, so the germ of the living soul, which existed in the dead body of man, and was to burst into a new life in a new world by means of the prayers recited during the performance of appropriate ceremonies, emerged from its old body in a new form either in the realm of Osiris or in the boat of Rā. This doctrine was symbolized by the germs of life rolled up in the egg-ball of the beetle, and the power which made those to become living creatures was that which made man’s spiritual body to come into being, and was personified in the god Kheperȧ.

Thus Kheperȧ symbolized the resurrection of the body, and it was this idea which was at the root of the Egyptian custom of wearing figures of the beetle, and of placing them in the tombs and on the bodies of the dead ; the myriads of scarabs which have been found in all parts of Egypt testify to the universality of this custom. As to its great antiquity there is no doubt whatsoever, for the scarab was associated with burial as far back as the period of the IVth Dynasty.

Thus in the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus., No. 10,477, sheet 21) we are told in the Rubric that Chapter lxiv. of the Book of the Dead was found inscribed in letters of real lapis-lazuli inlaid in a block “of iron of the south” under the feet of the god (i.e., Thoth), during the reign of Men-kau-Rā (Mycerinus), by the prince Heru-ṭā-ṭā-f in the city of Khemennu.

Kheperȧ and the Heart

At the end of the second paragraph this Chapter is ordered to be recited by a man

“who is ceremonially clean and pure who hath not eaten the flesh of animals or fish, and who hath not had intercourse with women.”

The text continues,

“And behold, thou shalt make a scarab of green stone, with a rim of gold, and this shall be placed in the heart of a man, and it shall perform for him the ‘Opening of the Mouth.’ And thou shalt anoint it with ānti unguent, and thou shalt recite over it the following words of power.”

The “words of power” which follow this direction form Chapter xxx b. of the Book of the Dead, wherein the deceased addresses the scarab as

“my heart, my mother ; my heart, my mother ! My heart whereby I came into being.”

He then prays that it will not depart from him when he stands in the presence of the “guardian” of the Balance wherein his heart is to be weighed, and that none may come forward in the judgment to oppose him, or to give false or unfavourable evidence against him, or to “make his name to stink.” Curiously enough he calls the scarab “his double” (ha). Another Rubric makes the lxivth Chapter as old as the time of Ḥesepti (Semti), the fifth king of the 1st Dynasty, and the custom of burying green basalt scarabs inside or on the breasts of the dead may well be as old as his reign.

Be this as it may, scarabs were worn by the living as protective amulets, and as symbols of triumphant acquittal in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, and as emblems of the resurrection which was to be effected by the power of the god Kheperȧ whom they represented, and the words of power of Chapter xxx b made them to act the part of the ka or double for the dead on the day of the “weighing of words” before Osiris, and his officers, and his sovereign chiefs, and Thoth the scribe of the gods, and the two companies of the gods. If scarabs were placed under the coffin no fiend could harm it, and their presence in a tomb gave to it the protection of the “father of the gods.”

Lecture: THE CULT OF ATEN, THE GOD AND DISK OF THE SUN, ITS ORIGIN,

Horus

Among all the mass of the religious literature of Ancient Egypt, there is no document that may be considered to contain a reasoned and connected account of the ideas and beliefs which the Egyptians associated with the god Aten. The causes of his rise into favor towards the close of the XVIIIth dynasty can be surmised, and the principal dogmas which the founder of his cult and his followers promulgated are discover-able in the Hymns that are found on the walls of the rock-hewn tombs of Tall al-'Amarnah; but the true history of the rise, development and fall of the cult can never be completely known. The word aten or athen is a very old word for the "disk" or "face of the sun," and Atenism was beyond doubt an old form of worship of the sun. But there were many forms of sun-worship older than the cult of Aten, and several solar gods were worshiped in Egypt many. many centuries before Aten was regarded as a special form of the great solar god at all. One of the oldest forms of the Sun-god worshiped in Egypt was HER (Horus), who in the earliest times seems to have represented the "height" or "face" of heaven by day. He was symbolized by the sparrowhawk, the right eye of the bird representing the sun and his left the moon.

Nephthys

In later times he was called "Her-ur" or "Her-sems," the "older Horus," and it was he who fought daily against Set, the darkness of night and the night Sky, and triumphed over him.

The oldest seat of the cult of the Sun-god was the famous city of Anu the On of the Bible, and the Heliopolis of Greek and Latin writers.

Here, from time immemorial, existed a temple dedicated to the Sun-god, and attached to it was a college of his priests, who from a very remote period were renowned for their wisdom and learning. They called their god TEM or ATEM and in later times, at least, he was depicted in the form of a man wearing the Crowns of the South and North, and holding in his right hand ankh ("life") and in his left a sceptre. He was king of heaven and also of Egypt. He was a solar god and, like every other ancient god in Egypt, had absorbed the attributes of several indigenous gods whose names even are now not known. The Pyramid Texts show that he was all-powerful in heaven, and that his priests proclaimed him to be the greatest of all the gods. The supremacy of Tem is asserted in the various versions of the Book of the Dead, and all the other solar gods are regarded as forms of him in the various recensions of this work. Thus in the XVIIth Chapter he says: "I am Tem in his rising. I was the Only One [when] I came into existence in Nenu (or Nu). I am Ra when he rose for the first time. I am the Great God who created himself [from] Nenu, and who made his names to become the gods of his company. I am he who is irresistible among the gods. I am Tem, the dweller in his Disk, or Ra in his rising in the eastern horizon of the sky. I am Yesterday; I know To-day 'I am the Bennu (i.e., Phoenix) which is in Anu (Heliopolis), and I keep the register of the things which are created and of those which are not yet in existence." The Company of the gods over whom "Father Tem" presided consisted of Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, and Set and Nephthys. According to one tradition, Tem produced Shu and Tefnut from his own body, and these three gods formed the first Triad, or Trinity, Tem saying, "From [being] god one I became three."

Shu, son of Ra,

In the extract from the XVIIth Chapter given above, we must note that 1. Tem originally existed in Nenu, or Nu, the great mass of primeval waters. 2. He was the Only One in existence when he had come into being. 3. He created himself the Great God. 4. He possessed various names, and these he turned into the gods who formed his Pest or Ennead, merely by uttering their names. 5. He was irresistible among the gods, i.e., he was the Over-lord of the gods. 6. He comprehended time past and time to come. 7. He dwelt in the Solar Disk (Aten). 8. He rose in the sky for the first time under the form of Ra, and he was himself the Bennu, i.e., the Soul of Ra. 9. He kept the Registers of things created and uncreated. Though the papyrus from which we get these facts is not older than the XVIIIth dynasty, each of the statements which are here grouped exists in the various religious texts that were written under the Ancient Empire, say, two thousand years earlier.

Of the style and nature of the worship of Tem we know nothing, but, from the fact that he was depicted in the form of a man, we appear to be justified in assuming that it was of a character superior to that of the cults of sacred animals, birds and reptiles, which were general in Egypt under the earlier dynasties. Tem, the man-god, absorbed the attributes of Her-ur, the old Sky-god, and of Khepera, the Beetle-god, who represented one or more of the forms of an ancient Sun-god between sunset and sunrise, and of Her-aakhuti ("Horus of the two horizons"). Khepera was the sun during the hour that precedes the dawn. Her was the sun by day, and Tem was the setting sun; the names of these gods are of native origin. We may conclude that the priests of Tem incorporated into their forms of worship as many as possible of the rites and ceremonies to which the people had been accustomed in their worship of the older gods. For there was nothing strange in the absorption of one god by another to the Egyptian, the god absorbed being regarded by him merely as a phase or character of the absorbing god. The Egyptians, like many other Orientals, were exceedingly tolerant in such matters.

Tefnut,

The monuments prove that, quite early in the Dynastic Period, there was known and worshiped in Lower Egypt another form of the Sun-god who was called RA. Of his origin and early history nothing is known, and the meaning of his name has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It does not seem to be Egyptian, but it may be that of some Asiatic sun-god, whose cult was introduced into Egypt at a very remote period. His character and attributes closely resemble those of the Babylonian god Marduk, and both Ra and Marduk may be only different names of one and the same ancestor. The center of the cult of Ra in Egypt was Anu, or Heliopolis, and the city must have been inhabited by a cosmopolitan population (who were chiefly worshipers of the sun) from time immemorial. All the caravans from Arabia and Syria halted there, whether outward or homeward bound, and men of many nations and tongues must have exchanged ideas there as well as commodities. The control of the water drawn from the famous Well of the Sun, the 'Ain ash-Shams' of Arab writers, was, no doubt, in the hands of the priests of Anu, and the payments made by grateful travelers for the watering of their beasts, together with other offerings, made them rich and powerful. The waters of the well were believed to spring from the celestial waters of Nenu, or Nu, and the Nubian King Piankhi tells us that when he went to Anu he bathed his face in the water in which Ra was wont to bathe his face. We may note in passing that the Virgin Mary drew water from this well when the Holy Family halted at Anu.

Osiris,

Under the IVth dynasty the priests of Anu obtained very considerable power, and they succeeded in acquiring pre-eminence for their god Ra among the other gods of Lower Egypt. Whether or not they chose the kings cannot be said, but it is certain that they caused the name of Ra to form a part of the Nesu bat names of the builders of the second and third pyramids at Gizah. Thus we have KHAF-RA (Khephren) and MENKAU-RA (Mycerinus). Not satisfied with this, they rejected the descendants of the great pyramid builders, and set upon the throne a number of kings whom they declared to be the sons of their god Ra by the wife of one of his priests. The first of these adopted as his fifth, or personal name, the title of "Sa Ra," i.e., son of Ra. This title, which was certainly adopted by the kings of the Vth dynasty, was borne by every king of Egypt afterwords, and the Nubian, Persian, Macedonian, or Roman who became king of Egypt saw no absurdity in styling himself "son of Ra." Thanks to the excavations made by Borchardt and Schäfer, under the direction of F. von Bissing, several important facts dealing with the worship of Ra have been brought to light. The sun temples built by the later kings of the Vth dynasty were usually buildings about 325 feet long and 245 feet broad. At the west end stood a truncated, or "blunted," pyramid (A), and on the top of it was an obelisk made of stone (B). In front of the east side of the pyramid stood an alabaster B altar, and on the north side of the altar were channels along which the blood of the victims, both A animal and human, ran into alabaster bowls which were placed to receive it. On the north side of the rectangular walled enclosure was a row of store rooms, and on the east and south sides were passages, the walls of which were decorated with reliefs. Opposite the altar, on the east side, was a gateway; from this ran a path, which led by an inclined causeway to another gate, Which formed the entrance to another large enclosure, about 1,000 feet square. The priests lived in this enclosure, and in special chambers were kept the sacred objects which were carried in procession on days of festival.

Isis

The principal object of the cult of Ra and his special symbol was the obelisk, but it has been suggested that the earliest worshippers of the sun believed that their god dwelt in a particular stone of pyramidal shape. At stated seasons, or for special purposes, the Spirit of the Sun was induced by the priests to inhabit the stone, and it was believed to be present when gifts were offered up to the god, and when human victims, who were generally prisoners of war, were sacrificed. The exact signification of this sun symbol is not known. Some think that the obelisk represented the axis of earth and heaven, but the Egyptians can hardly have evolved such an idea; others assign to it a phallic signification, and others associate it with an object that produced fire and heat. That it symbolized Ra is certain, and there was in every sanctuary a shrine in which, behind sealed doors, was a model of an obelisk. The cult of the standing stone, or pillar, was probably older than the cult of Ra, and the old name of Heliopolis is Anu, i.e., the city of the pillar. The Spirit of the Sun visited the temple of the sun from time to time in the form of a Bennu bird, and alighted "on the Ben-stone, 1 in the house of the Bennu in Anu in later times the Bennu-bird, which the Egyptians regarded as the "soul of RA," was known as the Phoinix, or Phœnix.

Under the VIth dynasty the priests of Ra succeeded in thrusting their god into the position of over-lord of all the gods, and as we see from the names Ra-Khepera, Ra-Atem, Ra-Heraakhuti and the like, all the old solar gods of the north of Egypt were regarded as forms of Ra. He was king of heaven and judge of gods and men, and the attempt was also made to make the people accept him as the over-lord of Osiris and king of the Tuat, or Underworld. But in this last matter the priests failed, and Osiris maintained his position as the god and judge of the dead. The priests had assigned to Ra in the funerary compositions, which are now known as the "Pyramid Texts," great powers over the dead, and, in fact, over all the gods and demons and denizens of the underworld, but before a century had passed, Osiris had established absolute sovereignty over his realm of Amentt.

From what has been said above it is evident that, before the close of the VIth dynasty, the priests of the various solar gods of Lower Egypt had assigned to each of them all the essential powers and characteristics which Amenhetep claimed for his god Aten. But before we consider these powers in detail we must summarize briefly the principal historical facts relating to the rise and development of the Aten cult. Wherever a solar god was worshipped in Egypt the habitat of this god was believed to be the solar Disk (aten or athen) But the oldest solar god who was associated with the Disk was Tem, or Atmu, who is frequently referred to in religious texts as "Tem in his Disk"; when Ra usurped the attributes of Tem he became the "dweller in his Disk." Heraakhuti was the "god of the two horizons," i.e., the Sun-god by day, from sunrise to sunset, and in the hieroglyphs with which his name is written, we see the Disk resting upon the horizon of the east and the horizon of the west. Thothmes IV, who owed his throne to the priesthoods of Tem and Ra at Heliopolis, incorporated the name of Tem in his Nebti title, and styled himself "made of Ra," "chosen of Ra," and "beloved of Ra." As the name of Amen is wanting in every one of his titles, it seems reasonable to assume that his personal sympathies lay with the cult of the solar gods of the North and not with the cult of Amen of Thebes. But he maintained good relations with the priests of Amen, and made gifts to their god, who through the victories of Thothmes III was recognized in the Egyptian Win, Egypt, and Syria as the god of all the world.

Thothmes IV was succeeded by his son Amenhetep, the third king to bear the name, and the priesthood of Thebes asserted that he was the veritable son of their god Amen, whose blood ran in his veins. According to this fiction the god assumed the form of Thothmes IV, and Queen Mutemuaa became with child by him. How much or how little religious instruction the child received cannot be said, but it is probable that any teaching which he received from his mother, the princess of Mitanni, would make his mind to incline towards the religion of her native land. From the titles which Amenhetep assumed when he became king it is clear that he was content to be "the chosen of Ra," "the chosen of Tem," or "the chosen of Amen," and it seems to have mattered little to him whether he was the "beloved" and "emanation of Ra" or the "beloved" and "emanation of Amen." His predecessors on the throne of Egypt believed in all seriousness that they had divine blood in their veins, and they acted as they thought gods would act; they had themselves hedged round with elaborate ceremonial procedure, which made men believe that their king was a god. To Amenhetep all the gods of Egypt were alike, and we see from the bas-reliefs in the temple at Sulb, some fifty miles above the head of the Second Cataract, that he was as willing to worship himself and to offer sacrifices to himself as to Amen, in whose honour he had rebuilt the temple. It is impossible to think of his performing daily the rites and ceremonies which the king of Egypt was expected to perform in the shrine of Amen-Ra at Karnak, in order to obtain from the god the power and knowledge necessary for governing his people.

One of the most important events in his life, and one fraught with very far-reaching consequences, was his marriage with the lady Ti (or Tei), a private individual, apparently of no high rank or social position. In the Tall al-'Amarnah letters her name is transcribed Tei. Her father was called Iuau, and her mother Thuau. Their tomb was discovered in 1905, and it is clear that before the marriage of their daughter to Amenhetep III they were humble folk. According to a consensus of modern Egyptological opinion they were natives of Egypt, not foreigners as the older Egyptologists supposed. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that Ti was a very remarkable woman and that her influence over her husband was very great. Her name appears in the inscriptions side by side with that of her husband, a fact which proves that he acknowledged her authority as co-ruler with himself; and she assisted at public functions and in acts of ceremonial worship in a manner unknown to queens in Egypt before her time. Her power inside the palace and in the country generally was very great, and there is evidence that the king's orders, both private and public, were only issued after she had sanctioned them. In the Sudan the king was worshipped as a god, and as the son and equal and counterpart of Amen-Ra, and in the temple which Amenhetep built for her at Saddenga, some twenty or thirty miles south of Koshah, Ti was worshipped as a goddess. When Amenhetep married her, or perhaps when he became king, he caused a number of unusually large steatite scarabs to be made, with his names and titles and those of Ti cut side by side on their bases. On another group of large scarabs he caused his own names and titles, and the names of Ti and her father Iuau and mother Thuau, to be cut, and these are followed by the statement, "[She is] the wife of the victorious king whose territory in the South reaches to Karei (i.e., Napata, at the foot of the Fourth Cataract) and in the North to Naharn" (i.e. the country of the head waters of the Euphrates). Perhaps this is another way of saying the great and mighty king Amenhetep was proud to marry the daughter of parents of humble birth and to give her a position equal to his own. And it is possible, as Maspero suggested long ago, that some romantic episode is here referred to, similar to that in the old story where the king marries a shepherdess for love. What Ti's religious views were, or what gods she worshipped, we have no means of knowing, but the inscription which is found repeated on several large steatite scarabs suggests that she favoured the cult of Aten, and that in the later years of her life she was a zealous and devoted follower of that god. To please her Amenhetep caused a great lake to be made on her estate called Tcharukha in Western Thebes. This lake was about 1 1/8 mile (3,700 cubits) long and more than 5/8th of a mile (700 cubits) wide, and its modem representative is probably Birkat Habu. On the sixteenth day of the third month of the season Akhet (October), in the 11th year of his reign, His Majesty sailed over the lake in the barge called ATHEN-TEHEN i.e. "Aten sparkles." And in following years this day was celebrated as a festival. Both lake and barge were made to give the Queen pleasure, and the fact that the name of Aten formed part of the name of the latter, instead of Amen, has been taken to show that both the King and Queen wished to pay honour to this solar god. In fact, it was definitely stated by Maspero that this water procession of the King marked the inauguration of the cult of Aten at Thebes, and he is probably correct.

Amenhetep's children by Ti consisted of four daughters and one son; his daughters were called Ast, Henttaneb, Satamen and Baktenaten, and her son was Amenhetep IV, the famous Aakhunaten. Ti lived in Western Thebes during her husband's lifetime, and she continued to do so after his death. She visited Tall al-'Amarnah from time to time, and was present there in the twelfth year of her son's reign. What appears to be an excellent portrait of her is reproduced on Plate XXXIII of Mr. Davis's book on her tomb.

But his respect for Ti and the honor in which he held her did not prevent Amenhetep from marrying other wives, and we know from the Tall al-'Amarnah tablets that he married a sister and a daughter of Tushratta, the King of Mitanni. His marriage with Gilukhipa, the daughter of Shutarna and sister of Tushratta, took place in the tenth year of his reign. And he commemorated the event by making a group of large scarabs inscribed on their bases with the statement that in the tenth year of his reign Gilukhipa, the daughter of Shutarna, prince of Neherna, arrived in Egypt with her ladies and escort of 317 persons. Exactly when Amenhetep married Tushratta's daughter Tatumkhipa is not known, but that he received many gifts with her from her father is certain, for a tablet at Berlin (No. 296) contains a long list of her wedding gifts from her father. In marrying princesses of Mitanni Amenhetep followed the example of his father, Thothmes IV, whose wife, whom the Egyptians called Mutemuaa, was a native of that country. It follows as a matter of course that the influence of these foreign princesses on the King must have been very considerable at the Theban Court, and they and the high officials and ladies who came to Egypt with them would undoubtedly prefer the cult of their native gods to that of Amen of Thebes. Ti's son, Amenhetep IV, and his sisters would soon learn their religious views, and the prince's hatred of Amen and of his arrogant priesthood probably dates from the time when he came in contact with the princesses of Mitanni, and learned to know Mithras, Indra, Varuna and other Aryan gods, whose cults in many respects resembled those of Horus, Ra, Tem and other Egyptian solar gods.

During the early years of his reign Amenhetep spent a great deal of his time in hunting, and to commemorate his exploits in the desert he caused two groups of large scarabs to be made. On the bases of these were cut details of his hunts and the numbers of the beasts he slew. One group of them, the "Hunt Scarabs," tells us that a message came to him saying that a herd of wild cattle had been sighted in Lower Egypt. Without delay he set off in a boat, and having sailed all night arrived in the morning near the place where they were. All the people turned out and made an enclosure with stakes and ropes, and then, in true African fashion, surrounded the herd and with cries and shouts drove the terrified beasts into it. On the occasion which the scarabs commemorate 170 wild cattle were forced into the enclosure, and then the King in his chariot drove in among them and killed 56 of them. A few days later he slew 20 more. This battle took place in the second year of Amenhetep's reign.

The other group of "Hunt Scarabs" was made in the tenth year of his reign, and after enumerating the names and titles of Amenhetep and his wife Ti, the inscription states that from the first to the tenth year of his reign he shot with his own hand 102 fierce lions. No other King of Egypt used the scarab as a vehicle for advertising his personal exploits and private affairs. That Amenhetep had some reason for so doing seems clear, but unless it was to secularize the sacred symbol of Khepera, or to cast good-natured ridicule on some phase of native Egyptian belief which he thought lightly of, this use of the scarab seems inexplicable.

The reign of Amenhetep III stands alone in Egyptian History. When he ascended the throne he found himself absolute lord of Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan as far south as Napata. His great ancestor Thothmes III had conquered the world, as known to the Egyptians, for him. Save in the "war" which he waged in Nubia in the fifth year of his reign he never needed to strike a blow to keep what Thothmes III had won. And this "war" was relatively an unimportant affair. It was provoked by the revolt of a few tribes who lived near the foot of the Second Cataract, and according to the evidence of the sandstone stele, which was set up by Amenhetep to commemorate his victory, he only took 740 prisoners and killed 312 rebels. In the Sudan he made a royal progress through the country, and the princes and nobles not only acclaimed him as their over-lord but worshipped him as their god. And year by year, under the direction of the Egyptian Viceroy of Kash, they dispatched to him in Thebes untold quantities of gold, precious stones, valuable woods, skins of beasts, and slaves. When he visited Phœnicia, Syria, and the countries round about he was welcomed and acknowledged by the shekhs and their tribes as their king, and they paid their tribute unhesitatingly. The great independent chiefs of Babylonia, Assyria, and Mitanni vied with each other in seeking his friendship, and probably the happiest times of his pleasure-loving life were the periods which he spent among his Mesopotamian friends and allies. His joy in hunting the lion in the desert south of Sinjar and in the thickets by the river Khabur can be easily imagined, and his love for the chase would gain him many friends among the shekhs of Mesopotamia. His visits to Western Asia stimulated trade, for caravans could travel to and from Egypt without let or hindrance, and in those days merchants and traders from the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean flocked to Egypt, where gold was as dust for abundance.

Amenhetep devoted a large portion of the wealth which he had inherited, and the revenues which he received annually from tributary peoples, to enlarging and beautifying the temples of Thebes. He had large ideas, and loved great and splendid effects, and he spared neither labour nor expense in creating them. He employed the greatest architects and engineers and the best workmen, and he gave them a "free hand," much as Hatshepsut did to her architect Senmut. On the east bank he made great additions to the temple of Karnak, and built an avenue from the river to the temple, and set up obelisks and statues of himself. He completed the temple of Mut and made a sacred lake on which religious processions in boats might take place. He joined the temples of Karnak and Luxor by an avenue of kriosphinxes, each holding a figure of himself between the paws, and at Luxor he built the famous colonnade, which is to this day one of the finest objects of its kind in Egypt. On the west bank he built a magnificent funerary temple, and before its pylon he set up a pair of obelisks and the two colossal statues of himself which are now known as the "Colossi of Memnon." A road led from the river to the temple, and each side of it was lined with stone figures of jackals. He also built on the Island of Elephantine a temple in honour of Khnemu, the great god of the First Cataract, and, as already said, he rebuilt and added largely to the temple which had been founded by Amenhetep III at Sulb. All these temples were provided with metal-plated doors, parts of which seem to have been decorated with rich inlays, and colour was used freely in the scheme of decoration. The means at the king's disposal enabled him to employ unlimited labour, and most of his subjects must have gained their livelihood by working for Amen and the king. Under such patrons as these the Arts and Crafts flourished, and artificers in stone, wood, brass, and faïence produced works the like of which had never before been seen in Egypt. Throughout his reign Amenhetep corresponded with his friends in Babylonia, Mitanni, and Syria, and the arrival and departure of the royal envoys gave opportunity for dispensing lavish hospitality, and for the display of wealth and all that it produces. The receptions in his beautifully decorated palace on the west bank of the river must have been splendid functions, such as the Oriental loves. The king spent his wealth royally; and in many ways, probably as a result of the Mitannian blood which flowed in his veins, his character was more that of a rich, luxury-loving, easygoing and benevolently despotic Mesopotamian Shekh than that of a king of Egypt. Very aptly has Hall styled him "Amenhetep the Magnificent." He died after a reign of about thirty-six years, and was buried in his tomb in the Western Valley at Thebes. On the walls of the chambers there are scenes representing the king worshipping the gods of the Underworld, and on the ceiling are some very interesting astronomical paintings. The tomb was unfinished when the king was buried in it. It was pillaged by the professional robbers of tombs, and the Government of the day removed his mummy to the tomb of Amenhetep II, where it was found by Loret in 1899. Thus whatever views Amenhetep III may have held about Aten, he was buried in Western Thebes, with all the pomp and ceremony befitting an orthodox Pharaoh.

Lecture Egyptian Sun-God Worship Part 2

Hymns to Rā

The above paragraphs contain a statement of the facts concerning the worships of Rā and Osiris which appear to be fairly deducible from the extant religious literature of the Egyptians, but it is time to let the hymns to these gods declare the attributes which were assigned to them during the most flourishing period of Egyptian history. More hymns were addressed to these two than to any other gods, a fact which proves that they were considered to be the chief means of salvation for the Egyptians.

The following hymns are taken from the Papyri of Hunefer, and Ani, and Nekht:—

“Homage to thee, O thou who art Rā when thou risest, and Temu when thou settest. Thou risest, thou risest, thou shinest, thou shinest, thou who art crowned king of the gods.

Thou art the lord of heaven, thou art the lord of earth; thou art the creator of those who dwell in the heights and of those who dwell in the depths.

Thou art the God One who didst come into being in the beginning of time. Thou didst create the earth, thou didst fashion man, thou didst make the watery abyss of the sky, thou didst form Ḥāpi (the Nile), thou didst create the watery abyss, and thou dost give life unto all that therein is.

Thou hast knit together the mountains, thou hast made mankind and the beasts of the field to come into being, thou hast made the heavens and the earth. Worshipped be thou whom Maāt embraceth at morn and at eve.

Thou dost travel across the sky with heart swelling with joy; the Lake of Testes becometh contented thereat. The serpent-fiend Nȧk hath fallen, and his two arms are cut off.

The Sektet boat receiveth fair winds, and the heart of him that is in the shrine thereof rejoiceth. Thou art crowned prince of heaven, and thou art the One dowered [with all attributes] who comest forth from the sky. Rā is he whose word when uttered must come to pass.

O thou divine Youth, thou heir of everlastingness, thou self-begotten one, thou who didst give thyself birth! O thou One, thou mighty [one] of myriad forms and aspects, King of the world, Prince of Ȧnnu (Heliopolis), lord of eternity and ruler of everlastingness, the company of the gods rejoice when thou risest and when thou sailest across the sky, O thou who art exalted in the Sektet boat.”

(From the Papyrus of Hunefer, sheet 1.)

“Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, who risest on the horizon day by day! Homage to thee, O Ḥeru-khuti, who art the god Kheperȧ the self-created; when thou risest on the horizon and sheddest thy beams of light upon the lands of the North and of the South, thou art beautiful, yea beautiful, and all the gods rejoice when they behold thee, the King of heaven.

The goddess Nebt-unnut is stablished upon thy head ; and her uraei of the South and of the North are upon thy brow ; she taketh up her place before thee. The god Thoth is stablished in the bows of thy boat to destroy utterly all thy foes.

Those who are in the Ṭuat come forth to meet thee, and they bow in homage as they come towards thee to behold thy beautiful form. And I have come before thee that I may be with thee to behold thy Disk every day.

May I not be shut up in [the tomb], may I not be turned back, may the members of my body be made new when I view thy beauties, even as [are those of] all thy favoured ones, because I am one of those who worshipped thee upon earth.

May I come in unto the land of eternity, may I come even unto the everlasting land, for behold, O my lord, this hast thou ordained for me.

Homage to thee, O thou who risest in the horizon as Rā, thou restest upon law unchangeable and unalterable. Thou passest over the sky, and every face watcheth thee and thy course, for thou hast been hidden from their gaze.

Thou dost show thyself at dawn and at eventide day by day. The Sektet boat, wherein is thy Majesty, goeth forth with light; thy beams are upon all faces ; the [number] of thy red and yellow rays cannot be known, nor can thy bright beams be told.

The lands of the gods, and the lands of Punt must be seen, ere that which is hidden [in thee] may be measured. Alone and by thyself thou dost manifest thyself when thou comest into being above Nu.

May I advance, even as thou dost advance ; may I never cease to go forward as thou never ceasest to go forward, even though it be for a moment; for with strides thou dost in one little moment pass over the spaces which would need millions and millions of years [for men to pass over; this] thou doest and then thou dost sink to rest.

Thou puttest an end to the hours of the night, and thou dost count them, even thou; thou endest them in thine own appointed season, and the earth becometh light. Thou settest thyself therefore before thy handiwork in the likeness of Rā [when] thou risest on the horizon.

Thou art crowned with the majesty of thy beauties ; thou mouldest thy limbs as thou dost advance, and thou bringest them forth without birth-pangs in the form of Rā, as thou dost rise up into the upper air.

Grant thou that I may come unto the heaven which is everlasting, and into the mountain where dwell thy favoured ones. May I be joined unto those shining beings, holy and perfect, who are in the Underworld ; and may I come forth with them to behold thy beauties when thou shinest at eventide and goest to thy mother Nu.

Thou dost place thyself in the west, and my two hands are [raised] in adoration of thee when thou settest as a living being. Behold, thou art the maker of eternity, and thou art adored when thou settest in the heavens. I have given my heart unto thee without wavering, O thou who art mightier than the gods.

A hymn of praise to thee, O thou who risest like unto gold, and who dost flood the world with light on the day of thy birth. Thy mother giveth thee birth, and thou dost give light unto the course of the Disk.

O thou great Light, who shinest in the heavens, thou dost strengthen the generations of men with the Nile-flood, and thou dost cause gladness in all lands, and in all cities, and in all temples. Thou art glorious by reason of thy splendours, and thou makest strong thy Double with divine foods.

O thou mighty one of victories, thou who art the Power of Powers, who dost make strong thy throne against evil fiends ; who art glorious in majesty in the Sektet boat, and who art exceedingly mighty in the Ātet boat, make thou me glorious through words which when spoken must take effect in the Underworld; and grant thou that in the nether world I may be without evil.

I pray thee to put my faults behind thee ; grant thou that I may be one of thy loyal servants who are with the shining ones ; may I be joined unto the souls which are in Ta-tchesertet, and may I journey into the Sekhet-Ȧaru by a prosperous and happy decree.”

(From the Papyrus of Ani, sheet 20 f.)

“Homage to thee, O thou glorious being, thou who art dowered with all attributes, O Tem-Ḥeru-khuti, when thou risest in the horizon of heaven, a cry of joy cometh forth to thee from the mouth of all peoples.

O thou beautiful being, thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk within thy mother Hathor ; therefore in every place every heart swelleth with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the North and South come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at thy rising in the horizon of heaven; thou illuminest the two  lands with rays of turquoise light.

O Rā, thou who art Ḥeru-khuti, the divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, king of earth, prince of the Ṭuat, governor of the regions of ȧuḳert; thou comest forth from the water, thou hast sprung from the god Nu, who cherisheth thee and ordereth thy members.

O thou god of life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou art crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut doeth homage unto thee, and Maāt embraceth thee at all times.

Those who are in thy following sing unto thee with joy and bow down their foreheads to the earth when they meet thee, thou lord of heaven, thou lord of earth, thou king of Right and Truth, thou lord of eternity, thou prince of ever-lastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of life, thou creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven wherein thou art firmly established.

The company of the gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is glad when it beholdeth thy rays ; the peoples that have been long dead come forth with cries of joy to see thy beauties every day. Thou goest forth each day over heaven and earth and art made strong each day by thy mother Nut.

Thou passest through the heights of heaven, thy heart swelleth with joy; and the Lake of Testes is content thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath fallen, his arms are hewn off, the knife hath cut asunder his joints. Rā liveth by Maāt the beautiful.

The Sektet boat draweth on and cometh into port; the South and the North, the West and the East turn to praise thee, O thou primeval substance of the earth who didst come into being of thine own accord. Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee songs of joy at thy rising in the boat, they protect thee with their hands. The souls of the East follow thee, the souls of the West praise thee.

Thou art the ruler of all the gods, and thou hast joy of heart within thy shrine, for the serpent fiend Nȧk hath been condemned to the fire, and thy heart shall be joyful for ever.”

(From the Papyrus of Neicht, sheet 21.)

Book of the Dead - Hymn to Ra

The Praises of Ra

Even more instructive, however, than these are the Seventy-five Praises of Rā which are found inscribed on the walls of royal tombs of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties at Thebes. In these we find enumerated a large number of most remarkable epithets and attributes, some idea of the meaning of which will be gathered from the following rendering:—

1. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, lord of the hidden circles [of the Ṭuat], bringer of forms, thou restest in secret places and makes thy creations in the form of the god Ṭamṭ (, i.e., the universal god).
2. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, thou creative force (), who spreadest out thy wings, who restest in the Ṭuaṭ, who makest the created things which come forth from his divine limbs.
3. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Ta-thenen, begetter of his gods. Thou art he who protecteth what is in him, and thou makest thy creations as Governer of thy Circle.
4. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, looker on the earth, and brightener of Ȧmenti. Thou art he whose forms () are his own creations, and thou makest thy creations in thy Great Disk.
5. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the Word-soul, that resteth on his high place. Thou art he who protecteth thy hidden spirits (), and they have form in thee.
6. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, mighty one, bold of face, the knitter together of his body. Thou art he who gathereth together thy gods when thou goest into thy hidden Circle.
7. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem. Thou dost call to thine Eye, and dost speak to thy head, and dost give breath to the souls in their places, and they receive it and have their forms in him.
8. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, destroyer of thy enemies ; thou art he who doth decree destruction for the dead ().
9. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the sender forth of light into his Circle ; thou art he who maketh the darkness to be in his Circle and thou coverest those who are therein.”
10. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the illuminer of bodies in the horizons ; thou art he who entereth into his Circle.
11. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, support () of the Circles of Ȧment; thou art indeed the body of Temu ().
12. “Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, the hidden support of Ȧnpu (); thou art indeed the body of Kheperȧ ().
13. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, whose duration of life is greater than that of her whose forms are hidden ; thou art indeed the bodies of Shu ().
14. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the guide (s ebi) of Rā to his members ; thou art indeed the bodies of Tefnut ().
15. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou dost make to be abundant the things which are of Rā in their seasons, and thou art indeed Seb ().
16. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the mighty one who doth keep count of the things which are in him; thou art indeed the bodies of Nut.
17. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the lord who advancest; thou art indeed Isis ().
18. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, whose head shineth more than the things which are in front of him ; thou art indeed the bodies of Nephthys () .
19. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, united is he in members, One, who gathereth together all seed ; thou art indeed the bodies of Horus () .
20. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, thou shining one who dost send forth light upon the waters of heaven ; thou art indeed the bodies of Nu () .
21. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the avenger of Nu who cometh forth from what is in him ; thou art indeed the bodies of the god Remi () .
22. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the two Uraei who bear their two feathers [on their heads]; thou art indeed the bodies of the god Ḥuaaiti ().
23. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou goest in and comest out and thou comest oat and goest in to thy hidden Circle, and thou art indeed the bodies of Āaṭu ()
24. “Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, the Soul who departeth at his appointed time ; thou art indeed the bodies of Nethert ().
25. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, who standeth up, the Soul One, who avengeth his children; thou art indeed the bodies of Netuti ().
26. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou raisest thy head and thou makest bold thy brow, thou ram, mightiest of created things.
27. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the light of Shu at the head of Ȧḳert () ; thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧment ().
28. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, the soul that seeth, the governor of Ȧment; thou art indeed the bodies of the double Circle ().
29. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the Soul that mourneth, and the god that crieth (); thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧakebi ().
30. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou makest thy hand to pass and praisest thine Eye, and thou art indeed the bodies of the god of hidden limbs ().
31. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul exalted in the double hidden place (); thou art indeed Khenti-Ȧmenti ().
32. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, of manifold creations in the holy house ; thou art indeed the bodies of the god Kheprer ().
33. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou placest thine enemies in their strong fetters, and thou art indeed the bodies of Mati ().
34. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou givest forth light in the hidden place, and thou art the bodies of the god of generation ().
35. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the vivifìer of bodies ; thou makest throats to inhale breath, and thou art indeed the bodies of the god Ṭebati ().
36. “Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou assemblest “bodies in the Ṭuaṭ, and they gain the form of life, thou destroyest foul humours, and thou art indeed the bodies of the god Serqi ().
37. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Hidden-face (), Seshem-Nethert (); thou art indeed the bodies of Shai ().
38. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, lord of might; thou embracest the Ṭuat and thou art indeed the bodies of Sekhen-Ba ().
39. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou hidest thy body in that which is within thee, and thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧmen-khat ().
40. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, more strong of heart than those who are in his following ; thou sendest fire in the house of destruction, and thou art indeed the bodies of the Fire-god Rekḥi ().
41. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou sendest forth destruction, and thou makest beings to come into existence in thy creations in the Ṭuat, and thou art the bodies of Ṭuati ().
42. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Bua-ṭep (), governor of his Eye ; thou sendest forth light into the hidden place, and thou art indeed the body of Shepi ()·
43. “Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, Ṭemṭ-ḥātu, stablisher of Ȧmta () ; thou art indeed the bodies of Ṭemṭ-ḥātu ().
44. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, creator of hidden things, generator of bodies ; thou art indeed the bodies of the god Seshetai ().
45. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou providest those who are in the Ṭuat with what they need in the hidden Circles, and thou art indeed Āper-ta ().
46. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thy limbs rejoice when they see thy body, O Uash-Ba (), when thou enterest thy body, and thou art indeed the bodies of Ḥāi().
47. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, aged one of the pupil () of the Utchat, Bai (); thou makest full thy splendour, and thou art indeed the bodies of Thenti ().
48. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou makest straight ways in the Ṭuat, and openest up roads in the hidden place, and thou art indeed the bodies of Maā-uat ()·
49. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul who movest onwards, and thou hastenest thy steps, and thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧkhpȧ ().
50. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou sendest forth thy stars and thou illuminest the darkness in the Circles of those whose forms are hidden, and thou art indeed the god Ḥetchiu ().
51. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the maker of the Circles, thou makest bodies to come into being by thine own creative vigour. Thou, O Rā, hast created the things which exist, and the things which do not exist, the dead (), and the gods, and the spirits; thou art indeed the body that maketh Khati () to come into being.
52. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the doubly hidden and secret god (), and the souls go where thou leadest them, and those who follow thee thou makest to enter in ; thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧmeni ().
53. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art Uben-Ȧn () of Ȧment, and the light of the lock of hair on thee. . . . ; thou art indeed the bodies of the god Uben.
54. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the Aged One of forms who dost go about through the Ṭuat, to whom the souls in their Circles ascribe praises ; and thou art indeed the bodies of Then-ȧru ().
55. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; when thou dost unite thyself to the Beautiful Ament, the gods of the Ṭuat rejoice at the sight of thee ; thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧāi ().
56. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs (or, assessors), and the governor of the holy Circle ; thou art indeed the bodies of the Great Cat ().
57. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; when thou fillest thine eye, and speakest to the pupil thereof, the divine dead bodies shed tears; thou art indeed the bodies of Meṭu-khut-f ().
58. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul on high and thy bodies are hidden ; thou sendest forth the light, and thou lookest upon thy hidden things (or, places) ; thou art indeed the bodies of Ḥer-ba ().
59. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, exalted of Soul; thou destroyest thine enemies, thou sendest fire on the wicked, and thou art the bodies of Qa-Ba ()
60. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Ȧuaiu (), who hidest in purity ; thou hast gained the mastery over the souls of the gods, and thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧuai.
61. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Oldest one () Great one, Governor of the Ṭuat, Creating one (); thou didst create the two Setchet () and thou art indeed the bodies of the two Setchet gods ().
62. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem, Mighty One of journeyings ; thou orderest thy steps by Maāt, thou art the Soul that doeth good to the body, thou art Senk-ḥrȧ (, i.e., Face of Light), and thou art indeed the bodies of Senk-ḥrȧ.
63. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou dost protect (or, avenge) thy body, and thou dost hold the balance [among] the gods as the hidden Amȧ (), [and] as Ȧm-ta (), and thou art indeed the bodies of the double god Amȧ-Ȧmta ().
64. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the lord of the fetters of thine enemies, the One, the Prince of the Apes (), and thou art indeed the bodies of Ȧntetu ().
65. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou sendest forth flames into thy furnaces (), and thou cuttest off the heads of those who are to be destroyed (), and thou art indeed the bodies of the two gods Ketuit ().
66. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the god of generation (), thou destroyest [thy] offspring, thou art One, thou stablishest the two lands by [thy] spirit (), and thou art indeed the bodies of the god Ta-Thenen ().
67. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou stablishest the gods who watch the hours () on their standards, and who are invisible and secret, and thou art indeed the bodies of the Watcher gods ().
68. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the double Tchent god () of heaven, and the gate of the Ṭuat, and the god Besi () [with] his spiritual bodies (PLAATJE), and thou art the bodies of Besi. ()
69. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the Apes ()....., and thou art the true creative Power of [thy] divine attributes (), and thou art indeed the bodies of the Ape-god in the Ṭuat.
70. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou makest new the earth, and thou openest a way for that which is therein, thou that art the Soul which giveth names unto his limbs, and thou art indeed the bodies of Sma-ta ().
71. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art Neḥi () who burnest up thine enemies, the Fire-god Setcheti (), who burneth up fetters, and thou art indeed the bodies of Neḥi ().
72. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the god of motion (), the god of light (), who travelleth, thou makest the darkness to come into being after thy light, and thou art indeed the bodies of Shemti.
73. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord of souls who art in the house of thy obelisk (), thou art the chief of the gods who are supreme in their districts (), and thou art indeed the god Neb-baiu (, i.e., Lord of souls).
74. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem; thou art the double Sphinx-god, the Double obelisk-god (), the Great God who lifteth up his two Eyes, and thou art indeed the bodies of the double Sphinx god Ḥuiti ().
75. “Praise be to thee, O Rā, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord of light and declarest the things which are hidden, and thou art the Soul that speaketh with the gods who are in their “Circles, and thou art indeed the bodies of Neb-Senku (, i.e., the Lord of light).”

An impartial examination of the above translation will show the reader the lofty conceptions which were associated by the Egyptians with Rā the Sun-god, and there is not room for any reasonable doubt that they ascribed to the god, whose symbol was the sun, all the attributes which modern nations are wont to regard as the properties peculiar to God Almighty.

He was One, and the maker of “gods” and men ; he was the creator of heaven, earth, and the underworld ; he was self-begotten, self-created, and self-produced ; he had existed for ever and would exist to all eternity ; he was the source of all life and light; and he was the personification of right and truth, and goodness, and the destroyer of darkness, night, wickedness, and evil. There is scarcely an attribute of importance ascribed to our God for which there is no equivalent in the hymns and texts which relate to Rā and describe his greatness and power, for he was not only the god of the living but also the god of the dead, and the god of everything unborn.

His relations with Osiris, who was part god and part man, and was the cause and type of immortality for man, were at once those of a god, a father, and an equal, and when we consider that Osiris was a king who reigned over Egypt, and that every king was an incarnation of Rā, it is easy to understand how he came to have the power to rise from the dead, and to act as the judge of the dead on behalf of his father Rā.