Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

58 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Racecommon occurrence in the sepulchral art of Egypt. It is connectedwith the worship of Rā, which came in fully 4000 years B.C.Its meaning as an Egyptian symbol is well known. The shipwas called the Boat of the Sun. It was the vessel in which theSun-god performed his journeys; in particular, the journey whichhe made nightly to the shores of the Other-world, bearing withhim in his bark the souls of the beatified dead. The Sun-god,Rā, is sometimes represented by a disk, sometimes by otheremblems, hovering above the vessel or contained within it. Anyone who will look over the painted or sculptured sarcophagi in theBritish Museum will find a host of examples. Sometimes he willfind representations of the life-giving rays of Rā pouring downupon the boat and its occupants. Now, in one of the Swedishrock-carvings of ships at Backa, Bohuslän, given by Montelius,a ship crowded with figures is shown beneath a disk with threedescending rays, and again another ship with a two-rayed sunabove it. It may be added that in the tumulus of Dowth, which isclose to that of New Grange and is entirely of the same characterand period, rayed figures and quartered circles, obviously solaremblems, occur abundantly, as also at Loughcrew and otherplaces in Ireland, and one other ship figure has been identified atDowthEgyptian Solar Bark, XXII Dynasty[75](British Museum)Egyptian Solar Bark, with god Khnemu and attendant deities(British Museum)In Egypt the solar boat is sometimes represented as containingthe solar emblem alone, sometimes it contains the figure of a