The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt

by Stephen Quirke

Did the ancient Egyptians believe in many gods, or was it one god in many guises? The answer lies in the special relationship between the sun god Ra and the king, in his central title "Son of Ra." Stephen Quirke draws together recent advances in our understanding of the cult of Ra, from the third millennium BC. to the Roman conquest of Egypt and the rise of Christianity. He explores the Egyptian sources for the character of Ra, his pivotal role in creation, and the way in which the Egyptians expressed the world as physical matter unfurling from the sun. Through select inscriptions and manuscripts the reader enters the closed world of the king as he carried out his principal function, to maintain life itself. With prayer, sacrifices, and the power of knowledge, Pharaoh ensured the smooth passage of the sun hour by hour through the sky. The epicenter of the cult was the temple of Ra at Iunu (the Heliopolis"city of the sun"of the ancient Greeks). All but inaccessible within the urban spread of modern Cairo, the sacred precinct of Iunu formed the greatest religious complex of ancient Egypt. Excavations at the site offer a glimpse of vanished magnificence, echoed in displaced monuments within Egypt and around the globe, and in better-preserved sites inspired by the solar city, such as Karnak and Tanis. Pyramids and obelisks represent the outstanding architectural and engineering achievements of ancient Egypt, and here their precise links to the sun cult are examined. The book closes with an account of Akhenaten, the most exclusive son of Ra, who transformed the Ra cult into the royal worship of the sun-disk, Aten. From this richly rewarding and provocative book we learn just how central the sun and its cult were to ancient kingship and personal belief in the Valley of the Nile. 92 illustrations.

Genres: Egypt, Religion, Egyptology, Nonfiction, History, Archaeology, Egyptian Literature

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cult of Ra by Stephen Quirke is a study of sun worship in Ancient Egypt with a truly impressive scope. Made up of five chapters, it covers the mythological aspects of Ra (or Re), his role in the afterlife, the cult centre at Iunu, monuments with a dedicated solar focus, and the worship of the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.

It was not a quick, absorbing read, but that is not necessarily negative. I felt the need to stop, think and digest the information before moving on. As a resource, The Cult of Ra does that rare thing of coming close to suggesting how the Ancient Egyptians might think or feel about aspects of their society and religion. There were a few things in the text that struck me as particularly enlightening, such as the focus on the divine or "cosmic" view of kingship in Ancient Egypt, the notion that the pyramids might represent the benben stone (mound of creation) and so on.

Quirke writes in a scholarly but accessible manner, but because his writing is so packed with detail, I at least felt the need to take breaks in my reading lest I was overwhelmed. Despite this, I found The Cult of Ra an invaluable and enlightening resource that I would recommend to anyone hoping to understand the mindsets of Ancient Egyptians better.

[Jim Bogue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an erudite and somewhat exhaustive overview of the worship of the sun god (or gods) in ancient Egypt. It chronicles the rise of Amon-Ra, culminating in the reign of Amenhotep III. It postulates that the king became even more of a living divinity than normal.
Then this was sidetracked in the reign of his son, the creative and heretical Akhenaten. A very interesting chapter examines theories on Akhenaten, his family and his new capital.
The study is comprehensive and informative.

[Solomon Selah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice scholarship. However, the author does not grasp the weight of the book's content: on the one hand he wants to highlight the widespread nature of Ra worships in the context of Egyptian society, but some important topics need more explanations (unfortunately, author does not explain fully); on the other hand, he is too detailed in his examination of the archaeological evidence, which rather makes it difficult for readers to grasp the thread.

These two shortcomings rather allow some interesting topics to be simply skipped over, such as the relation between Ra worship and co-regency; the parallel lines (Ra in the heaven and King under the earth).

[Julia Herdman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing.

[DAJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a pantheon where no deity is supreme in all respects, Ra nevertheless stands out. Quirke's book first gives a cursory look at the very extensive mythology surrounding Ra. Then it describes his movements through the underworld, as found in various funerary texts, and the rituals that were performed for the sun's movement throughout the day, for which the main evidence is a series of solar hymns (one for each hour of the day) and some shrines dedicated to Ra at Thebes. Then he examines the scant evidence from Ra's once-great cult center of Heliopolis, for which this book must be the most accessible source, and tentatively reconstructs the lost temple there. The two most iconic Egyptian architectural forms, the pyramid and the obelisk, were both symbols of the sun god, and Quirke describes how they evolved into their familiar shapes. Finally, he looks at the Aten cult. That chapter is a bit of a digression, descending as it does into the confusing evidence of Akhenaten's reign, but Atenism was certainly an outgrowth of Egyptian traditions surrounding Ra. Much more could be said on most of these subjects, but Quirke gives a good outline of each of them.

The book's major flaw is that it says very little about developments after the Atenist interlude, which means one can't get a bead on Ra's significance after the New Kingdom, when he tends to be overshadowed by other gods. Hence, the book is valuable but frustratingly incomplete.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and easy read that covered the breadth of Solar worship across Egypts vast history while being careful to avoid undue speculation and only focusing on evidence present in the current archeological record.