Horus and Seth Battle Part 1/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 1/3
Horus God attempts to avenge his father’s murder and to regain control over the territory taken by  Seth God led to the great battles of Egyptian mythology. The tale begins with a young son who seeks to avenge his father’s death, but it continues on to become a fight for the territory or position that the son thinks the killer wrongfully gained through murder. These events combine to make up the Egyptian equivalent of the Iliad, an ancient Greek epic, and the battles that result are of epic importance.

 

Battle between Horus and Seth

Interestingly enough, this myth has survived in two versions with entirely different tones. Many Egyptian myths have been told in different places and with different details, but this particular story has been recorded in versions so divergent as to lead to exactly opposite attitudes toward the central characters and events. One version is entirely serious, even though it describes events that are fantastic. Since this version is similar to the epics of the Western world (great battles, heroes fighting villains with gods taking an active role, supernatural events, and an oral tradition including repetition of key phrases), it is called here the epic version.

The other version presents a satiric view of the same characters. In this “parody” of the epic version (the reader should note that there is no proof which of the two versions was the first), the gods in the central roles are ridiculed and the battle is reduced to a petty squabble among deities who possess very human characteristics.

No evidence suggests that early Egyptians could not have held both the serious and humorous attitudes toward these events at the same time, since humor does not necessarily denote disrespect the two accounts are separated here, however, in order to make the narratives and attitudes clearer.

The Epic Version (briefly told)
The great battles between Horus God and Seth God began during the three hundred and sixty-third year of the reign of Ra-Herakhty on earth and ended decades later. Ra assembled a massive army in Nubia in preparation for an attack on Seth God who had rebelled against him. From a boat floating on the river he directed his troops of footmen, horsemen, and archers. Among them was Horus God who had long sought to avenge his father’s death but had been unable to trap Seth God in battle; Horus, who loved an hour of fighting more than a day of feasting, looked forward to the battle with glee. Thoth gave the young god magical power to transform himself into a solar disk with large golden wings, the color of the sky at sunset; in this form Horus God led Ra’s troops into battle and prepared the tactics for the first encounter.

When Horus God sighted the legions of Seth God , he rose on his great wings above them and uttered a curse: “Your eyes shall be blinded and you shall not see; your ears shall be deaf and you shall not hear.” The enemy beneath him suddenly became confused: each warrior looked at the soldier next to him and, deceived by the power of the curse, saw a stranger where moments before an ally had stood. The speech around him sounded like a foreign language. The warriors cried out that their ranks had been infiltrated by the enemy, and they turned and fell upon each other. In a moment the army had defeated itself. Meanwhile, Horus God was hovering above, looking for Seth God . His archenemy was not in this advance guard, but hiding in the marshes to the north. Horus God continued to have trouble cornering Seth God in battle, even though he was to chase Seth’s troops through three more battles in the south and six in the north. Some took place in rivers, where the combatants changed themselves into crocodiles and hippopotamuses, some took place on land where again the slaughter was terrible, and one was even fought on the high seas.
 
On one occasion when Horus God thought he had captured his chief enemy during the heat of a battle, he cut off the soldier’s head and severed the body into fourteen pieces as Seth God had cut up Osiris. Once the dust from the battle had settled, however, Horus God finally saw his victim clearly and realized he had the wrong enemy: Seth God had escaped him once again.

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Horus and Seth Battle Part 2/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 2/3
Later, when Horus God had matured, Seth God challenged him to single combat. Isis decorated her son’s boat with gold and prayed for his success (one is reminded of Achilles’ mother’s efforts on his behalf just before his great battle with Hector). Seth God took the form of a red hippopotamus and prepared for battle on Elephantine Island at Aswan. With his great voice like thunder he used his power over storms as a terrible weapon. The waves and wind tossed Horus’ boats about, but the young god stood fast at the prow and led his followers through the worst of the storm. At the point of blackest darkness, the foam of the waters made the golden boat shine like the rays of the sun.

Horus and Seth battle

As the storms lessened, the two gods began their long-due battle, which is said to have lasted three days. Somehow during the confusion Seth God wrested Horus’ left eye from his head, perhaps because he disguised himself as a black pig and tricked Horus God into letting him get close. Horus God redoubled his efforts and recaptured his eye, which later he was to feed to Osiris to ensure his eternal life. Horus God revenged himself upon Seth God for this injury by seizing the red god and pulling off his testicles.

At one point in the fighting Horus God gained the upper hand and tied up his adversary. He asked Isis to guard Seth God while he went in pursuit of the enemy army, but Seth God tricked Isis with sweet words about her duty to her brother. Finally, Isis felt so guilty she loosened Seth’s ropes and allowed him to escape. When Horus God discovered what had been done, he was so outraged that he cut his mother’s head from her body with one blow of his knife. Fortunately Thoth was nearby and quickly replaced her missing head with the horns and solar disk of Hathor, which explains why in some depictions Isis wears Hathor’s head and headdress.

With Seth God at large again, Horus God had to return to battle. A young god eight cubits tall (almost fourteen feet), he held a harpoon whose blade measured four cubits. He handled this mighty weapon as if it weighed no more than a reed. This time, when he sighted his long-time foe, he aimed with all his skill. The first cast caught the red hippopotamus full in the head and entered his brain. Finally, after years of battles, Horus God had avenged the humiliation of his father, and Isis could rest.

The Satiric Version
In the second version the action centers not on physical combat, but on a court trial. Battles do occur, surely, but they are intertwined with some of mythology’s more bizarre court scenes.

The gods assembled at Heliopolis as a court to hear the plea of young Horus God against his uncle, Seth God. Atum-Ra sat in the chair as chief judge, and Thoth was the main spokesman for the young god. The dilemma before the court was whether Horus God should receive Osiris’ position on earth because he was the blood heir, or whether Seth God should receive it because he was stronger, older, and fit to rule. Shu and others argued: “Justice should prevail over sheer strength. Deliver judgment saying ‘Give the office to Horus.’ ”

But Atum-Ra was not happy. Fearing Seth’s warlike character, and knowing that his retaliation if the case went against him would be more troublesome than anything Horus God could attempt, he wanted to appease the red god and was angry with the court for giving in to Horus God so easily. Seth God then proposed that he and Horus God resolve the issue through trial by combat, but Thoth asked the court if it would not be better to try to find out who was right and who was wrong rather than leaving the decision to a fight. The arguments before this court presented the classic case for civilization versus barbarism, a theme that runs throughout much of Egyptian mythology.

When Osiris asked if there were some approach other than combat, the gods decided that they were trying to settle the case with insufficient information, and that they would write to Neith, an ancient goddess renowned for her wisdom, to request her guidance. At once Thoth, as secretary of the gods, composed a letter that concluded: “What are we to do about these two fellows who have now been before the court for eighty years without our being able to decide between them? Please write and tell us what to do.” Neith replied that the court should give Osiris’ position to Horus, and mollify Seth God by offering him a couple of minor goddesses to dally with.

The court was pleased with this compromise and immediately decided Neith had great wisdom.

When Atum-Ra still refused to agree with the court, the other gods grew increasingly angry with him. Over the uproar, one god screamed at Atum-Ra:

Your shrine is empty!” Such an insult, of course, could not pass unnoticed, and Atum-Ra went sulking back to his house where he lay on his back without talking to anyone. Hathor, his daughter saw that something had to be done for the old god and decided to tease him out of his ill humor. She danced in front of him whipped up her gown, and suddenly bared her private parts before his startled eyes. Atum-Ra laughed out loud and returned to court in a better frame of mind.

He commanded the opponents to debate the matter in open court, where Seth God and Horus God repeated the old arguments. When the court agreed with Seth God , Isis became angry and the court assured her that Horus God would win the position. Seth God , furious with his sister, told Atum-Ra that he would have nothing more to do with the court as long as Isis was around to influence it. Atum-Ra decided that a change in venue was in order and moved the court to an island. The ferryman, Anty, was ordered not to take Isis or anyone who looked like her across the water.

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Horus Egyptian God of War Part 1/2

Horus Egyptian God  Story part One
Horus Of all the gods of Egyptian mythology the most complex and potentially confusing for us today is  Horus God . One Egyptologist from the turn of the century identified fifteen different forms of this god, and Siegfried Morenz also found fifteen, not necessarily the same ones. The main forms were probably Ra-Herakhty, Horus God the Elder, Horus God the Younger, and Horus God the Child. Ra-Herakhty was a form of the sun god, a combination of Ra and Horus God who represented the morning sun. Often shown in falcon form or in the shape of the winged disk, Horus God the Elder was worshipped from Heliopolis to Abu Simbel. He can be considered the fifth child of Geb and Nut, making him another brother of Isis and Osiris. Some have thought that he might be the son of Hathor, but in that case his paternity is in doubt, although Ra is some- times so mentioned.

Horus Egyptian god statue

Horus God the Younger should be considered the son of Isis and Osiris, the god who avenged his father’s murder and replaced him on earth, the hero of the war with Seth to be told in the next chapter.

Horus God the Child was another version of Horus God the Younger, but he was given a distinct depiction. Called Harpocrates by the Greeks, he was prominent during the Graeco-Roman period, long after the other forms of Horus God . Horus God the Child was usually shown as a boy, wearing the side lock of a youth and sticking his finger in his mouth. At the height of his popularity he was often commemorated on small bronze plaques, called cippi of Horus God , where he was shown standing on crocodiles and holding scepters or other signs of authority.

At Edfu some of the forms of Horus God came together. Following his early victory over the army of Seth, Horus God and his followers came ashore near Edfu to celebrate. To commemorate the event, Ra decreed that the winged disk, the form Horus God had taken during the battle when he fought as Ra-Herakhty, should be preserved as a motif over the doors of temples and shrines as a sign that the gods protected all who entered. Visitors can still find these images among the ruins of temples and other shrines. (Following this event Edfu became a base for the worship of Horus God ; centuries later, during the Ptolemaic rule, an important temple was built there that was to become the site of the festival celebrating the sacred marriage of Horus God and Hathor.)

In the Coffin Texts, this Horus God was thought of mainly as the son of Isis and Osiris whom we are calling Horus God the Younger and had been fully assimilated into the Heliopolitan genealogy as a character united with Ra. The victorious Horus God thought of himself as the chief of the gods:

I am Horus God ; the Falcon who is on the battlements of the mansion of him whose name is hidden. My flight aloft has reached the horizon, I have over passed the gods of the sky, I have made my position more prominent than that of the Primeval Ones. My place is far from Seth, the enemy of my father Osiris ... I go up in flight and there is no god who can do what I have done I am Horus God , born of Isis whose protection was made within the egg.

It was in the Coffin Texts that the images of Horus God as the falcon and as the son of Isis merged, according to R. T. Rundle Clark. As we have seen in the myth of his birth, he was usually depicted as a humanlike child in need of his mother Isis’ nursing and protection, but in other versions he was depicted not as a child but as a falcon. During pregnancy Isis knew that her baby was unusual and told Atum “it is a falcon that is within my body.” When the baby was born, he took flight while his mother immediately began to negotiate a seat for him in the solar boat. In this version Horus God did not grow up hiding from Seth among the papyrus rushes of the Delta, but immediately assumed his place as a powerful god.

Regardless of which myth is followed, as an adult Horus God became one of the most powerful and important gods. He was first and foremost a sun god, and the replacement of Osiris here on earth, with a place in the solar boat as its pilot and steersman.

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Horus and Seth Battle Part 3/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 3/3
Isis, plotting to join the others on the island, disguised herself as an old woman with a bent back. Carrying a jar of barley and wearing a gold ring, she approached Anty and asked for a ride: “I have come for you to ferry me to Middle Island. I am taking ajar of barley to the little boy tending cattle there; he has been there five days and will be getting hungry.” Anty protested that he was not supposed to ferry women, but she asked if his orders were not for Isis alone. Succumbing to temptation and believing it safe to help this old woman, he asked what she would give him if he consented. She offered some barley, but he refused, declaring that he would not violate his orders just for some bread. She then offered the ring, and to no one’s surprise he took it.

 

Battle between Horus and Seth

Once on the island, she turned herself into a beautiful, seductive maiden. When Seth God saw her, he left the court and called out from behind a bush, “I would like to tarry here with you, fair child.” Coyly she set her trap: “Ah, my great lord! I was married to a shepherd and bore him a son, but my husband died and the boy had to look after his father’s animals. Then a stranger came and hid in the bam and told my son: ‘I will beat you, take away your father’s animals, and chase you away.’ Now I want to persuade you to help my son.” Seth God , never known for his subtlety, and lusting after this fair creature, replied: “Indeed, should one give animals to a stranger while the man’s son is at hand?” Isis immediately turned herself into a vulture and taunted her adversary from the branch of a tree: “Bewail yourself! Your own mouth has said it and your own judgment has judged you!” When Seth God returned to court, even Atum-Ra had to agree that Seth God had been tricked into foolishly judging himself. Anty nevertheless was sent for, and the court ordered that his lower legs be cut off as punishment; rumor tells that he “forswore the use of gold until the present day.”

When the court appeared ready to award the position to Horus God , Seth God challenged his nephew to yet another contest. This time they were to change themselves into hippopotamuses and dive into the sea. Whoever held his breath under water for three months would be the winner. After the two gods had dived under, Isis, fearing that Horus God would lose, decided to help him. Taking an ingot of bronze she forged, it into the head of a harpoon to which she fitted a long shaft, making a fearful weapon. Then she took careful aim at Seth God in the water and threw the harpoon with all her divine strength. The weapon went straight and pierced the sacred body of Horus God! With a cry of pain, he called his mother to remove the harpoon from his body. Regretting her mistake at once, she used her magic to free the harpoon and then cast once more at Seth God and successfully held him fast. Seth God in turn protested his treatment on the grounds that they too were flesh and blood. Moved by her brother’s plea, Isis ordered the harpoon to release him. Horus God was now angry again. He emerged from the water and cut off Isis’ head with a knife that weighed sixteen bars. Their disagreement, however, did not last long, and soon she was back on his side.

Following this event there seems to have been a truce declared, and Horus God and Seth God went off to try to resolve the problem themselves. Actually this was another of Seth’s tricks, for as soon as he was alone with the young god he raped him, in the hope that once

the other gods believed Horus God was homosexual (only the recipient of the seed was deemed homosexual), they would repudiate him Horus God ran to his mother for help. She took some of his semen and dropped it on some lettuce (henceforth a symbol of sexual potency). When Seth unwittingly ate the seed of Horus God in a salad, he became pregnant by his nephew. Soon he went to the court with his charge of homosexuality, and the court at first laughed at Horus God for his supposed weakness. He denied the charges and challenged the court to call up his seed. When summoned, the seed inside Seth God grew into a large disk on his head, but before he could remove it, Thoth grasped it and placed it on his own head as a headpiece, which explains the origin of the disk on many later representations of Thoth. So the court sided with Horus God.

Seth in animal from the Temple of Karnak
As usual when he was about to lose the decision, Seth God again challenged Horus God to combat. This time he suggested a race in boats made of stone. Horus God readily agreed; he made a boat of cedar covered with gypsum to give it the appearance of stone, and set it floating on the water. Seth God saw that his nephew had successfully launched what appeared to be a stone boat and hurried about doing the same. He cut the peak off a mountain and used the stone to build a large boat. He launched it and watched as it promptly and surely sank to the bottom.

When the court intervened again and was about to award the position to Seth God , Osiris finally made a plea on his son’s behalf. This brought him into argument with Atum-Ra, but despite the chief god’s words and threats from Seth, the court changed its mind and decided in favor of Horus God. Again Seth God challenged Horus God to combat, but by now even the court had had enough. Isis brought Seth God into court bound in chains like a criminal. Atum-Ra asked him why he was not willing to allow the court to settle the case after eighty years. Much to everyone’s surprise, Seth God agreed to end the fighting and permitted Horus God to accept the position of Osiris awarded by the court. Brought before the court and placed on the throne of his father with Osiris’ own crown, Horus God was told that he was the master of every land for all eternity. (Part of the irony here lay in the fact that the “master of every land” had to be told he was master and given a crown; he was comically dependent on those he was supposed to rule.)

Ptah realized that justice was being done, but he also saw that Seth God was being deprived of power that some believed he deserved. “What shall be done with Seth God ?” he asked. Atum-Ra quickly realized that he could make use of Seth’s warlike nature and ordered Seth God to stay beside him like a son: “He shall raise his voice in the sky and men shall be afraid of him.” Thus Seth God was given a permanent place, apparently in the solar boat, as the god of storms. There he intimidated human beings and protected Atum-Ra from his enemies.

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Horus Egyptian God of War Part 2/2

Horus Egyptian God Story  part 2 
Of all Egyptian mythological symbols the most enduring is the eye actually there were two eyes in the early myths-one associated with Ra and another with Horus God . We have seen the myth in which Ra himself had two eyes, the sun and the moon. Since Horus God was at times amalgamated with Ra, it is not surprising that Ra’s second eye became the Eye of  Horus God . This eye became the particular object of Seth’s aggression during the battle between Horus God and his uncle; when the red god, using his magical powers of deception, had captured the eye, he threw it into the darkness beyond the edge of the world. Thoth, who had been watching the fight and who was the guardian of the moon, observed where it fell and went to fetch it. When he found it, it was in pieces, but he located them all and put them together to form a full moon and thereby restored the night light. This eye was called the wadjet and ancient Egyptians could take the eye apart into its pieces. In fact, the various pieces were used in early writing to represent fractions (the eyeball, for example, represented one quarter).

Horus Egyptian God History

Other myths gave Horus God duties as a creator, protector of kings, and agent of the dead in the underworld. It was the Book of Gates, a lesser-known collection of instructions for dealing with the next life that assigned Horus God a role as creator, in particular, of the black race. According to this myth, the Egyptians were once the only race on earth. Then Horus God and Sekhmet joined together to create those people who dwelled in the desert beyond the so- called Black Land, obviously named for the rich soil along the Nile. The text is confusing in parts, but apparently Horus God created the black race and Sekhmet created the fair-skinned Libyans. The two gods consequently became responsible for protecting the souls of their creations in the afterlife. According to Siegfried

Morenz, Thoth then created the multiplicity of languages that was to separate the races. Thoth also seems to have acted as something of an interpreter when foreigners came to the gates of the underworld seeking eternal life, although it must have been Horus God and Sekhmet who acted as their advocates during their trials.

The role of protector of kings was another assigned to Horus God rather early in history. It was through association with Horus God that the king gained his divinity, and the names of some early kings show that they were thought of as Horus God while they reigned. This association gave them the power and authority of the gods while they were still alive. Since the king was believed to be Horus God here on earth, an interesting problem arose: How could the immortal god Horus God die when the king as Horus God passed from mortal life? Everyone knew that a god could not die, yet every so often  Horus God , as the king, did just that. The answer to this theological problem was probably found in the Heliopolitan mythology into which Horus God was assimilated. It came to be believed that while the king was alive, he was  Horus God , but when he died he immediately became Osiris and his successor became Horus God in his turn.

Horus God earned his reputation as protector of the dead through his efforts in behalf of his father in the underworld. It was Horus God who received the parts of Osiris’ body as they were recovered by Isis, and he, Anubis, and Thoth embalmed the body, reassembled the pieces, and wrapped them in mummy cloth. Horus God then originated the ceremony of the Opening of the Mouth when he fed his own eye to Osiris in order to assure eternal life for the slain god. In the Book of the Dead, Horus God had substantial duties in the underworld, although his role never rivaled that of Anubis or Thoth, much less that of Osiris. Horus God was the guide of the dead through the early stages of their trial, and was shown in vignettes leading the recently deceased person by the hand. He was involved sometimes in the Opening of the Mouth, and had the important duty of presenting the souls that passed the trial to Osiris for final acceptance.

The myths of Horus God can be variously interpreted. They share several themes common to other mythologies and folklores: the hiding of the infant, the young adult’s search for his true father, the great battles. Horus God is an early example of a hero typical of much epic poetry. But Horus God transcends the heroic archetype. He was the savior of the world, who in restoring the vitality of the

A colossal statue of Horus God in falcon form, representing the sun god, from the Temple of Edfu king brought renewal to the earth itself. He was the protagonist in the struggle between the forces of good and evil, and his victory assured the salvation of the earth and its inhabitants. Triumph over Seth placed evil “under his sandals,” as the Coffin Texts put is.

The worship of Horus God was widespread, which is not surprising given the numerous forms in which he could be found. At Abu Simbel, over the entrance to the Temple of Ramses II, there is a falcon representing the sun god with the baboons of Thoth in respectful attendance. At Luxor many of the tombs contain murals of  Horus God , usually in human shape with a falcon’s head. In the Egyptian Museum in Cairo there is a large number of statues of  Horus God , most often in falcon form. The chief cult center for Horus was, of course, Edfu, and the temple there, begun by Ptolemy III, is the most perfectly preserved of all Egyptian temples. The black granite statue of Horus God at the entrance is one of Egypt’s most valuable works of art.

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Seth God of Evil and Chaos

Seth Egyptian God of Evil and Chaos
All in all, the activities of the Great Ennead as a family rank them high with other historical and fictional families renowned for their corrupt and evil ways. Various members of the Great Ennead were at one time or another guilty of drunkenness, theft, incest, torture, matricide, and mass murder. But every family needs a black sheepi and every story needs a villain. In Egyptian mythology this role is given to Seth God, whose misdeeds make those of the rest of his family look innocent by comparison.

Seth Egyptian god picture

 The worship of Seth God in Upper Egypt is quite ancient, and in the earliest times he was considered a beneficent god who assisted the; dead. When his worshippers came in conflict with the cult of Horus somewhat later, they lost the political battles and his influence declined. The followers of Horus demoted Seth God to a god of evil and ordered his shrines and images to be destroyed. Through the major part of Egyptian mythology Seth God therefore represented evil, and in the Egyptian view of a universe made up of a duality of evil and good, Seth God played an important role in his opposition to the good gods.

In this role he was to be defeated, even maimed, in battle, but he was never killed or eliminated, for his power was too great and of too much use to other gods. Much like Milton’s Lucifer, he is a fascinating and compelling incarnation of evil, the manifestation of a recognized and necessary component of human behavior, and ultimately an agent of other gods who ironically accomplish their good through him. Most of the myths concerned with Seth God depict him in this role.

The Pyramid Texts credited Seth God with a violent nature from the moment of his birth: “You whom the pregnant goddess brought forth when you clove the night in twain you are invested in the form of Seth God, who broke out in violence.” Early in his career Seth God used his fierceness on behalf of other gods. He was placed in the] front of the solar boat in order to fight off the enemies of Ra. In reticular, he was responsible for successfully defeating Apophis nightly with the curse: “Back, Villain! Plunge into the depths of the abyss, into the place where your father ordained that you should be destroyed! Keep far away from this station of Ra, at whom you should tremble.”

Eventually, however, his jealousy at the success of his older brother Osiris led him to murder him and persecute Isis in an attempt to take over the empire of the god of corn and vegetation. In the many different texts from the period, there were varying stories that placed Seth God in combat to gain power for him. The earliest of the stories told of the battle as a simple contest between day and night. A later story personified that idea: it showed Ra and Seth God locked in combat, with Seth God attempting to prevent the sun from rising each morning.

In this version, strangely enough, Seth God was associated with Apophis and attacked the solar boat he had earlier defended. His weapons were clouds, mists, rains, and darkness-a mythical explanation of natural phenomena that obscure the sun. In the third version of the conflict, Seth God was pitted against his brother Osiris in an attempt to take over his powers. Finally, in the fourth version, Seth God fought his nephew Horus the Younger in a battle that began with Horus’ attempt to avenge his father's death, and ended as a fight for the territory once controlled by Osiris.

As the personification of sin and evil during this later period, Seth God was god of storms and winds and was particularly associated with the desert, which was thought of as a place of death. One myth identified him with the sun as it set in the evening, and another related how he stole the fading light from the sun god, causing untold evil and harm. Thoth, the lunar god, brought renewed light with the rising of the moon, but Seth God fought him too for the light of this heavenly body. Using storms, Winds, earthquakes, and eclipses, Seth God was able at times to gain a brief advantage over the sun and moon, but Ra and Thoth always won in the end.

The result of these character traits was that the Egyptians, as Plutarch recorded, held Seth God “in the greatest contempt, and do all they can to vilify and affront him.” At various times, specific rituals were observed to keep him from gaining) power over light and vegetation. At one point, a black pig (an animal often associated with Seth God) was brutally cut into pieces on a sand altar built on the river bank. At another time a model of a serpent was hacked to pieces. At another festival, recently captured birds and fish representing the god were trampled underfoot, to the chant: “You shall be cut into pieces, and your members' shall be hacked asunder, and each of you shall consume the other: thus Ra triumphs over all his enemies ....”

Sometimes, however, Seth’s ferocity was respected. Kings in the Ramesside period of the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties took him as their patron, and the name Seti of several of the kings-including the father of Ra messes II was derived from the name of the god.

Seth Egyptian God Symbol

Herodotus told a story of the time Seth God went to visit his mother Nut at the temple at Papremis. He had grown up elsewhere and the guards of the temple did not know him. When they refused him admission, he went to a nearby town, raised an army to storm the walls of the temple, and succeeded in forcing his way in. Herodotus said that in later years a ceremony was performed at the temple to commemorate the event. One group of priests carried a small, gold-plated wooden statue of Seth God on a four-wheeled cart. They tried to gain admission to the temple, but were denied it by another band of priests. A mock battle ensued in which thousands of men engaged each other with clubs. Herodotus believed that some were killed even though he had been assured that all this was done as part of a religious festival.

The physical form given to Seth God was often that of a human body with the head of an animal. (Today the animal is called the “Seth animal” because it is not otherwise identifiable.) The nose looked rather like that of a camel or an ass, and it had a tail that stood straight up and forked at the end. Some scholars think it might have been some sort of desert animal that was hunted to extinction at an early period, but others identify it as an aard- vark, canine, or some other surviving creature. In truth, it does not look quite like any animal we know today. At times Seth God was simply portrayed in animal form without the human body.

He was also associated with the serpent, ass, antelope, pig, hippopotamus, crocodile, and fish. Seth God was a red god. His domain was the red desert, and only red oxen were sacrificed to him. Red- haired men were distrusted as his representatives on earth. He was married to Nephthys and their child was Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, although there is some questions of his paternity. After Seth’s murder of Osiris, however, Nephthys was usually depicted as supporting Isis against Seth God.

In the Valley of the Kings, Seth God can be seen pouring libations over Seti I in his tomb, placing the crown on the head of Ramses II, and teaching the young Thutmose III to use a bow and arrow. He was remembered at Kom Ombo, and at Edfu there are famous wall carvings that depict the battle between Seth God and Horus. His fame spread from the oases in the desert to the fertile land of the Delta, where he was worshipped at times. There are not many surviving statues of Seth God , but the Egyptian Museum in Cairo contains one of Seth God and Horus crowning harnesses III. Seth’s figure in this piece was damaged, perhaps deliberately, but has now been restored.

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