The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt revered god Re as the ultimate deity of par excellence.
He was the sun god of Honnu or the Heloplis. Some learned Egyptians even referred to Re as the creator of men and they called themselves as the “Cattle of Re”.
In his early days, Re related very closely to Horus, who as a unique entity represented the deep skies and as the sharp-brained hawk.
Re had the following genealogy:
- Father to Shu and Tefnut
- Grandfather to Nut and Geb
- Great grandfather of Osiris, Seth, Isis, Nephthys
- Great great grandfather of Horus
There is an interesting anecdote about the powers of Re and according to that anecdote:
“Egyptians always believed that to traverse through the dark waters of heaven and the afterlife, one needed a boat and Re always used such a boat to cross through the horrendous route. In the earlier days, such a boat was a great galley also called Madjet. In fact, people believed that this boat rose in the east from behind the mountain of sunrise, Manu and it traversed between two sycamores. With setting sun, Re used a small type of barge called Semektet. Egyptians also believed that the goddess Maat decided the course or the route on which they were to travel. During the travel, Re had plenty of co passengers with him were co-navigating the boat to get rid of all problems. In fact, Thoth and Maat stood on guard on either side of Horus who captained the boat. Just in front of the ship, swam two pilot fishes called Abtu and Ant. Other co passengers included Geb, Hu, Sia and Hike.
The entire journey was a hazardous one with monsters like Sebau, Nak, and Apep intermittently stopping the journey with their wicked powers. Apep was the most destructive of all the three monsters and Re had to fight this monster every morning before he could rise from the eater direction. When Re rested, Thoth and Seth defended the ship with all their might and energy. Eventually, the entire crew of ship gets success after defeating the monsters.”
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To the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created. The sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Re…
Quote Source: Wikipedia
Re Image By Jeff Dahl GFDL via Wikimedia Commons
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