 | This beautiful piece represents the solar boat of Re (Phre) whose divine symbol is the sun. It was told that Re determines to remove himself from the affairs of men and so raises himself to the vault of heaven. There he travels across the vault of the sky in a great barque - for twelve hours of the day (from horizon to horizon) and twelve hours of the night. It was told that he rises in the morning as a young child, (symbolized in the sculpture as the four-legged ram at the bow ) reaches the fullness of manhood at noon (symbolized by Horus atop the house) and grows old in the evening (perhaps symbolized by the helmsman in the stern of the vessel). At night he is known as Efu Re. Portrayals of Efu Re show him with a ram's head, standing erect inside the cabin and holding the ankh, symbol of life, in his right hand and a staff (of rulership) in his left hand. There, he is protected by the serpent Mehen against attack by another serpent, Apep, who seeks to destroy him. (You will notice the similarity here to the famed Riddle of the Sphinx: "What stands on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon time, and on three legs in the evening." It was told by the Greeks that Odysseus answered the riddle of the Sphinx correctly - his answer was "Man," - whereupon the Sphinx turned to stone. In Egypt, the correct answer would have been "Re," -- it is an example perhaps, of the divergence of the two cultures). |