Lecture: Egypt The Solar Boat Mandjet

Mandjet boat One of two boats or solar barques that carried the sun god Re across the sky each day. The Mandjet was the morning boat. In the morning, when Re was tired from his nightly ordeal in the Netherworld, he was ferried across the sky in his Mandjet boat,

According to Ancient Egyptian mythology the sun boat was believed to carry the solar god Ra across the heavens. The Sun Boat was a great ship, called the 'Barque of Ages' or "The Boat of a Million Years", in which Ra and his companion gods sailed through the sky giving light and heat to the world and then through the dangerous journey of the night, sailing through the underworld (Duat). The companion gods of Ra helped defend the solar god against the evil serpent Apep, an act that represented the victory of right over wrong. The Sun Boat was also the barge in which the gods traveled between the worlds of earth and heaven. There were many prayers and spells to help the solar god Ra and the other gods in the sun boat overcome Apep the evil serpent. These spells and prayers were incanted by the Egyptian priests and the worshipers at the sun temples.

A hymn to Ra is included in the Papyrus of Ani a Book of the Dead that includes reference to the Matet sun boat and the Sektet sun boat as follows:.

"Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, who risest on the horizon day by day! Shine thou with thy beams of light upon the face of Osiris Ani, who is true of voice; for he singeth hymns of praise unto thee at dawn, and he maketh thee to set at eventide with words of adoration, May the soul of Ani come forth with thee into heaven, may he go forth in the Matet boat, may he come into port in the Sektet boat, and may he cleave his path among the never-resting stars in the heavens.

The companions of the solar god Ra in the sun boat included a variety of different gods, mainly those who featured in the mythology of the collection of nine gods called the Ennead of Heliopolis. The nine solar gods and deities were named Atum (Ra), Geb, Isis, Nephthys, Nut, Osiris, Set, Shu and Tefnut. The gods Horus and Anubis were the sons of Osiris and were part of the extended 'divine family'. A lesser known god called Anti was occasionally depicted on the sun boat. Anti was the 'Guardian of the sunrise', depicted as a Hawk-headed man on a crescent-shaped boat.



Picture of the Sun Boat, surrounded by the giant figure of the goddess Nut "She who protects". Ra is depicted at the front of the sun boat, crowned by the sun disk in the company of gods who featured in the creation myth