God Ra in the Egyptian pantheon occupied a special place.This is understandable: the southern country, constantly burning sun over his head ... The other gods and bozhenyata perform their specific functions, and only a beneficent god Ra covered the entire earth, making no distinction between rich and poor, pharaohs and slaves, men and animals.
According to the Egyptians, Ra never born, it has always existed.He stood over the other gods, as something like the inverse image of one god, who found later expression in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.But it seems that the idea was in the minds of monotheism in ancient Egypt.No wonder the eighteenth dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep fourth, trying to get rid of the dictates of the many priests of different cults (the most influential of which were the priests of Ra), introduced the worship of the god Aten, or solar disc, rejecting all other gods.In essence, the new sun god, Aton, differed little from the old solar cult - Amon-Ra.Is that what the new priests were completely under the control of Amenhotep, who took the name Akhenaten new, which means "pleasing to the god Aten."
But the idea of monotheism, which found an echo in the minds of the mental elite (unattached portion of the priests, intellectuals and close Akhenaten) was not supported by broad layers of the population uneducated ancient Egyptian kingdom.The cult of Aton did not become widespread.Inertia millennial religious attitude was stronger intellectual delights of the Egyptian elite.According to many historians, Akhenaten was killed in a conspiracy, and everything returned to normal.God Ra was in the list of the most revered Egyptian deities.
religious center of the solar deity was Heliopolis, which in Greek means city of the sun or Solntsegrad.Under this name the town featured in many historical studies, but now, the Egyptian name of the center was Iunu.Greeks from the time of the conquests of Alexander the Great had a great influence on the life of Egypt.Egyptian god Ra in their consciousness was identified with the Greek Helios.Without further ado, the invaders simply renamed the Egyptian city of Heliopolis Iunu into Greek.
Cult Ra existed for a long time.Its foundation was laid in ancient kingdom - in the first half of the third millennium BC.God Ra was the first one of many Egyptian gods.But later the efforts of the priests to assist in the enthronement of the founder of the Fifth Dynasty, and his cult had risen to dominate other more than two thousand years.The priests of Ra, without being dogmatic finished, allow a sort of "symbiosis" with their God less important deities of different areas of Egypt.Thus, in Elephantine, he was named Khnum-Ra, Thebes - Amon-Ra.This helps minimize the possibility of a local religious separatism.
After hoplites of Alexander the Great without a fight went to Egypt, began the decline of traditional religion.No, the Greeks did not pursue the worshipers of Ra.Just old time religion passed.Fewer people believe in the old gods, temples gradually fell into decay, and with the advent of Christianity, the sun god Ra was completely forgotten.By the fifth century AD the Egyptians even forgotten the letter, which first wrote hymns to the gods.But the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system by the time consisted of three and a half thousand years!
And only in the early nineteenth century, thanks to the efforts we are brilliant linguist Francois Champollion discovered the modern Egyptian history of mankind, which was previously known only terse comments on Egypt's neighbors - Greeks, Romans, Persians and Arabs.
