ABSTRACT
Ra The first appearance of this Egyptian sun god is as the grandson of Rat† and son of Nut† over whose arched back he travelled each day, dying at dusk as an old man, and being reborn at dawn. At a later stage in religious development he superseded his grandmother and was depicted as sailing the skies in his celestial boat by day, and as combating the powers of evil in the Tuat by night. He is also associated with an early catastrophe legend in which he was a ruler who sent forth Hathor† and Sekhmet† to destroy his rebellious subjects, but after they had partially done so and were wading in their blood, he repented and caused the goddesses to become intoxicated and cease from slaughter; he then withdrew to the Tuat, or Fields of Peace.
