Which traditions do they belong to?

Ra belongs to the Egyptian Pantheon, and Tonatiuh to the Aztec Pantheon.

Side by sideParallel across traditions

Ra vs Tonatiuh

Both are sun gods who traverse the sky daily and require worship to sustain their journey.

At a glance

Ra and Tonatiuh compared
	Ra	Tonatiuh
Tradition	Egyptian Pantheon	Aztec Pantheon
Domains	sun, creation, kingship, order, light	sun, warriors, sacrifice, the Fifth Sun
Symbols	sun disk, falcon, solar barque, cobra, scarab beetle	sun disk, eagle, tongue protruding, flint knife
Also called	Re, Ra-Horakhty, Atum-Ra, Amun-Ra	He Who Goes Forth Shining, Nahui Ollin

Where they meet

Both are associated with sun.

They share a symbol: sun disk.

sun disk

Where they part

Only Ra

Associated with creation, kingship, order, and light.

Only Tonatiuh

Associated with warriors, sacrifice, and the fifth sun.

How each was worshipped

Ra

Cult sites: Great Temple of Ra at Heliopolis (Iunu); Solar sanctuaries of the Fifth Dynasty (Abu Ghurab and beyond)
Festivals: Daily solar barque rites; Sed festival (king as Ra's son)

The king is his son. Morning and evening barques, the benben stone, the sun's twelve night hours. Heliopolis set the theology; later Amun-Ra at Thebes absorbed it without erasing the Heliopolitan cult.

Tonatiuh

Cult sites: The sun's face on the so-called Aztec calendar stone is a cult image, not a building; Offerings toward the sun at the Templo Mayor
Festivals: Solar offerings in the veintena calendar

The Fifth Sun who drinks war. Hearts and blood in the Mexica explanation of why the sun rises. There is no gentle pastoral Tonatiuh in the imperial sources. Name the cost if you name the god.

The two figures

Egyptian Pantheon

Ra

The supreme solar deity and creator god. Ra travels across the sky each day in his solar barque and through the underworld each night, battling the serpent Apophis.

Ra emerged from the primordial waters of Nun at the dawn of creation, creating himself. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), establishing the cosmos.

Ra is the supreme creator and king of the gods. He travels across the sky in his solar barque by day and battles the chaos serpent Apophis in the underworld by night.

Read the full Ra entry

Aztec Pantheon

Tonatiuh

The sun god of the Fifth Sun (the current world age). Tonatiuh demanded human hearts and blood to fuel his daily journey across the sky, driving the Aztec system of ritual sacrifice.

After the destruction of the Fourth Sun, the gods gathered at Teotihuacan. Nanahuatzin threw himself into the sacrificial fire and rose as the Fifth Sun. The other gods sacrificed their hearts to make him move, establishing the cosmic debt that humans must repay through sacrifice.

Tonatiuh ("He Who Goes Forth Shining") was the **sun of the current world age**, the Fifth Sun. In Aztec cosmology, four previous suns had been destroyed, each ending in cataclysm. Tonatiuh was the current sun, and the Aztecs believed he required **human blood and hearts** to maintain his journey across the sky.

Read the full Tonatiuh entry

About this comparison

Comparisons pair figures that play a similar role across traditions, or that the myths connect within one. A shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.