The Destruction of Mankind

The Conspiracy

In the time when Ra still ruled the earth as a living pharaoh, he grew old. His bones became silver, his flesh gold, and his hair lapis lazuli, but his limbs were stiff and his sight was dim. Humanity, seeing their divine king enfeebled, began to murmur against him. They plotted in the desert, away from the Nile, scheming to overthrow the rule of the sun. Word of the conspiracy reached Ra, and he was filled with a cold and ancient fury. He summoned the Ennead in secret council: Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, and Nun himself, the primordial waters from which all things had come. He asked them what should be done about the creatures he had wept into existence, who now repaid his gift of life with treachery.

The Eye of Ra

Nun spoke first. He counseled Ra to send his Eye against mankind. The Eye of Ra was no mere organ of sight; it was an independent force of divine power, a burning aspect of the sun's will that could be detached and sent forth as an instrument of annihilation. Ra agreed. He summoned the Eye and gave it the form of Hathor, the beautiful goddess of love and joy. But the mission required not beauty but violence, and as Hathor descended upon the desert where the conspirators hid, she transformed into Sekhmet, the lioness, whose name means "the Powerful One," whose breath was the hot desert wind, and whose appetite for blood could not be sated.

Sekhmet's Rampage

Sekhmet fell upon humanity with the fury of a desert storm. She waded through the settlements of Upper Egypt, tearing and rending, drinking the blood of the fallen. The fields ran red. The sand turned to crimson mud. She was not merely killing; she was exulting in the slaughter, roaring with satisfaction as she consumed the blood of the guilty and the innocent alike. When night fell, she reported to Ra that the work was good, that she had trodden upon the humans and it was sweet to her heart. Ra looked upon the carnage and was satisfied, but only briefly. By dawn, he saw that Sekhmet would not stop. She would return to the killing fields and would not rest until every human being was dead.

"I have been powerful among humankind, and it is pleasing to my heart."

The Red Beer

Ra repented. He had unleashed a force he could no longer control through command alone, for Sekhmet was the Eye, and the Eye was wild. He devised a stratagem. He sent swift messengers to Elephantine to gather red ochre, and he commanded that seven thousand jars of beer be brewed through the night. The servants mixed the ochre into the beer until it gleamed red as fresh blood, and in the darkness before dawn, they poured the crimson beer across the fields where Sekhmet would hunt. When the lioness arrived with the first light, she saw what she believed to be a vast lake of blood. She drank, and drank again, and drank until she was drunk beyond all reckoning. She staggered and smiled and forgot her rage. She returned to Ra as Hathor, gentle and beautiful once more.

Ra's Withdrawal

But Ra was weary. The rebellion of his own creation had wounded him in ways that the passage of ages could not heal. He declared that he would no longer dwell among humankind. He mounted the back of Nut, who transformed into the great celestial cow, and she carried him up into the heavens. From that height, he established the stars and the fields of paradise. He appointed Thoth as his deputy on earth, giving the ibis-headed god the moon to illuminate the night in Ra's absence. Humanity was left to govern itself under the guidance of mortal pharaohs who bore the divine spark but were no longer gods walking among men. The age of gods ruling on earth was ended. The age of humans had begun.