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ikhet_sekhmetThis journal's about goddesses, but I've been curious about the Ancient Egyptian god Set (aka Seth, Setekh, Sutekh), the god of storms, the desert, and foreign countries. Set is the murderer of Osiris and enemy of Horus, yet also stands alongside Horus in the prow of the solar barque, the boat that carries the sun-god Ra, fighting the serpent Apophis who's trying to end the world. At times he was an outcast - even identified with Apophis - but at other times an important state god. He could even be united with Horus and worshipped as "he with the two faces". How can a god of evil also be an ally of good?
The pharaoh could be associated with both Horus and Set, and represented as Horus-Set. At least one king had a Set-name as well as a Horus-name. Te Velde says: "Ruling, the king is Horus; when he must use force he is Seth. Neither of the two aspects can be dispensed with. It is the co-operation of boths gods in the king which guarantees the welfare of the world."
Discussing the apparent contradiction, Herman te Velde points out that Set is called a nbd, a kind of demon, both when he's being described as the murderer of Osiris and as the protector of Ra. The worshippers who glorified him for fighting Apophis would have also accepted that he was Horus' enemy and Osiris' killer: Set was both these things. Te Velde wonderfully quotes Th. P. van Baaren: "In essence, each important god comprises all possibilities. Gods cannot be sorted out like buttons."
Te Velde reasons that it was Set's aggression that made him an appropriate occupant of the solar barque. He points out that the gods imagined as being aboard the barque are "chiefly male gods of an aggressive character", such as Month and Onuris. "As the notorious rowdy and thunder-god, the opponent of Horus and the slayer of Osiris, [Set] was eminently suitable to do the dirty work." In fact, he could be seen as a violent aspect of Ra.
Te Velde says Set was both "glorified and abhorred". He quotes van Baaren again: "... the originator of confusion, like the creator who sets in order, is an aspect of total reality who cannot be spared."
Horus-Set.
ETA: te Velde speculates that Set may be the cause of miscarriage (pp 28-9). He notes that, according to Plutarch, Set was not born but "with a blow he broke through his mother's side and leapt forth"; he was "abandoned by his concubine Thoeris", goddess of pregnancy. Set declares (kind of awesomely, actually) in a Turin papyrus that "I am a man of a million cubits, whose name is Evil Day. As for the day of giving birth or of conceiving, there is no giving birth and trees bear no fruit." (Miscarried foetuses were put into Bes' care "and even buried in wooden Bes figures".)
___
Morenz, Seigfried. Egyptian Religion. Methuen, London, 1973.
Sauneron, Serge. The Priests of Ancient Egypt. Cornell UP, Ithaca, 2000.
te Velde, H. Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion. Brill, Leiden, 1977.
The pharaoh could be associated with both Horus and Set, and represented as Horus-Set. At least one king had a Set-name as well as a Horus-name. Te Velde says: "Ruling, the king is Horus; when he must use force he is Seth. Neither of the two aspects can be dispensed with. It is the co-operation of boths gods in the king which guarantees the welfare of the world."
Discussing the apparent contradiction, Herman te Velde points out that Set is called a nbd, a kind of demon, both when he's being described as the murderer of Osiris and as the protector of Ra. The worshippers who glorified him for fighting Apophis would have also accepted that he was Horus' enemy and Osiris' killer: Set was both these things. Te Velde wonderfully quotes Th. P. van Baaren: "In essence, each important god comprises all possibilities. Gods cannot be sorted out like buttons."
Te Velde reasons that it was Set's aggression that made him an appropriate occupant of the solar barque. He points out that the gods imagined as being aboard the barque are "chiefly male gods of an aggressive character", such as Month and Onuris. "As the notorious rowdy and thunder-god, the opponent of Horus and the slayer of Osiris, [Set] was eminently suitable to do the dirty work." In fact, he could be seen as a violent aspect of Ra.
Te Velde says Set was both "glorified and abhorred". He quotes van Baaren again: "... the originator of confusion, like the creator who sets in order, is an aspect of total reality who cannot be spared."
Horus-Set.
ETA: te Velde speculates that Set may be the cause of miscarriage (pp 28-9). He notes that, according to Plutarch, Set was not born but "with a blow he broke through his mother's side and leapt forth"; he was "abandoned by his concubine Thoeris", goddess of pregnancy. Set declares (kind of awesomely, actually) in a Turin papyrus that "I am a man of a million cubits, whose name is Evil Day. As for the day of giving birth or of conceiving, there is no giving birth and trees bear no fruit." (Miscarried foetuses were put into Bes' care "and even buried in wooden Bes figures".)
___
Morenz, Seigfried. Egyptian Religion. Methuen, London, 1973.
Sauneron, Serge. The Priests of Ancient Egypt. Cornell UP, Ithaca, 2000.
te Velde, H. Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion. Brill, Leiden, 1977.
