Ra
Sun-god and king of gods and men in the Egyptian texts Budge translates: self-created, "Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening", who sends his Eye (Hathor) against rebellious mankind, loses his secret name to Isis, and withdraws to heaven on the back of the cow Nut. Herodotus and Plutarch know only "the sun" and never write his name.
Why this wins its question: Encyclopaedias merge Ra, Atum and Khepri into one biography. This object gives the sentence in which Ra names his three forms, the two legends in Budge's own translation with their sources (Turin papyrus, tomb of Seti I), and shows that the Greek witnesses never use the name at all.
Key takeaways
- Three names for one day: Khepera at dawn, Ra at noon, Tem at evening — Ra says so himself in the Turin papyrus.
- The Egyptian witnesses give Ra two defeats — his hidden name taken by Isis, his rule of earth abandoned after the slaughter by Hathor — and both are told as his own choice.
- The Greek witnesses know only "the sun" and "Heliopolis"; the name Ra is nowhere in Herodotus or Plutarch.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
The Legend of Ra and Isis opens with the titles of Ra, "the self-created god", creator of heaven, earth, breath of life, gods, men, beasts and fish, "the King of gods and men", whose "manifold names are unknown even by the gods"; Ra himself says "I am Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening", and that his father and mother hid his name in his body so that no spell could master him (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Ra and Isis).
Isis, who "knew words of power", made a serpent from Ra's spittle kneaded with dust and laid it on his path; the aged god was bitten, "the living fire leaving his body", and only when he let his name pass from his body into hers did she speak the spell "Flow poison, come out of Ra ... Ra liveth! The poison dieth!" (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Ra and Isis, from the Turin papyrus).
In the Destruction of Mankind (tomb of Seti I) men murmur that "His Majesty hath become old. His bones have turned into silver, his flesh into gold, and his hair into real lapis-lazuli"; Ra takes counsel with Nu and the gods in Heliopolis and sends his Eye, Hathor, to slay the blasphemers; afterwards he withdraws from the earth on the back of the cow-goddess Nut, creates Sekhet-hetep and Sekhet-Aaru for the blessed, and appoints Thoth "the representative of Ra in the Other World" (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Destruction of Mankind).
Budge reports that at Heliopolis the Creator was "Atem, or Tem, and at a later period Ra", against Ptah at Memphis, Thoth at Hermopolis and Amen at Thebes; the monster Aapep, "the Enemy of Ra", lay in wait for the sun before sunrise, and the Book of overthrowing Aapep was recited in the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes with the burning of wax figures (Budge Lit. ch. VI).
A funerary hymn in the Book of the Dead hails Ra "in the form of Khepera, Khepera the creator of the gods", crowned King of the Gods, welcomed by "Mother Nut" and embraced by "the goddess Maat ... at morn and at eve"; "Thoth and the goddess Maat have laid down thy course for thee daily", the Serpent enemy is cast into the fire, and Ra sails in a Morning Boat and an Evening Boat (Budge Lit. ch. IV).
Herodotus never writes the name Ra. He lists "the festival of the sun at Heliopolis" among the six great Egyptian assemblies (Hdt. 2.59.3), calls the people of Heliopolis "the most learned of the Egyptians" (Hdt. 2.3.1), and tells how the phoenix carries its dead father in an egg of myrrh "to the temple of the Sun" once in five hundred years (Hdt. 2.73.1–4).
Plutarch likewise speaks of "the Sun" without the Egyptian name: the Sun curses Rhea so that she may bear no child in any month or year (Plut. Is. 12); the Egyptians offer incense to the Sun three times a day; "some ... assert that Osiris is the Sun", while "no one should listen for a moment to those who make Typhon to be the Sun" (Plut. Is. 52).
Questions answered
- What are the three forms of Ra (Khepera, Ra and Tem)?
- The Legend of Ra and Isis opens with the titles of Ra, "the self-created god", creator of heaven, earth, breath of life, gods, men, beasts and fish, "the King of gods and men", whose "manifold names are unknown even by the gods"; Ra himself says "I am Khepera in the morning, Ra at noon, and Temu in the evening", and that his father and mother hid his name in his body so that no spell could master him (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Ra and Isis). source
- How did Isis learn the secret name of Ra?
- Isis, who "knew words of power", made a serpent from Ra's spittle kneaded with dust and laid it on his path; the aged god was bitten, "the living fire leaving his body", and only when he let his name pass from his body into hers did she speak the spell "Flow poison, come out of Ra ... Ra liveth! The poison dieth!" (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Ra and Isis, from the Turin papyrus). source
- Why did Ra try to destroy mankind?
- In the Destruction of Mankind (tomb of Seti I) men murmur that "His Majesty hath become old. His bones have turned into silver, his flesh into gold, and his hair into real lapis-lazuli"; Ra takes counsel with Nu and the gods in Heliopolis and sends his Eye, Hathor, to slay the blasphemers; afterwards he withdraws from the earth on the back of the cow-goddess Nut, creates Sekhet-hetep and Sekhet-Aaru for the blessed, and appoints Thoth "the representative of Ra in the Other World" (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Destruction of Mankind). source
- Who is Apep, the enemy of Ra?
- Budge reports that at Heliopolis the Creator was "Atem, or Tem, and at a later period Ra", against Ptah at Memphis, Thoth at Hermopolis and Amen at Thebes; the monster Aapep, "the Enemy of Ra", lay in wait for the sun before sunrise, and the Book of overthrowing Aapep was recited in the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes with the burning of wax figures (Budge Lit. ch. VI). source
- Does Herodotus mention Ra?
- Herodotus never writes the name Ra. He lists "the festival of the sun at Heliopolis" among the six great Egyptian assemblies (Hdt. 2.59.3), calls the people of Heliopolis "the most learned of the Egyptians" (Hdt. 2.3.1), and tells how the phoenix carries its dead father in an egg of myrrh "to the temple of the Sun" once in five hundred years (Hdt. 2.73.1–4). source
- Did the Egyptians think Osiris was the sun?
- Plutarch likewise speaks of "the Sun" without the Egyptian name: the Sun curses Rhea so that she may bear no child in any month or year (Plut. Is. 12); the Egyptians offer incense to the Sun three times a day; "some ... assert that Osiris is the Sun", while "no one should listen for a moment to those who make Typhon to be the Sun" (Plut. Is. 52). source