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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
When i was on the beach in a cloudy day I saw the ray of sun sneaking between clouds with a little reflection on the water. Immediately I remembered Ra 'Amun-Ra; reconstructed as *ri:ʕu) an ancient Egyptian sun god. He is a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion by the fifth dynasty. Identified primarily with the mid-day sun, the chief cult centre of Ra first was based in Heliopolis (ancient Inunu) meaning "City of the Sun". In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many variant spellings). He commanded sky, earth, underworld. He was associated with the falcon. Pharaohs were considered to be the children of the sun god Ra.
According to E. A. Wallis Budge he was the one god of Egyptian monotheism, of which all other deities were aspects, manifestations, phases, or forms of this deity. Ra itself, however, was also a monotheistic god. A Hymn to Ra (approx. 1370s BC) was written to stress the pantheistic nature of Ra to combat encroaching polytheism. In it, several deities are described, not as beings in their own right, but certain forms of Ra. For example: "Praise be unto thee, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the habitations of Ament, behold body is Atum."
"Praise be unto thee, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the hidden palace of Anubis, behold body is Khepera."
Ra is most commonly pronounced 'rah'. It is more likely, however, that it should be pronounced as 'rei', hence the alternative spelling Re rather than Ra. It is not known for sure what Ra's name means, but it is thought it may be a variant of or linked to 'creative', if not an original word for 'sun'. As his cult arose in the Egyptian pantheon, Ra often replaces Atum as the father, grandfather and great-grandfather of the deities of the Ennead, and becomes the creator of the world. Ra then was seen to have created Sekhmet, who becomes Hathor, the cow goddess, after she has sufficiently punished mankind as an avenging Eye of Ra, and so he is often said to be the father of both and brother to the god, Osiris. Nearly all forms of life were supposedly created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret name. Eventually, humans were created from Ra's tears or sweat, leading to the Egyptians calling themselves the "Cattle of Ra". |
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