| Left: the creation myth birth of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, out of a lotus flower, the stem of which descends into the Nu (or Nun) the water god or water abyss (Nile River) of Egyptian mythology (3100BC), as carved on the walls of Dendera Temple (38AD). Right: the Hindu mythology (800AD) re-write of the latter, according to which, as described in the Bhagavata Purana [SB 3.8.10-14], Brahma (Ra) is born out of a lotus, the stem of which comes out of the navel of the god Vishnu (Nun), wherein Apep, the mythical snake that Ra does battle with each night, becomes the multi-headed Hindu snake Shesha, and Naunet, the female counterpart of Nun, according to Hermopolis cosmology, becomes Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu. |
