Home › Glossary › Letter A

Aker

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Earth god depicted as two back-to-back lions representing yesterday and tomorrow

Detailed Definition
Aker guarded the horizon where the sun rose and set, protecting Ra during his nightly journey through the underworld. He symbolized the cyclical nature of time and rebirth. Poets reference Aker to explore duality, temporal thresholds, and the earth’s role as both cradle and guardian of cosmic transitions.
Example
Example in poetry:
Aker, the lion-bodied earth god who guards the horizon’s gate; Poets depict Aker as twin lions back-to-back: yesterday and tomorrow; In spells, Aker swallows the sun at dusk and births it at dawn; Aker’s roar marks the boundary between night and day; The earth god Aker carries Ra’s barque through the underworld’s spine; In verse, Aker is the silent threshold all souls must cross.
Additional Notes
Aker is an earth and horizon deity depicted as two back-to-back lions representing yesterday and tomorrow, guarding the eastern and western horizons—Aker embodies cyclical time and the threshold between realms; poets can use this duality to explore liminality, transitions, or the eternal return of dawn and dusk.
Also Known As
Akeru Akher
Skip to main content