At the beginning, however, Ra himself ruled on earth over the universe he had created. His reign was a sort of golden age, known to the Egyptians as the 'First Time', when men and gods lived together on earth. When Ra was young and vigorous he maintained firm rule, and the power of divine order, Mayet, was uncontested. Ra's daily routine was immutable. After his toilet and the breakfast brought by the morning star, re-enacted later in the temple ritual, Ra would set out from the House of the Benben in Heliopolis and, accompanied by Shu, would progress majestically through the twelve provinces (daylight hours) of his realm. Sometimes his close inspection became oppresive to his people and they rebelled, as against the summer heat; but they were powerless against the mighty king. On one occasion the serpent Apep conspired with Ra's enemies to kill him at sunrise, but they were overcome in a battle lasting all day. On another Ra took the form of a cat or lion to behead Apep.
As Ra grew old, however, his power waned; he became an old man, incontinent, and dribbled from his trembling mouth. Occasionally one of the deities sought to take advantage of his senility. As we shall relate, Isis was the most nearly successful, and Osiris too was sometimes in conflict with him. We shall see in the legend of the great quarrel between Horus and Set that all the other gods were impatient with Ra as judge.
Eventually men too became aware of Ra's weakness and plotted against him, saying: 'His Majesty is grown old. His bones are silver, his flesh is gold and his hair real lapis lazuli.' But Ra knew what was going on and secretly summoned the gods, his ministers of state, to avise him on how to put down the rebellion. One by one the gods gave their opinions and Nun spoke for them all in saying that his son Ra was still great, greater than his father, and still commanded fear. He should remain on his throne and turn his Eye on the rebels. Men thereupon took refuge in the mountains; but Ra sent out his Eye in the shape of his daughtger Hathor or Sekhmet, a lioness. Hathor soon subdued makind and was eager to destroy it altogether. But Ra was just, wishing to uphold the divine order of his creation and the balance between gods and men, so he restrained Hathor.
Nevertheless Ra now felt pain and weariness after all these troubles and wished to withdraw from the world. He therefore mounted on Nut as a cow and she raised him into the heavens. The other gods clung to her belly and became the stars. In this way heaven and earth, gods and men were separated and the present world was created . . ."