Shrine of Ra
Ra
Ra was the god of the sun during dynastic Ta-mera; the name is thought to have meant "creative power," and, as a proper name, "Creator." Very early in Ta-meran history, Ra was identified with Heru, who as a hawk or falon-god represented the loftiness of the skies. Ra is represented either as a hawk-headed man or as a hawk. In order to travel through the waters of the heavens and the Underworld, Ra was depicted as traveling in a boat.
In dynastic Ta-mera, Ra's center of worship was Annu (Heliopolis). In Dynasty 5, the first king, Userkaf, was also Ra's high priest, and he added the term Sa-Ra ("Son of Ra") to the titles of the pharaohs.
Ra is the father of Shu and Tefnut; grandfather of Nut and Geb; great-grandfather of Asar, Ast, Nebt-het, and Set; and great-great-grandfather to Heru.
In later periods (about Dynasty 18 on) Asar and Ast superceded him in popularity, but he remained Ra netjer-aa neb-pet ("Ra, the great God, Lord of Heaven") whether worshiped in his own right or, in later times, as one aspect of the Lord of the Universe, Amen-Ra.
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Amun's name is first recorded in Egyptian records as imn, meaning "The hidden (one)". Since vowels were not written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptologists have reconstructed the name to have been pronounced *Yamānu (yah-maa-nuh) originally. The name survives into the Coptic language as Amoun.
Gradually, as god of air, he came to be associated with the breath of life, which created the ba, particularly in Thebes. By the First Intermediate Period this had led to him being thought of, in these areas, as the creator god, titled father of the gods, preceding the Ogdoad, although also part of it. As he became more significant, he was assigned a wife (Amunet being his own female aspect, more than a distinct wife), and since he was the creator, his wife was considered the divine mother from which the cosmos emerged, who in the areas where Amun was worshipped was, by this time, Mut.
Amun became depicted in human form, seated on a throne, wearing on his head a plain deep circlet from which rise two straight parallel plumes, possibly symbolic of the tail feathers of a bird, a reference to his earlier status as a wind god.
Having become more important than Menthu, the local war god of Thebes, Menthu's authority became said to exist because he was the son of Amun. However, as Mut was infertile, it was believed that she, and thus Amun, had adopted Menthu instead. In later years, due to the shape of a pool outside the sacred temple of Mut at Thebes, Menthu was replaced, as their adopted son, by Chons, the moon god.
When the armies of the Eighteenth dynasty evicted the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, Thebes (where the victors were based) became the most important city, and so Amun became nationally important. The Pharaohs attributed all their successful enterprises to Amun, and they lavished their wealth and captured spoil on his temples. And so, when the Greeks reported back on their visits to Egypt, Amun, as king of the gods, became identified by the Greeks with Zeus, and so his consort Mut with Hera.
As the Egyptians considered themselves oppressed during the period of Hyksos rule, the victory under the supreme god Amun, was seen as his championing of the underdog. Consequently, Amun was viewed as upholding the rights to justice of the poor, being titled Vizier of the poor, and aiding those who traveled in his name, as the Protector of the road. Since he upheld Ma'at, those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy, by confessing their sins.
As Amun's cult grew bigger, Amun rapidly became identified with the chief God that was worshipped in other areas, Ra-Herakhty, the merged identities of Ra, and Horus. This identification led to a merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. As Ra had been the father of Shu, and Tefnut, and the remainder of the Ennead, so Amun-Ra was likewise identified as their father.
Ra-Herakhty had been a sun god, and so this became true of Amun-Ra as well, Amun becoming considered the hidden aspect of the sun (e.g. during the night), in contrast to Ra-Herakhty as the visible aspect, since Amun clearly meant the one who is hidden. This complexity over the sun led to a gradual movement towards the support of a more pure form of deity.
"Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands! First One in the Apts, Bull of his mother, first one of his pasture, extended of stride, first one of the Land of the South, Lord of the Nubians, Governor of Punt, Prince of Heaven, Eldest one of Earth, Lord of things which are, establisher of creation, establisher of all creation."
