Atet

Atet
The boat of the sun
The solar boat Atet
Symbol	boat

The Atet (Ancient Egyptian: ꜥḏt) was the solar barge of the sun god Ra in the mythology of the ancient Egyptians. It was also known as the Mandjet (Ancient Egyptian: mꜥnḏt), the Boat of Millions of Years (Ancient Egyptian: wjꜣ-n-ḥḥw), and, during the night, as the Mesektet (Ancient Egyptian: msktt).

Ra—variously conflated with other solar gods such as Amun and Hathor—was said to travel through the sky on the barge, providing light to the world. Each twelfth of his journey formed one of the twelve Egyptian hours of the day, each overseen by a protective deity. Ra then rode the Atet through the underworld, with each hour of the night considered a gate overseen by twelve more protective deities. Passing through all of these while fending off various destructive monsters, Ra reappeared each day on the eastern horizon.

The progress of Ra upon the Atet was sometimes conceived as his daily growth, decline, death, and resurrection and it appears in the symbology of Egyptian mortuary texts.

In other media

Ra's ship appears in the 2016 film Gods of Egypt. In the film, the ship appears as a seafaring ship that drags the Sun across the sky.

See also

• Khufu ship