Aker

Aker is the earth understood as a passage rather than a floor. He is drawn as two lions sitting back to back with the sun between them, one looking at yesterday and one at tomorrow, and the space between them is the whole night: the barque enters in the west, travels through the ground, and comes out in the east. Put on a headrest — where the sleeper's own head goes between the two lions — the image says something fairly direct about what sleep is.

Domains

• horizon

Relations

• subordinate to: RaHis office is the two doors the sun uses. The barque goes in at his western head and comes out at his eastern one, and the whole night happens inside him.Reference treatment of Aker's protection of the solar barque at the gates of the underworld. (secondary)

Sources

• Aker is the Egyptian deified horizon, shown as two lions back to back guarding the eastern and western gates of the underworld and protecting the solar barque as it enters and leaves.: Reference treatments of Aker, his double-lion form and his guardianship of the horizon gates. (secondary)