The sun-god Ra.
The obelisk was erected in honor of the sun in all its phases, both when rising and when about to set. The pyramids, on the other hand, symbolizing the sun after it had set, were always built in the region of darkness and death on the western bank of the Nile, and had only to do with Tum, the setting sun. Here, in the domain of Tum, the bodies of the departed were to rest securely until the light of an eternal morning should wake them again and endow them with the splendor of the rising sun, which also set in the west, entered the lower regions and bowels of the earth or Hades (the Egyptian
The sun-god Tum.
| Kheper, the night-sun: winter solstice. | Ra-Hor-Khuti, the morning-sun: vernal equinox. |
| Tum, the evening-sun: autumnal equinox. | Horus, the noon-sun: summer solstice. |
The various phases of the sun in its passage over the heavens are even represented by pictures on the monuments. The sun of morning is pictured as a hawk-faced deity (Horus) crowned with the snake-encircled disk of the sun, called Rā-Hor-Khuti; the sun of noon as the same deity wearing the double crown of Egypt, called Hor or Hor-Khuti; the sun of evening as a human-faced deity with the double crown of Egypt, called Tum or Atum; and the invisible sun of night as a human-faced deity with the sacred scarab above it, called Kheper or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. These four deities also represented the beginning of the four seasons of the year: the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice. Some other names and forms under which the sun was worshiped are, besides the above, Amen-Rā (in Thebes), Sebek-Rā (in Ombos), and Khnum-Rā (in Elephantine).
| Sebek-Ra. | Khnum-Ra. |
All this proves the vast and supreme importance attached to the sun by the ancient Egyptians. But why should they have selected the sun as their principal deity? All the pictures, in which the sun or the sun-god is represented, give us the answer. On them it will be noticed that each deity holds in one of its hands the sign