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In the beginning, before there was any land of Egypt, it all was dark, and there was nothing but a waste of water called Nun.  A great shining egg came up out of the darkness, and this was Re.  Re was powerful and he could change into different forms.  He had the power to create anything just by speaking.

"I am Khepera at the dawn, Re at noon, and Tem in the evening," he said, and the sun rose, went across the sky, and set for the first time.  Then Re named Shu, god of the winds, and the first winds blew.  He named Tefnut, the spitter, and the first rain fell.  Next he named Geb, and the Earth appeared.  Re named the goddess Nut, and the sky appeared.  He named Hapi, and the Nile River flowed through Egypt and made the crops grow.  Last of all he named mankind, and there were men and woman in the land of Egypt.

Then Re took on the shape of a man and became the first pharaoh, ruling over the whole country for thousands and thousands of years, and giving such great harvests that for ever afterward the Egyptians spoke of the good things which happened in the time of Re.  But since he was in the form of a man, Re grew old.  In time men no longer feared him or obeyed his laws.  They laughed at him, saying, "Look at Re!  His bones are like silver, his flesh like gold, and his hair is the color of stones."  Re was angry when he heard this and he was still angry at the evil deeds which men were doing, so he called all the gods he formed, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, and Nun.   Soon the gods and godesses gathered around Re in his secret place, but mankind did not know what was happening and continued to insult Re and go against his laws.

Then Re spoke to Nun in front of the other gods and godesses.  "Look at mankind who I created.  See how men plot against me?  Hear what they say of me?  Tell me what I should do to them.  I will not destroy mankind until I have heard your advice."

Nun told Re that he should send his daughter, the evil goddess Sekhmet, to deal with the humans.  The other gods and goddesses agreed.  So Re created Sekhmet.  She loved nothing more than slaughter.  Throughout Egypt she killed those who disobeyed Re, enjoying it the whole time.  She continued this for many nights, making the Nile turn red with the blood of the people.

Soon Re took pity on the people but realized he could not stop his daughter.  He knew he would have to trick her into stopping.  So he created messengers to fetch red ochre from the Nile.  When they returned to Heliopolis where Re was staying, they found many women brewing beer for Re.  Re had them mix the red ochre with the beer so that it looked like blood.  Re ordered the messengers to go dump the beer where Sekhmet was going to kill men the next day.  When Sekhmet woke up, she saw the huge flood of what she thought was blood.  She celebrated, thinking she had killed many men, by drinking the "blood."  Soon she stumbled back to where Re was without having killed a single person.  Re then changed her nature to a goddess of peace and love.

Having saved mankind, Re continued to rule.  He was very old by now.  But as long as no one knew his secret name, he would continue to rule.  This secret name was what held his power.

Soon Geb and Nut had children named Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Seth.  Isis was the wisest of these children.  She was smarter than a million men and knew everything there was to know except for Re’s secret name.  This is what she wanted to know.  Soon Re was so old that he was trembling and drooling.  This drool turned to mud as it hit the ground.  Isis took this mud and formed it into the first serpent.  This later became the symbol of royalty.  Isis placed the serpent where she knew Re would get bit by it.  Re was in such pain that he could not speak except for one big scream of pain.  The other gods came running to see what was wrong.  When Re could finally speak he said that something had hurt him, but he had not created it.  He ordered that all the gods come together to try to heal him.

All the gods came to him and were very sad.  Isis also came because she was the queen of magic.  Isis convinced Re to tell her his secret saying that that would help cure him.  Re then named all the names that he was known by except for the secret name.  Isis knew he did not tell the secret name.  Finally he agreed to tell Isis the name only after she promised to tell no one except for her son that would someday rule after her.

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