The bright god Ra has many enemies. These are monsters of darkness, snakes lurking in the darkness of gorges or burrowing in underground holes, crocodiles and hippos living in the abyss of water. The sons of Ra protect him from terrible monsters. When Ra rides out on a solar barge, the eldest son Shu stands in front, at the bow. Shu has a long spear in his hands and uses it to pierce crocodiles, his father’s enemies. And the winged Horus, another son of Ra, sparkling with multi-colored feathers, flies in front of his father’s boat and defeats all crocodiles and hippopotamuses.
The huge snake is scary; it arches its long body in large rings, the disgusting spotted monster wriggles and hisses. But Ra turned into a big red cat, he holds a knife in his paw and lies in wait for the snake. Once! Kot-Ra swung his sword, and the serpent's head flew off. The dragon Apep lives deep in the dungeon. Every day Ra sails along the celestial Nile on the day boat Mandzhet and reaches the western mountains in the evening, where the gates of the underworld are located.
Mountain baboons come out to meet the boat and greet Ra, singing songs. Ra boards the night boat Mesektet and sails along the underground Nile in a long and narrow valley with twelve gates located throughout the valley at equal distances from each other. Every hour Ra floats past the gate, and the inhabitants of the underworld come out to him to greet the sun. At midnight, Ra passes the last gate and the terrible battle between Ra and his sworn enemy Apep begins.
Apep is huge - his body is 450 cubits in length. Apep drinks all the water of the underground river to prevent Ra from sailing further to destroy him. All the gods help Ra and pierce every curve of Apophis body with spears. And the defeated Apep spews back all the swallowed water. And Ra sails on the boat again, and the gods praise him: Strong is Ra, weak are the enemies! High is Ra, Low are the enemies! Ra is alive, enemies are dead! Ra sails along the underground Nile and reaches the underground mountains.
The gates of the horizon open before him, Ra emerges from the night boat Mesektet, washes himself in the waters of a transparent lake, puts on red clothes and boards the day boat Manjet to sail along the heavenly Nile and illuminate the earth with his radiance.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru