<P> Similar scenes appear in many post-New Kingdom temples, but this time the events they depict involve the gods alone . In this period, most temples were dedicated to a mythical family of deities, usually a father, mother, and son . In these versions of the story, the birth is that of the son in each triad . Each of these child gods is the heir to the throne, who will restore stability to the country . This shift in focus from the human king to the gods who are associated with him reflects a decline in the status of the pharaoh in the late stages of Egyptian history . </P> <P> Ra's movements through the sky and the Duat are not fully narrated in Egyptian sources, although funerary texts like the Amduat, Book of Gates, and Book of Caverns relate the nighttime half of the journey in sequences of vignettes . This journey is key to Ra's nature and to the sustenance of all life . </P> <P> In traveling across the sky, Ra brings light to the earth, sustaining all things that live there . He reaches the peak of his strength at noon and then ages and weakens as he moves toward sunset . In the evening, Ra takes the form of Atum, the creator god, oldest of all things in the world . According to early Egyptian texts, at the end of the day he spits out all the other deities, whom he devoured at sunrise . Here they represent the stars, and the story explains why the stars are visible at night and seemingly absent during the day . </P> <P> At sunset Ra passes through the akhet, the horizon, in the west . At times the horizon is described as a gate or door that leads to the Duat . At others, the sky goddess Nut is said to swallow the sun god, so that his journey through the Duat is likened to a journey through her body . In funerary texts, the Duat and the deities in it are portrayed in elaborate, detailed, and widely varying imagery . These images are symbolic of the awesome and enigmatic nature of the Duat, where both the gods and the dead are renewed by contact with the original powers of creation . Indeed, although Egyptian texts avoid saying it explicitly, Ra's entry into the Duat is seen as his death . </P>

List of all the gods in ancient egypt