By Olivia Santiago
RaWas the sun godHe had the head of falcon and sundisk in his head
Ra was the God of the Sun. He sailed across the heavens in a boat calledthe 'Barque of Millions of Years'. At the end of each day Ra was thoughtto die and sailed on his night voyage through the Underworld, leavingthe Moon to light the world above. The boat would sail through thetwelve doors, representing the twelve hours of night-time. The nextdawn, he was born again.It was not always smooth sailing. During theday Ra had to fight his chief enemy, a snake called Apep. He was helpedby the other gods, such as Seth and Bastet. The sun disk on Ra's headoften has a cobra round it. A cobra appears on the forehead ofPharaohs, like Tutankhamun. Ra was the greatest of the gods and hekept his power in his secret name, which only he knew. He had startedto grow old, and sometimes he dribbled. Isis collected some of his salivaand made it into a snake. She hid the snake where Ra would walk. WhenRa trod on it, it bit him, and Ra screamed in pain. All the gods gatheredround, but none could heal him. Isis said "If you tell me your secretname, this will give me enough magic power to heal you." Ra didn'twant to do this, but eventually the pain was so bad that he had to. Isishealed him, and ever since then she has the magic powers that Ra had.
Hathor - the Goddess of love,music, dancecow horns and sundisk on head Sekhmet - the Goddess of the sunwoman with lion's head head
Hathor was the goddess of joy, motherhood, and love. Shelooked after all women. She was the goddess of music anddancing, as well. Dead women were identified with Hathor, asmen were identified with Osiris. She has a sun disk on her headand cow horns. Sometimes she had cow's ears or was a wholecow. But she had another side as well, as Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra,the destructive Sun Goddess. The Egyptians knew that the Sunbrought life, but they also knew that the desert Sun could killyou. Ra, the Sun God, was angry with mankind, because theylaughed at him. He said that he'd send down his anger asSekhmet, the Eye of Ra. She went down to Earth, killing men,and drinking their blood. She started to frighten Ra, who onlywanted to punish Mankind, not destroy them all. So he dyedsome beer red, to look like blood. When Sekhmet saw the beer,she was thristy for blood, so she drank it all, got drunk and wentto sleep. When she woke up, Ra persuaded her to stop killingMankind.
Nut - the Sky Goddessblue with golden stars Geb - the Earth Godcolour of plants and fertile Nile mud
The sky is Nut's body, arching from horizon to horizon. Geb isthe Earth, lying beneath her. During the day, Nut and Geb areseparated, but each evening Nut comes down to meet Geband this causes darkness. If storms came during the day, itwas believed that Nut had come closer to the earth. Nut wasmarried to the King of the Gods, Ra, but she was in love withGeb. When Ra found out, he was angry and said that Nutcould not give birth to any children during the 360 days of theyear. Nut was unhappy and asked the God of Wisdom, Thoth,to help. At this time, the Moon was as bright as the Sun.Thoth got some light from the Moon, so now the Moon getsbigger and smaller each month. With this light, Thoth madefive new days, so now the year is 365 days long. Nut gavebirth to her five children, on these five days. When Osiris, theoldest, was born, a loud voice said "The lord of all the earth isborn." Seth, his brother, was born hating Osiris.
Osiris - God of the Deaddressed in white with crook andflail and white crown
Osiris is shown as a man with a beard wearing white mummy wrappings.His crown is the white crown of Upper Egypt surrounded by redfeathers. His skin is green to represent vegetation. He holds the symbolsof supreme power, the flail and crook. The crook is used by shepherds tocatch their sheep. The flail is used in threshing, to separate the grainsfrom the outer husks. Osiris was the God of the Dead. You would expectthat such a god would be gloomy or even evil, but the Egyptians thoughtabout death a lot. They mummified their dead and buried them withtheir belongings so they could enjoy themselves in the afterlife. Osirisruled over the Egyptians and taught them farming. His brother Seth hadalways hated him, and wanted to kill him. Seth made a beautiful box,like a coffin, made to the exact measurements of Osiris. Then Sethinvited Osiris and other people to a great feast. When everyone hadfinished eating, Seth displayed the box, and said that he'd give it toanyone who fitted inside. Everyone tried, but only Osiris fitted. While hewas still inside, Seth and his friends quickly slammed on the lid andthrew the box in the Nile river.
Seth - God of the desert, storm andviolenceanimal head with long curvedpointed snout
Seth (or Set) is shown with an animal's head with a long curved pointed snout, slantingeyes, and square-tipped ears. Sometimes he has a forked tail. No-one seems to knowwhat the animal is. Aardvark, antelope, camel, fennec, giraffe, greyhound, jackal,jerboa, long-snouted mouse, okapi, oryx and pig have all been suggested! Seth was theGod of the desert, storm and violence, which are all enemies of the fertile, properous,narrow valley of the Nile. Seth carries a sceptre, which has his head on top and his tailat the other end. Several other gods seem to carry this sceptre as well.Seth was notalways bad. He helped Ra fight the snake Apep. Seth had killed Osiris by tricking himinto a coffin, which he threw into the Nile. When Osiris' wife Isis heard about this, shestarted searching desperately for her husband's body, to bury it properly. She askedeveryone she met and finally some children told her where it was. Isis mourned for herdead husband. Then she hid the body, while she went back to look after her sonHorus, still a baby. Seth was terrified that Isis might be able to bring Osiris back fromthe dead, since she was a great magician. So Seth found where she had hidden thebody and cut it into pieces, which he scattered up and down the Nile. Now Isis had tofind all the scattered pieces of Osiris. Whenever she found a piece, she buried it thereand built a shrine. This means that there are lots of places in Egypt where Osiris wasburied! Osiris himself became the King of the Dead, and all Egyptians hoped theywould join him after death.
Horus - Son of Osirisa hawk, or a man with a hawk'shead crowned with the crown of allEgypt