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Ra (sometimes spelled Re) is the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt. From the fifth dynasty (ca. 2400 BC) onward he was elevated to the status of a national deity, and much later was combined with the Theban god Amun to become Amun-Ra, the foremost deity of the Egyptian pantheon. Amon-Ra's identity with Zeus or Jupiter was acknowledged by the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks even gave the name Diospolis, City of Zeus, to Thebes. He remained paramount for centuries except for a brief suspension during the time of Akhenaten (1350-1334 BC) when monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun disk itself, was imposed on the kingdom of Egypt.
The sun is either the entire body of Ra, or just his eye. In later times, when the earth god Atum evolved into a god of the setting sun, Atum became considered an aspect of Ra. Khepri, the less important god who pushed the sun across the sky each day, eventually was also absorbed into Ra, as the centuries wore on, becoming the aspect of Ra that is the rising sun. In later times, he was associated with Heryshaf. Eventually, as another sun-god, Horus, gained more importance, Ra himself was subsumed into just being an aspect of Horus, as Re-Harachte, which means Ra, Horus of the two horizons.
In order to pass through the underworld each night, so that he might rise in the morning, the fiery Ra was compelled to use a boat to avoid being extinguished by the waters. It was Maat that guided the course of the boat, standing next to Horus, who steered, with Thoth on the other side of Horus. Many of the other gods travelled in the boat with them, and Set (or in some versions, Thoth), and his assistant Mehen, defended the boat from attack by the monster Apep (representing darkness), who wished to devour Ra. Temporary failure to protect Ra was said to be the cause of solar eclipses, and difficulty in doing so was said to cause bad weather.
The symbols of Ra are the solar symbols of a golden disk or the symbol ⊙ (Circle with a point at its centre). He was also associated with the Phoenix, as he rose again each night in flames.
In a varying myth, Hathor and Ra (or Tefnut and Shu) once argued, and she left Egypt. Ra (or Shu) quickly decided he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventually succeeds in convincing her to return.
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