The Journey of the Sun through the Netherworld | Ancient Egypt

In ancient times, the occurrence of day and night were believed to be caused by the God of the Sun, Ra (or Re in some books) as he sailed his mighty boat across the sky bringing light in the day until night approached, where he had to go through a 12-hour journey to the Netherworld (the Underworld) meeting his greatest dangers.

Gods that are involved in this mythology:

Ra/Re - God of the Sun

Osiris - God of the Underworld

Seth - God of Chaos

Wepwawet (or Upuaut) - Guider of the Boat

Sia (reads as Sah) - Path-opener (Deity)

Tatenen - A genderless primordial Earth God (Deity)

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Ra is the Sun God and is one of the most revered figures in Egyptian mythology. This god is usually depicted as a being with a man’s body and head of a falcon along with a Sun-disk over his head. He had been the greatest of all gods and was once a splendid ruler of Egypt. As decades went by, time wore him down and finding himself to be too old to rule his kingdom. Therefore, he decided to relinquish the power and went to the skies as one of his duties was to drive away from the darkness. He crossed the skies on his Sun-boat, lighting up the whole world then plunged into the sea waters towards the underworld.

Going through the underworld had Ra pass a total of 12 gates and each of the gates had its dangers awaiting his return. It took one hour to pass between the gates.

The first hour

Ra’s night-boat was filled with a crew of deities, including ‘Path-openers and ’Guide of the Boat. Ra was also accompanied by two sets of nine baboons, In the first hour of the night on his journey, the baboons sang to Ra as he entered the Netherworld and opened the doors for him as well as 12 snake goddesses whose job was to light up the darkness. This first kingdom of the night is called the Watercourse of Ra, and not a whole lot happened here other than a long journey of darkness himself.

The second hour

After passing through a huge spiky gate guarded by three huge poison-breathing snakes, Ra sailed on the region of Wernes (or Ur-nes or Ouranos), a kingdom that he granted land rights for the grain gods and dead kings to live in the Underworld. This kingdom was pictured as like the after-parties for the used-to-be kings. Once again, this kingdom brought neither danger nor threats to Ra and his Night-boat.

The third hour

This is the hour where Ra met Osiris, God of the Underworld (who was also once the ruler of Egypt, check article The Death of Osiris). Long story short, after Osiris had to live in the Underworld for eternity, his new duty was to make judgments of the dead with the help of four of Horus’s sons who are in charge of protecting a different set of organs (which their head figures were represented and could be seen on canopy jars in the article How to Mummify).

The fourth hour

At this hour, Ra had reached a long passage that was full of multi-headed snakes.

The fifth hour

Ra passed through a kingdom that is ruled by Seker, a mummified falcon god whose job is to punish people by dunking them in a boiling lake. This kingdom is also filled with couples of sphinxes and more snakes!

The sixth hour

Ra passed through a mysterious kingdom of Osiris’s as there is a bunch of unknown gods on the banks of the river, a huge lion spotted, and three shrines whose purposes were still unknown.

The seventh hour

This is the kingdom that Ra had to face his most prominent danger, Apophis, the ludicrously giant serpent whose ‘life goal’ is to eat Ra and his Night-boat.

With the help of some other gods, Ra’s boat had managed to defeat it. However, there were times that Apophis managed to gulp Ra’s boat, putting an end to the sunlight in the morning but regurgitated it out as it couldn’t bear the heat of the Sun. This event was marked as a solar eclipse.

The eight hour

Ra had to pass across the banks of a river where dead gods called out to him. His boat was escorted by four rams, which collectively represent Tatenen, a genderless primordial earth god.

The ninth hour

Unlike other miserable and dreadful hours, this one has Ra passed through a bright and cheerful land where the dead went to receive offerings from the living.

The tenth hour

Quite similar to the previous hour, this one deals with the residents of the underworld coming down to the river to greet Ra and his boat.

The eleventh hour

A bit return to underworld form in that it’s rather less cheery than hours 9 and 10, the boat was towed by a snake. The whole area is red-lit and kind of dismal because this is where bad people are tormented in fire pits by monstrous fire-breathing goddesses.

The final hour, the twelve

This is the hour where dawn finally breaks in. Ra and his boat sailed out of this last gate into a brand new day. Hence, a new day is born.

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This myth has told the Ancient Egyptians about the strength, the devotion and the agony of a great god like Ra in meeting peace for the sake of the people. The sunlight he provided in broad day light for agriculture and such, and went through hell at night as his people fell in deep snore. This was the main reason for the ancients to worship him as the centre of all gods for good centuries. The mighty of all as we could say, Ra, the God of the Sun stays reign above all Gods.

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IskandarSL