Ra

Caveat: I don't represent myself as a scholar in the area of Egyptian mythology. I'm merely a writer putting my graduate school research skills to good use.

The Egyptian gods are different than the pantheons of the Norse and Greek gods. Norse and Greek mythology tend to be about personalities and characters. Egyptian mythology has a tendency to be conceptual. This is one of the reasons that Egyptian gods morph easily into other aspects. Some also assume it captures their ability to change and meld into animal forms.

Another reason that Egyptian mythology lacks a through narrative is because it is hypothesized that the Egyptian stories are a blend of several regional theological structures. This seems feasible, given a variety of archaeological findings.

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Ra is considered to be one of the oldest Egyptian gods. In some versions of the creation myth, he is the boy that creates the universe. In other stories he is the direct descendant of the entity that does so. Ra is chief among the gods because of this. He is the ancestor of a core group of Egyptian gods called the Ennead, consisting of Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, and Isis, Nepthys, Osiris and Set.

Besides creating the universe, Ra is considered the god of the sun (in both of his incarnations blended with other gods as Amun-Ra and Re-Horakhty). A couple of stories about Ra will be discussed in entries on Isis and Sekhmet.

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As I am working on the first Klarkon Book The Poison in thy Flesh, Ra will be the first familiar/demon that readers will encounter. His familiar incarnation will be a falcon. With that in mind, I have made an appointment to visit my college's raptor center next Wednesday, and I will also be talking to members of the Iowa Falconer's Association. Lots to learn.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.