Ra is the sun god, the king of the gods, the creator (in the Heliopolitan tradition, as Atum-Ra) [S1][S4]. By day he crosses the sky in his solar barque (the 'Day Barque'), bringing light and life [S2][S4]. At sunset he enters the Duat (the underworld) in the 'Night Barque' and travels through the twelve hours of the night, where he faces Apep (the chaos serpent) at the hour of greatest danger (around midnight) [S2][S4]. Thoth and other gods help him defeat Apep, and he rises again at dawn [S2][S4]. Ra's nightly journey is the mythic basis of the Egyptian afterlife: the dead who are justified 'sail with Ra' through the night [S2][S4]. In the later (New Kingdom and after) period, Ra was fused with Amun to become 'Amun-Ra', the supreme god of the state religion [S4].