Editing Khepri (section)

== Khepri's role in the Amduat ==
The Amduat is the nightly journey Ra, and by proxy the sun, takes through the underworld, as he is exhausted and aged from his day's work of moving the solar barque across the sky.<ref name="Schweizer-2010">{{Cite book |last1=Schweizer |first1=Andreas |title=The Sungod's Journey Through the Netherworld: Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat |last2=Lorton |first2=David |last3=Hornung |first3=Erik |date=2010 |publisher=Cornell University Press, pp.1-2. |isbn=978-0-8014-4875-1 |location=Ithaca, N.Y}}</ref> Through this voyage across the underworld, both the Ra and the sun are reborn, as the god takes the form of Khepri, who leads the sun across the sky during the morning.<ref name="Schweizer-2010" />

There are two hours of the Amduat that Khepri is involved. Hour six sees the solar barque of Ra reach the primordial waters of Nun, in which rests the corpse of Khepri surrounded by an enormous multi-headed snake.<ref name="Hornung-1999b"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Schweizer |first1=Andreas |title=The Sungod's Journey Through the Netherworld: Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat |last2=Lorton |first2=David |last3=Hornung |first3=Erik |date=2010 |publisher=Cornell University Press, pp. 120. |isbn=978-0-8014-4875-1 |location=Ithaca, N.Y}}</ref> It is unclear how Khepri died and how a serpent with five heads came to guard his corpse. Nevertheless, the ''ba'', or soul, of Ra combines itself with Khepri's body, thus resurrecting the solar god.<ref name="Hornung-1999b" />

Khepri is not explicitly mentioned again within the Amduat until the twelve hour, the last hour as the sun begins its ascent back into the sky. In this hour, Khepri is at the helm of the solar barque, leading the vessel out of the underworld and, with the help of Shu, the god of air and winds, back into the sky, so that sun may once again bathe the world in its light.<ref name="Hornung-1999c"/> Khepri plays a vital role in this journey, as he is the one that guides the sun through the last leg of its voyage through the underworld and ushers in the dawn of a new day as the god of the morning sun.
[[File:Egypt,_Third_Intermediate_Period,_late_Dynasty_21_(1069-945_BC)_or_early_Dy_-_Book_of_Amduat_of_Buiruharmut,_with_Elements_of_the_Tenth_through_Twelfth_H_-_1914.725_-_Cleveland_Museum_of_Art.tif|center|thumb|375x375px|The 12th Hour of the Amduat is depicted here, with Khepri in his scarab form seen at the helm of the solar barque.]]