THE GREAT ATEN

T H E S U N G O D

From earliest times the great cosmopolitan center of Anu (or Annu) the On of the Bible
and the Heliopolis of the Greeks -- the City of the Sun -- was the seat of the worship
of Tem.

Another form of the solar-god, according to Budge, was worshipped in Lower Egypt,
known as Ra, whose name does not seem to be Egyptian and whose origin is unknown --
it may be Asiatic. (!!)

In Anu was the famous Well of the Sun, from which tradition declares that the Virgin
Mary drew water when the Holy Family halted in the city. Fortunately for the story this
well had its source in the inexhaustible waters of Nu, otherwise it might have dried up
during the thirty odd centuries before the Christian era and we might have considered it
a well of wisdom of which the youthful Jesus partook.

This well was the property of the priests of Ra, who became so rich and powerful from
the tribute received from grateful travellers for the watering of their beasts, that they
were able by the VIth dynasty to elevate Ra to the position of over-lord of all the other
gods and from that time Tem, Khepera, Horus became Ra-Tem, Ra-Khepera, Ra-Herakhuti
(Horus of the two horizons) and so on.

Maspero claims that the complex beings (?) resulting from these combinations never
attained to any pronounced individuality, the distinctions referring merely to details of
their functions and attributes.