Mythology Book

274

ISIS LIVED IN THE FORM

OF A WOMAN, WHO HAD

THE KNOWLEDGE OF

WORDS OF POWER

RA’S SECRET NAME

F

or the Egyptians, a name

was essential to a person’s

being. To erase someone’s

name after death was to destroy

that person in the afterlife. Ra, king

of gods and men, had so many

names that even the gods did not

know them all. Isis, the mistress of

magic, had power over words and

learned the names of all things,

so that she would become as great

as Ra. Eventually, the only name Isis

did not know was Ra’s secret name.

Ra sailed across the sky each

day, and each day he grew old. His

mouth went slack, and his spittle

dribbled to the ground. Isis caught

up Ra’s spittle and shaped it with

some dust into a snake, which she

left in Ra’s path. When he stumbled

over it, the snake bit him, and Ra

fell down with a terrible cry. The

other gods heard him and asked,

“What is wrong?” But Ra could

not reply. The snake’s bite had

taken the fire of life from him,

and his limbs trembled as the

poison surged through his body.

When Ra regained his voice, he

summoned the other gods to him,

and asked for their help. Then Isis,

radiant with power, whose words

could make a man choked to death

live again, offered to cure the sun

god, but said that to do so he would

have to tell her his name. Finally,

in fear of death, Ra released his

secret name from his heart. Using

the name, Isis chanted a spell, the

poison left Ra’s body, and he was

made strong again. ■

IN BRIEF

THEME

Rivalry between gods

SOURCES

Papyrus Turin 1993,

Anonymous, ca. 12 9 5 –118 6 bce;

Papyrus Chester Beatty 11

Anonymous, ca. 12 9 5 –118 6 bce.

SETTING

Ancient Egypt.

KEY FIGURES

Ra The sun god; tricked into

revealing his secret name.

Isis Goddess of magic;

Ra’s sister and wife; her

Egyptian name was Aset

(“Queen of the Throne”).

Isis stands behind Ra as he receives

an offering on this carved stele from

Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period

(ca.10 69 – 664 bce). Ra is identifiable

by the sun disk over his head.

US_274-275_Ra_Secret_Name.indd 274 30/11/17 4:56 pm

275

See also: The creation and the first gods 266–71 ■ The night barque of Ra

272–73 ■ Osiris and the Underworld 276–83

ANCIENT EGYPT AND AFRICA

Isis saves Ra from death

by snake poison, but only as a

ploy to learn his name and so

assume some of the sun god’s

power, which she then passes

to her son, Horus.

Flow out,

poison, and spill to the

ground! By the power of his

name, which has passed from

his heart to mine,

Ra shall live!

Tell me your name.

That is the word of

power that will make

you live.

Be quick, for my eyes

are blurring. I am shaking all over,

and covered in sweat.

I am he who made

heaven and earth. I knitted

together the mountains, and made the

waters. When I open my eyes, it

becomes light, and when I close my

eyes, it becomes dark.

Ra cries out in pain.

What’s

wrong?

Has a serpent

dared to lift its head

against you? I will

drive it away with my

words of power.

Tell me your

name so that I can

heal you.

I have been wounded by

some deadly thing—some thing

that I did not make.

My name will pass from

my body into yours—the name

that I have kept secret since the

dawn of time.

Ra Isis

Amun-Ra

Ra, the sun god, was visible to

the naked eye (especially in

his form as Aten, the disk of

the sun), but the creator god

was also worshipped by the

Egyptians as an unknowable

mystery in the form of Amun,

the hidden god. Amun was

often fused with Ra as Amun-

Ra. His cult center was at the

great temple of Karnak at

Thebes (now Luxor). Although

the temple’s rituals were the

exclusive preserve of its

priests, who acted in the

king’s name, there is some

evidence that Amun was

regarded as a god to whom

the poor and dispossessed

could plead for help. He is

described in an ancient

Egyptian hymn as “the great

god who listens to prayers,

who comes at the voice of the

poor and distressed, who

gives breath to the wretched.”

Under the merged identity of

Amun-Ra, Amun became the

chief god of the Egyptians,

worshipped as the creator of

all things, who brought

himself into being by saying,

“I am!”—the source and

sustainer of all existence.

US_274-275_Ra_Secret_Name.indd 275 05/12/17 3:00 pm