Footenotes: Ra: Horus of Two Horizons

Foote · November 21, 2013, 9:51pm

Egyptian mythology is all over the place. Depending on the particular dynasty you look at, the worshiped Gods and mythos undergo a lot of changes. But I was interested in learning more about the character of Ra. To do that, I figured I needed to unpack the meaning behind the Ra promo card Horus of Two Horizons. Or, more affectionatly, BEARD RA.

If one thing become clear, and subsequently confusing, it is that are many different connections between Ra, Atum, and Horus and how they all kinda became the same thing but not really.

There are some myths about legendary battles between Horus and Set, where Horus represents upper and Set represents lower Egypt, and when Horus won, the country was united. Some theories hold that this myth was a historical alagory, that the cult worshipers of Set (mostly located in lower Egypt at the time) had some major fighting with the cult of Horus and that the cultists worshiping Horus won, leading to Set evolving more into a villainous god of destruction and storm (a bad guy) while Horus went on to be widely worshiped as a symbol of kingship and the Pharaoh (a good guy). Talk about history being written by the winners huh?

Worship of Ra seems to trace back to the 2nd Egyptian Dynasty when Upper and Lower Egypt unified under a single king/pharoh/rulery-thing. By the begining of the 5th Dynasty the cult of Ra was at its peak. Because Ra was worshiped as the creator god and also tied closley to the Pharoh, Ra and Horus became linked and merged into a composite diety Ra-Horakhty. Which translates roughly to...wait for it..."Ra (is) Horus of Two Horizons".

Ra had competition for the title of sun god and creator god around the 11th Dynasty. That competition came in the form of the worshipers of Atum. Atum is linked with the Sun as well, but maybe in a different context. Atum represented the setting sun, while Ra was the rising sun (later Ra represented the travel of the sun from the eastern horizon to the western horizon). Atum was the father of the Ennead (the Greek word for Nine) and worship of him took prominance over Ra for a long time. It wasn't until a small pocket of Ra-lovers became very wealthy and pretty much changed it back to Ra-centrism, though for a while Ra and Atum were also merged into a composite diety known as Ra-Atum (or Atum-Ra depending on who you ask).

Two Horizons is a reference to the rising and setting sun as well as serving an allegory to Upper and Lower Egypt. What does that mean for the Ra we know and love in the SotM universe? I have no idea! Maybe its the inner tension between Dr Washington and the diety inside. Maybe it's just reaffirming Ra's rightfull place as the king of the Egyptian Pantheon.

Beard Ra's incap side shows Set pretty much dominating Ra and his awesome beard. Set holds a rather nasty grudge against Horus as we have seen. There is a story where Ra undergoes a 12 hour journey, dieing in the 5th hour and resurecting in the 12th. In SotM, the Ennead defeat Ra, sending him into the desert alone not to be heard from again for years. Sounds similar to the popular 12 hour journey myth for Ra. If Ra came back in some sort of figurative/literal rebirth as Ra-Horakhty, it makes a lot of sense that Set would be the one to extract his revenge.

Hope you enjoyed that. Leave any corrections, observations, or general comments below!

phantaskippy · November 22, 2013, 12:19am

"I'm Ra, Horus of two horizons."

"Beardy man!"

The items of power re-playing their history is a really cool theme, like the spirit within the item cannot help but fall into old stories.

It gives a sort of fatalism to the character, Washington would realize what was happening, yet he is stripped out of his own body. I find it interesting that he doesn't even know he is Ra when he recovers.

Kind of an Egyptian Paul Atreides returning from the desert.

I wonder if it is still Ra, or if, as the kickstarter intro said, there is something more there.

Jettosan · November 22, 2013, 4:27pm

Makes me wonder- is Horus of Two Horizon actually still Dr Washington? Or maybe he died at 5th hour (or whatever it represents in SotM) and someone else took the staff to become his successor. Someone... who had a really nice beard indeed ;)

Foote · November 22, 2013, 4:50pm

The bio makes it sound like the personality/conciousness of Dr. Washington has been swallowed by the diety inside. He certainly underwent some kind of figurative transformation/rebirth while exiled in the desert. The parrallel to that and the real myth of Ra's 12 hour journey is pretty clear when looking at it.

It could be seen that Dr. Washington ceases to exist in that figurative 5th hour. In the real myth, the 5th hour sees Ra's death (as the sun passes the western horizon, which represents Ra's journey to the Underworld as the sun sets). The 12th hour has the sun rising in the east representing the rebirth of Ra, and is also the name of Beard Ra's innate power: Sunrise.

It would be interesting to know if Dr. Washington exists at all post rebirth, or if Ra-Horakhty has taken full control at this point.

Christopher · November 22, 2013, 5:20pm

Ra: Horus of Two Horizons is still Dr. Blake Washington Jr.

phantaskippy · November 22, 2013, 6:05pm

Christopher, you should do a safe auto commercial.

You give the least coverage possible with your answers. That said I love it and keep up the good work.

The original Kickstarter introduction:

The fight with The Ennead left Ra stunned and shattered. He could not remember who he was, nor that there was a part of him that used to be Dr. Blake Washington, Jr. The being formerly known as Ra wandered into the desert, disappearing from the public eye entirely for years.

leads one to believe that he lost all of his identity, he wanders off not knowing he is Ra or Dr. Washington.

Now, years later, The Ennead are met with a new challenger who reminds them of an ancient foe they once had. Ra has returned from his wandering, but he seems something more...

That "something more. . ." intrigues me, obviously it could refer to the union of Horus and Ra, who are so closely linked in some myth but not as much in others, it just gets confusing to try and sort it out. The problem with trying to tie down anything through Egyptian Myth is there was so much of it, and none of it was ever really standardized, or at least as far as I am aware. (compared to say Jewish and Chritian Myth that has tons of differing stories, but do have a general guideline for what is cannon)

Foote · November 22, 2013, 6:23pm

How about this:

Just as Ra and Horus were combined into a single diety in ancient Egypt, maybe Dr Washington and Ra have "fused" as well? Sorta like Bruce Baner taking control over his Hulk consciousness/body and transcending into something different than we were used to.

Just a thought.

Phantom5613 · November 22, 2013, 8:56pm

Darnit Foote, that was my theory.

Well, I guess it's true that great minds think alike.

Pydro · November 22, 2013, 9:14pm

Did you just say that Ra was like Yu-Gi-Oh?

Foote · November 22, 2013, 10:07pm

Unfortunatly, past the first US cartoon seriers that I watched as kid, I know very little of Yu-Gi-Oh. Context?

Jettosan · November 22, 2013, 10:59pm

Basically- ancient entity sealed in an artifact (in this case- Staff of Ra) who can take over his hosts body. And honestly, Yu-Gi-Oh is a bad example.

Foote · November 22, 2013, 11:11pm

Yeah I think it's very similar, so that was a pretty good example imo.

Envisioner · November 23, 2013, 7:19am

That trope is hardly uncommon.

Ameena · November 23, 2013, 3:00pm

Although…whenever an ancient being comes out of some kind of artifact and takes over someone else's body this is usually seen as a bad thing. Yet Ra is one of the heroes - I haven't read the detailed backstory on the site so I don't actually know why everyone (including Blake himself) is okay with some archaeology professor being taken over by an ancient Egyptian god (when it's clearly not okay that the same thing happened with the Ennead, apart from the fact that their hunger for power, or whatever, is what makes them bad guys).

Drakossozh · November 23, 2013, 3:35pm