The mythology of the Ancient world is so confusing and multifaceted that it is no longer possible to determine exactly what the ancients believed. Let us turn to such an important character as the Egyptian god of the Sun, because the sun is life, light, and ancient people attached considerable importance to it.
Various sources speak of two different gods of the daylight. One of them, of which the majority has been heard, is Ra, and the second, faded in the shadow of his "colleague," is Gore. Both of them have the title of the god of the Sun, but their images are so intertwined that sometimes the differences between them are not visible. We’ll try to understand what caused this confusion.
Egyptian Sun God - Horus
The sources say that this god appeared much earlier than Ra. Just his image is a man with a falcon head, as well as a sun disc with spread wings of this bird.
Gore was at first a symbol of victory over enemy tribes. At first he became a deity in Upper Egypt, and after the whole of Egypt was conquered, a god with a falconry head began to personify the power of the pharaoh. Horus combined two principles: the earthly, in the form of the pharaoh and the king, and the heavenly, in the form of the lord of heaven and the god of the Sun.
Horus, the sun god in Egyptian mythology, is the son of Isis and Osiris. When the latter was brutally murdered by his brother Seth, Horus fought a battle with him and won, returning his father's throne. After that, he received the great honor of being called the king of all Egypt.
Egyptian Sun God - Ra
He was considered the creator of all things: the universe, life, light. An interesting fact is that he himself created himself from a lotus that appeared on the first stone, which, in turn, arose from primary waters. After that, the Egyptian god of the Sun created air and humidity, from which other gods began to appear, for example, Nuth (the goddess of Heaven) and Geb (the god of the Earth). Subsequently, Ancient Egypt began to emerge. And man appeared from the tears of the god Ra.
Above, only one myth is considered regarding the birth of a given god, but there are a great many of them. In some ways, they are similar, but in some ways completely opposite, because over time one myth overlaps with another, and what was the primary source is almost impossible to find out.
But some stories about the sun god are known to all. For example, about the fact that Ra is floating on the chariot of the heavenly goddess Nut, and at night in the afterlife, he fights with the serpent Apopus, so that morning comes again.
The symbols depicting the god Ra are almost identical to those symbolizing the god Horus. Only in this case, the idea of its specific form is a bit blurry: a falcon, hawk or other large bird.
There is an image where Horus stands on the boat of the god Ra and fights with the enemies of the light, represented in the form of hippos and crocodiles. But the image of Horus nevertheless went by the wayside. It is said that when the power in Egypt changed (namely, a person not from the royal family came to power), myths appeared that it was Ra who was the supreme god of the sun, and Horus was just his son. That is why the images of Ra and Horus are mixed into a single whole.
Other ancient sun gods
- Helios is the personification of the sun god in Ancient Greece. He, like Ra, moved the firmament every day in his chariot drawn by four winged horses. The most positive god - everyone loved him.
- Four gods of the Sun gave life and light in Ancient Russia. Horse, Svetovit, Dzhadbog and Yarilo - from the oldest to the youngest. Horse - The sun of the afterlife, winter and night. Light - The sun of sunset, old age, autumn, evening. Jadbog - The sun of summer, fruit, day, maturity. Yarilo - morning, beginning, spring, youth.