By Olivia Santiago

RaWas the sun god

He had the head of falcon and sun disk in his head

Ra was the God of the Sun. He sailed across the heavens in a boat called the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and

sailed on his night voyage through the Underworld, leaving the Moon to light the world above. The boat would sail through the twelve doors, representing the

twelve hours of night-time. The next dawn, he was born again.It was not always smooth sailing. During the day Ra had to fight his chief enemy, a snake called

Apep. He was helped by the other gods, such as Seth and Bastet. The sun disk on Ra's head often has a cobra round it. A cobra appears on the forehead of

Pharaohs, like Tutankhamun. Ra was the greatest of the gods and he kept his power in his secret name, which only he knew. He had started to grow old, and

sometimes he dribbled. Isis collected some of his saliva and made it into a snake. She hid the snake where Ra would walk. When Ra trod on it, it bit him, and Ra

screamed in pain. All the gods gathered round, but none could heal him. Isis said "If you tell me your secret name, this will give me enough magic power to heal you." Ra didn't want to do this, but eventually the pain was so bad that he had to. Isis healed him, and ever since then she has the magic powers that Ra had.

Hathor - the Goddess of love, music, dance

cow horns and sundisk on head Sekhmet - the Goddess of the sun

woman with lion's head head

Hathor was the goddess of joy, motherhood, and love. She looked after all women. She was the goddess of music and dancing, as well.

Dead women were identified with Hathor, as men were identified with Osiris. She has a sun disk on her head and cow horns.

Sometimes she had cow's ears or was a whole cow. But she had another side as well, as Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra, the destructive Sun

Goddess. The Egyptians knew that the Sun brought life, but they also knew that the desert Sun could kill you. Ra, the Sun God, was angry with mankind, because they laughed at him. He said that he'd send down his anger as Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra. She went down to Earth, killing men, and drinking their blood. She started to frighten Ra, who

only wanted to punish Mankind, not destroy them all. So he dyed some beer red, to look like blood. When Sekhmet saw the beer, she

was thristy for blood, so she drank it all, got drunk and went to sleep. When she woke up, Ra persuaded her to stop killing Mankind.

Nut - the Sky Goddess blue with golden stars

Geb - the Earth God colour of plants and fertile Nile mud

The sky is Nut's body, arching from horizon to horizon. Geb is the Earth, lying beneath her. During the day, Nut and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms came during the day, it

was believed that Nut had come closer to the earth. Nut was married to the King of the Gods, Ra, but she was in love with

Geb. When Ra found out, he was angry and said that Nut could not give birth to any children during the 360 days of the year. Nut was unhappy and asked the God of Wisdom, Thoth,

to help. At this time, the Moon was as bright as the Sun. Thoth got some light from the Moon, so now the Moon gets bigger and smaller each month. With this light, Thoth made

five new days, so now the year is 365 days long. Nut gave birth to her five children, on these five days. When Osiris, the oldest, was born, a loud voice said "The lord of all the earth is

born." Seth, his brother, was born hating Osiris.

Osiris - God of the Dead dressed in white with crook and

flail and white crown

Osiris is shown as a man with a beard wearing white mummy wrappings. His crown is the white crown of Upper Egypt surrounded by

red feathers. His skin is green to represent vegetation. He holds the symbols of supreme power, the flail and crook. The crook is used by

shepherds to catch their sheep. The flail is used in threshing, to separate the grains from the outer husks. Osiris was the God of the Dead. You would expect that such a god would be gloomy or even evil, but the

Egyptians thought about death a lot. They mummified their dead and buried them with their belongings so they could enjoy themselves in the

afterlife. Osiris ruled over the Egyptians and taught them farming. His brother Seth had always hated him, and wanted to kill him. Seth made a

beautiful box, like a coffin, made to the exact measurements of Osiris. Then Seth invited Osiris and other people to a great feast. When

everyone had finished eating, Seth displayed the box, and said that he'd give it to anyone who fitted inside. Everyone tried, but only Osiris fitted. While he was still inside, Seth and his friends quickly slammed on the lid

and threw the box in the Nile river.

Seth - God of the desert, storm and violence

animal head with long curved pointed snout

Seth (or Set) is shown with an animal's head with a long curved pointed snout, slanting eyes, and square-tipped ears. Sometimes he has a forked tail. No-one seems to know

what the animal is. Aardvark, antelope, camel, fennec, giraffe, greyhound, jackal, jerboa, long-snouted mouse, okapi, oryx and pig have all been suggested! Seth was

the God of the desert, storm and violence, which are all enemies of the fertile, properous, narrow valley of the Nile. Seth carries a sceptre, which has his head on top and his tail at the other end. Several other gods seem to carry this sceptre as well.Seth

was not always bad. He helped Ra fight the snake Apep. Seth had killed Osiris by tricking him into a coffin, which he threw into the Nile. When Osiris' wife Isis heard

about this, she started searching desperately for her husband's body, to bury it properly. She asked everyone she met and finally some children told her where it was.

Isis mourned for her dead husband. Then she hid the body, while she went back to look after her son Horus, still a baby. Seth was terrified that Isis might be able to bring Osiris back from the dead, since she was a great magician. So Seth found where she

had hidden the body and cut it into pieces, which he scattered up and down the Nile. Now Isis had to find all the scattered pieces of Osiris. Whenever she found a piece, she

buried it there and built a shrine. This means that there are lots of places in Egypt where Osiris was buried! Osiris himself became the King of the Dead, and all Egyptians

hoped they would join him after death.

Horus - Son of Osiris a hawk, or a man with a hawk's

head crowned with the crown of all Egypt