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Myths of the IJnderworld

According to Egyptian myth, the sun god Re passes through the underworid on a twelve-hour journey every night. sailing in his solar barque. In the course of this time he provides fertile land for the gods of agriculture; revitalizes the underworld god Osiris; encounters the g<xl of wisdom, Thoth. in the guise of a baboon and holding a sacred ibis; and confronts the demonie god Apophis. who is subjugated but never destroyed.

In the Eighth Hour the enemies of Re are overcome by magical weapons. In the Tenth, the symbok of his emergence at the start of a new day appear - the scarab beellc holds an egg from which Re will emerge at sunrise, and sun dises also become visible. Twelve guardian deities go l>efore him to check the safety of the eastern horizon. Eventually. at the Twelfth Hour. Re emerges. sailing up the legs of the creator goddess Nut to begin his daytime journey.