Editing Eye of Ra (section)

==Origins==
The Egyptians often referred to the sun and the moon as the "eyes" of particular [[ancient Egyptian deities|gods]]. The right eye of [[Ra]]-[[Horus]] (merged into the god [[Ra-Horakhty]]), for instance, was equated with the sun, and his left eye equated with the moon. At times the Egyptians called the lunar eye the "[[Eye of Horus]]" and called the solar eye the "Eye of Ra"—[[Ra]] being the preeminent sun god in [[ancient Egyptian religion]].{{sfn|Darnell|1997|pp=35–37}} Both eyes were represented by the ''[[Wedjat eye|wedjat]]'' symbol, a stylized human eye with the facial markings of the falcon that signified Horus.{{sfn|Pinch|2002|pp=128, 131}} The Egyptologist [[Richard H. Wilkinson]] believes the two Eyes of Horus gradually became distinguished as the lunar Eye of Horus and the solar Eye of Ra;{{sfn|Wilkinson|1992|p=43}} however, Rolf Krauss argues that no text equates the Eyes of Horus with the sun and moon until late in Egyptian history, so the Eye of Horus must have originally had some other significance.{{sfn|Krauss|2002|p=193}}

Because many concepts in Egyptian belief are fluid, the roles of the two eyes frequently overlapped.{{sfn|Darnell|1997|pp=35–37}} One such area of overlap is that in myth, both Horus and Ra lose their respective eyes. Katja Goebs argues that the myths surrounding the two eyes are based around the same [[mytheme]], or core element of a myth, and that "rather than postulating a single, original myth of one cosmic body, which was then merged with others, it might be more fruitful to think in terms of a (flexible) myth based on the structural relationship of an Object that is missing, or located far from its owner".{{sfn|Goebs|2002|p=57}} The [[Pyramid Texts]] from the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] ({{circa|2686}}–2181 BC), one of the earliest sources for [[Egyptian myth]], mention both the Eye of Horus{{sfn|Pinch|2002|pp=9–11, 131}} and the Eye of Ra.{{sfn|Klotz|2006|p=104}}