Interviews from Eye of Ra

The Eye of Ra serves an important function as a representative of Ra and reporter of information to him, she also becomes a warrior and champion of Ra at some point and destroy his enemies. 

Sekhmet - this is par for the course, but Hathor is so firmly associated with ideas of joy, beauty and feminine gentleness that the story of her rampage across the world is a surprising one that doesn't match up with most of her other stories. In that myth, humanity begins to disrespect Ra and plot to overthrow his worship, so he sends Hathor to lay waste to the offenders. Hathor asked her sister Sekhmet to do the deed. Sekhmet does so thoroughly that the world is in danger of being entirely depopulated, and the gods are forced to then corral her and prevent her from overzealously wiping all of humanity off the face of the earth in her desire to please the sun god.

Wadjet is the daughter of Atum (Ra) who had sent her as his "eye" to find Tefnut and Shu when they were lost in the waters of Nun. He was so happy when they returned that he cried and created the first human beings from his tears. To reward his daughter, he placed her upon his head in the form of a cobra so that she would always be close to him and could act as his protector.

Bast was one of the most popular goddesses of ancient Egypt. She is generally thought of as a cat goddess. Bast would ride through the sky with her father, the sun god Ra, his boat pulling the sun through the sky. Ever watchful, she protected Ra from his enemies. Thus, she became known as the Lady of the East, the Goddess of the Rising Sun, and The Sacred and All-Seeing Eye. But by night, she was a different creature entirely! Bast transformed herself into a cat (renowned for its superb night vision) to guard her father from Apep (also known as Apophis), a serpent who was her father's greatest enemy and Lord of Chaos.

Apophis was a water serpent, and the enemy of Ra. Ra and Apophis were sworn enemies and battled each night, and of course, with the help of Seth, Ra won every time. The dynamic between the two are that of pure opposites. Their existence opposes each other, and they do nothing but fight. Each night, the two would battle but Ra was usually victorious. When Apophis did win, there would be an eclipse or a Storm that blocked the sun which was Apophis eating the sun and when the eclipse ended, it would mark Ra's escape. Often, Ra was depicted with other gods protecting and aiding him from Apophis. Because Apep is so terrible (always described as fathomlessly huge, which is why it is depicted with such tightly-packed coils to represent how much of it there is, and sometimes said to have a head made of vicious hard flint or eyes of gold) and so dangerous, the sun god was understood to not be able to fight such a fearsome foe alone. The solar baroque was staffed with a defense team intended to help him fight Apep off each day, including 

• Maahes, lion god of slaughter and courage

• Serket, scorpion goddess of poisons and disease

• Seth, God of Chaos, Desert, Storm, and Foreign Lands

• Bast, Cat Goddess of Protection and Home and Eye of Ra 

Each day, through their combined efforts, Apep is defeated or turned aside and Ra is saved to begin the day anew, although not without great hardship and injury to all.

The foremost of Ra's defenders, and the only deity who stands as a true opponent who can face Apep's might, is Seth, god of the deserts. Apep's powers include a terrible hypnotic gaze that can freeze even a god so that they lose all reason, not to mention its unending coils which are wrapped around the baroque itself and all the gods within, and thus many of the defending gods are paralyzed by its gaze each day, or physically restrained so that they cannot help Ra as they intend to. Seth, however, is the strongest and most powerful of all the divine warriors, and he is unaffected by any of Apep's dangerous skills; he is too strong to be held in its coils, and too loyal and determined to be hypnotized, which allows him to take over and drive the baroque for Ra while the sun god fights the snake's influence himself. He then fights Apep with a great iron spear, eventually skewering it and driving it off until the great struggle begins again the next day.