The
myth of the conflict between Seth and Horus appears to be rooted deep in the
history of the Upper and Lower kingdoms of Egypt. The conflict begins after Seth has
dismembered Osiris, the father of Horus, and is trying to claim the throne of Egypt
for himself. According to Griffiths, the entire trial of this myth is dealing with
the sovereignty of Egypt and
the conflict between the Upper and Lower
Kingdoms[1]. The myth in question shall be laid out
followed by reasoning as to why it was important to the kings of Egypt.
At
the beginning of the trail part of the myth, Horus goes before the Great Ennead
to plead his case against the murder of his father by Seth, and to denounce the
taking of the rule of Egypt. The gods of the Ennead heard Horus’ speech
and were both pleased and impressed with him and what he had to say. The fact that Horus had justice and the
legitimate claim to the throne on his side persuaded Shu to decree that Horus
should be the inheritor of the kingdom that was Osiris, and this was seconded
by Thoth, the god of wisdom’[2].
Isis,
mother of Horus, was extremely happy with the decision that was made to let
Horus have the kingdom
of Osiris and sent word
of the decision to the west, which was according to the Egyptians, the
direction of the underworld where Osiris had become the God of the Dead. This is in part due to the conflict between
Osiris and Seth. Through these conflicts
and multiple killings of by Seth, Osiris gained in significance until he
absorbed the essence of Khentiamentiu, Foremost of Westerners[3],
and became Osiris, Foremost of Westerners[4].
Horus
was given the White Crown[5]
by Shu, which angered Seth and started declaring that he should be the rightful
owner of the White Crown, as he is the only god that can slay the enemies of Re
each day in the Bark of Millions of Years, which is the vessel rowed by the
twelve great gods around the zodiac[6]. The Ennead at this statement began to
reconsider their position in favour of Seth, but Horus countered by asking them
if they would give the office to the uncle when the bodily son is present[7]. At this point, Isis
was displeased with the Ennead and complained to them until they gave in to her
and promised that they would honour the original verdict in the name of justice
for Horus.
Seth
began to threaten the entire Ennead that if they went back on their word to
give him the kingdom of Osiris, he would kill one of them each day, and that
he wanted to have a trial without Isis being
present[8]. Re agreed to the further trial without Isis,
and moved the location to the Island in the Midst with instructions that Isis was not allowed to be taken there. Isis
however, being the goddess of magic, changed into an old crone and loaded
herself with flour and honeycakes. She
went to the ferryman and paid him with a gold ring to take her to the Island in the Midst[9].
She
found where the Ennead were holding a feast and saw that Seth was standing away
from the rest of the gods. She changed
once again, this time into a beautiful young woman in a widow’s garb. As she approached Seth, he asked her who she
was and why she was there. Crying, Isis
told Seth that she was looking for someone to avenge her as her husband, a
herdsman, had died suddenly, leaving just her and their son, and that a man had
came and taken their cattle and their land, and threatened the son if he tried
to do anything about it. Seth told Isis not to cry and that he would be her champion to
avenge her and destroy this man, as it was not right that the man should take
what rightfully should go to the son[10].
When
Seth had proclaimed this, Isis began to laugh
at him and told him that he had just judged himself, and she then flew
away. The rest of the gods asked Seth
why he was enraged, and he told them how Isis
had tricked him. Re told Seth that he
had indeed judged himself, and the Ennead moved to the mountains and began to
prepare to hand the White Crown to Horus.
Seth then challenged Horus to a contest in the river as hippopotami for
the rule of the kingdom. Horus accepted
the challenge and the contest lasted for many days. Isis
fashioned a magical harpoon and threw it in the river to spear Seth, but misses
and catches Horus first. Horus complains
and Isis removes the harpoon and casts it
again, this time catching Seth. Seth
convinces her to remove it as they are brother and sister, so she does, and
Horus becomes enraged and comes out of the river and cuts off Isis’
head[11].
Horus
then leaves and goes into the mountains.
When Re finds Isis without a head, he
orders Horus found and brought back for punishment. Seth finds Horus in the desert and removes
his eyes and buries them, returns to Re and then says that he could not find
Horus. Hathor, however, found Horus in
the desert in pain and milks a gazelle to magically cure his eyes. After this, Hathor returns to Re and informs
him that Seth was lying and what really happened. This makes Re loose his temper and orders
Seth and Horus brought before him. Re
informs them both that everyone is tired of their fighting and that they need
to stop. Seth acquiesces and invites
Horus to a feast. That night, Seth
attempts to rape Horus, but Horus unbeknownst to Seth blocks the semen with his
hand and tells Isis what happened[12].
Isis the cut off Horus’ hand and threw it
into a marsh. In order to get revenge on
Seth and humiliate him, Isis uses her magic to
extract the semen of Horus into a jar and then goes and spreads it on the
lettuce in Seth’s garden so that he will eat it. Soon, Seth eats the lettuce and then goes to
the court of the Ennead to humiliate Horus by proclaiming how he has
homosexually dominated him. The Ennead
is disgusted with Horus and begin to spit at him, but Horus laughs it off. Horus asks that both his and Seth’s semen be
called forward so that everyone can see where they come from and that Seth is
lying[13].
Thoth
performs the summoning by placing his hand on Horus first and asking for Seth’s
semen. Seth’s semen comes forward from
the marshes instead of from Horus. Thoth
then places his hand on Seth and calls for Horus’ semen, which comes out of Seth
in the form of a golden disk above his head.
This humiliates Seth and vindicates Horus, but Seth still refuses to
back down. He proposes one last
competition of building boats from stone and sailing them in a race. Horus builds his boat from wood first, and
covers it in a stone plaster and launches it.
Seth, not knowing that this is what Horus had done, cut the top of a
mountain off and used it for his boat[14].
When
Seth’s boat sinks and Horus’ does not, Seth becomes angry and changes once
again into a hippopotamus and destroys Horus’ boat. Horus, angered by Seth, gets his spear and
tried to kill Seth, but is stopped by the gods.
In frustration, Horus sails to Sais to
consult with Neith, asking why after being proved the rightful heir to the kingdom of Osiris many times is a decision not yet
made. While Horus was at Sais, Thoth convinces Re
to write to Osiris and give him titles and powers in the underworld and asks
him for his opinion on Horus and Seth.
Osiris explains how important he was to the gods, and that as such,
Horus should be his heir. Re is offended
with Osiris’ response and tells him that he was not influential at all. Osiris retaliates with threats of using the
souls in the underworld to track down anyone who is doing wrong, as well as a
reminder that everyone, including the gods, go to the underworld at some
point. This convinces the Ennead to
grant everything to Horus at last, and Seth’s final humiliation is at the hands
of Isis when she leads him in front of the
gods as a prisoner to abdicate the throne.
Re takes pity on Seth again and declares that Seth will ride with him
through the sky and be the thunder[15].
Geb
then proclaimed that Horus was going to be the uniter of the land, and the two
great magickians appeared on Horus’ head, and he arose as the king of both
Upper and Lower Egypt. From this time, Horus and Seth were united
and pacified, and was signified by the papyrus and reeds placed on the door of
the house of Ptah[16].
From
this myth depicting the struggle between Seth and Horus over the rightful
kingship of Egypt, it can be surmised that the myth is a depiction of the
unification of the Upper and Lower kingdoms in the pre-dynastic era by the
cults that worshiped Horus in the Lower kingdom gaining more power than those
that worshiped Seth in the Upper, as postulated by Griffiths[17]. The entire trial depicted in the myth would
be a retelling of some of the struggles between the two cults of these gods,
and the first verdict of Horus being given the kingdom would be the depiction
of that cult overcoming the cult of Seth at that time. Towards the end of the myth, when the god Geb
proclaims Horus the uniter of the land and that Horus and Seth were from that
time unified and pacified, this would be showing the final triumph of the
Horus-cult over that of Seth[18].
Further
evidence in the Pyramid Texts suggests that Seth and Horus were incorporated in
the King, and both gods have been depicted as cooperating for the good of the
king. Both of these things suggest that
the legend of the conflict and reconciliation is in relation to an important
fact in Egypt’s history such
as the formation of a united
kingdom[19]. The fact that the gods Horus and Seth are
both seen as being unified and then personified in the actual king or pharaoh
of Egypt
would have made this a highly significant myth to the kings. The myth shows that the king is a god, and
that he is the rightful heir by divine decree of the Ennead to rule over all of
Egypt. This fact would also lend weight to why the
myth was perpetuated throughout Egypt
around the first dynastic period when the kingdoms were united. By doing so, the people of Egypt would
accept the pharaoh as their king more readily during the unification
process.
Bibliography
D'Auria, S., Lacovara, P., Roehrig, C. (1988). "Osiris" in Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. pg. 50-51
Griffiths, G. (1960).
Interpretation in the Conflict of
Horus and Seth From Egyptian and Classical Sources. pg. 119-148
Hart, G.
(1990). "Myth of kingship" in Egyptian Myths. pg. 29-41
Massey, G. (2001). Ancient
Egypt:
The Light of the World – A Work of Reclamation and Restitution in Twelve Books. Adamant Media Corporation
[1] Griffiths Interpretation p. 121
[3]
Westerners here mean the dead; thus ‘Foremost of the Westerners’ means the
leader or god of the dead.
[4] D’Auria,
Osiris, p. 51
[5] Which is
the upper kingdom
of Egypt
[6] Massey, Ancient Egypt p. 337
[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid
[11] Hart Myth of Kingship p. 36
[12] Ibid
[13] Ibid p.
37
[14] Ibid
[15] Ibid
[17] Griffiths Interpretation p. 140-142
[18] Ibid
[19] Ibid p.
121
No comments:
Post a Comment