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Ra (sometimes spelled Re) is the sun-god of Heliopolis in
ancient Egypt. Ra originally meant "mouth" in the
Egyptian language, and was a reference to his creation of
the deities of the Ogdoad system,
excluding the 8 concepts which created him, by the power of
speech (compare how Yahweh was said to have created the world).
In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the
god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many
variant spellings).
The sun is either the entire body of Ra, or just his eye.
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.
Deity Status
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. 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. Also in later times,
Ra 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-Harakhty, which means
Ra, Horus of the two horizons.
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. He also
was worshiped along with Queenstephofk
Solar Barge
In order to pass through Duat (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, i.e. order, the antithesis of
chaos, that guided the course of the boat. At the helm of
the boat stood Thoth, representative of the moon, who symbolically
stood next to Horus, who, in early egyptian myth, represented
the sky, and whose dark eye was the moon. It was Horus who
steered.
Many of the other gods travelled in the boat with them, and
one of them, possibly with the assistant Mehen
(who may instead simply be nothing more than a boardgame),
defended the boat from attack by the monster of darkness,
who wished to devour Ra. In early mythology, it was Set who
was the hero defending the boat, and Apep
who was the attacker, but in later myth, after Set became
regarded as evil, it was Thoth who
defended and Set who was the demon. Temporary failure to protect
Ra was said to be the cause of solar eclipses, and mere difficulty
in doing so was said to cause bad weather.
Hathor and Ra
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.
Gods and Goddesses
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