Updated with even more assholeness of Ra!
Twitter is a great place to waste time, but it is also a great place to get inspired with really ridiculous ideas. After I pointed out that a sequel to the movie Prometheus is in the works, PZ Myers of Pharyngula responded with this tweet:
My response was this:
And a new meme was born! Ra, for those unfamiliar, is the ancient Egyptian deity of the midday sun, a major god of Egypt from somewhere about 2500 BC onwards. He was typically represented with a falcon head, and sun disk on top of it, as pictured below.
A lovely depiction of Ra, via Wikipedia.
The ancient Egyptian god Ra is a powerful, benevolent deity, responsible for the creation of life and the one who protects and sustains it. On the other hand, Asshole Ra is petty, annoying, and pretty much, well, an asshole.
Taking classic Egyptian artwork of Ra from around the web, I produced my own conception of Asshole Ra. Go below to see his glory…
My first image of Asshole Ra shows his appreciation of fine arts.
Asshole Ra likes to troll his believers something fierce.
Asshole Ra is not a deity you want to go on a roadtrip with.
Asshole Ra does not use his great powers with great responsibility.
Humor is not one of Asshole Ra’s strong suits.
Asshole Ra is picky about the offerings he receives.
Asshole Ra is also very picky about his beverages.
It’s really not worthwhile to be in a relationship with Asshole Ra.
Asshole Ra also has serious entitlement issues.
Did I mention that humor isn’t one of Asshole Ra’s strong suits?
Really, it’s best not to rely on Asshole Ra for anything.
I may present further adventures of Asshole Ra in the future — stay tuned!
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Images of Ra were taken from ancient Egyptian artwork that is available from a variety of sources on the web, including Wikipedia. I used a number of images of ancient Egyptian stelae from www.hethert.org, which has a nice compilation. The photograph of the Double Temple of Haroeris and Sobek at Ombos came from the very nice Amentet Neferet blog.
Skulls in the Stars 
I had no idea Ra was such an asshole. Set got a bad rap!
“History is written by the winners.” 😉
Loved this post. I’m looking forward to meeting you in May at Mariah’s graduation.
Mala – he can entertain you for hours, I’m sure!
He has a quirky sense of humor, that’s for sure. The Asshole Ra with the tv sports was my ex-husband. You’ll meet him, too, in May.
Looking forward to meeting! 🙂
Most of these are actually Asshole Re-Horakhty, but close enough 🙂
I figured that someone would point that out! 🙂
Call me “Asshole Hieroglyphics Guy”.
I like to imagine that “Asshole Ra” changed his name to “Asshole Re-Horakhty” in order to avoid overdue library book fines.
Sounds like something he’d do.
The existence of PZ Meyers on this planet is now justified, and I can did satisfied.
It’s Re, not Ra. Egyptologists get mad when folks call it Ra.