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I came across this site dedicated to iconography of the god Seth. Don't know what would possess anyone to go through such lengths to document Seth but...
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I'm curious why you would ask why anyone would go to such lengths to discuss Seth. Why wouldn't they? Seth is part of the group of Gods like Osiris, Isis and Horus, right? Looks to me like you can't have one without the other. Is there something wrong with talking about Seth?
Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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quote:I'm curious why you would ask why anyone would go to such lengths to discuss Seth. Why wouldn't they? Seth is part of the group of Gods like Osiris, Isis and Horus, right? Looks to me like you can't have one without the other. Is there something wrong with talking about Seth?
Grumman, it was meant tongue in cheek; a pun on "possession" by the devil. Obviously my jest missed the mark.
I do think a discussion about Seth would be very interesting.
How did the Egyptians perceive Seth? Was he evil or did he represent chaos and wild nature? Does the battle between Osiris/Horus and Seth represent civilization versus wild nature? Does the dichotomy of kmt and dsrt mirror Osiris vs Seth?
Any thoughts?
Posts: 1038 | From: Franklin Park, NJ | Registered: Aug 2005
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The story of the conflict between the Egyptian trinity represents the same story EMULATED in the bible. Light versus dark, good versus evil. Day versus night. As I recall, I believe it was Diop who proposed the Anu were worshippers of Set. I have always been confused by this statement and meaning to find some clarification in regard to Diop's assumption. The Anu wrote, Coming Forth By Day, which obviously is dedicated to Osiris versus Set.
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Ancient Egyptian belief,much like other African beliefs, did not really have a set definition in the Judeo-Christian sense of what good and evil was. Set,often seen as evil, was also seen as the slayer of Apep(the serpent which emulated ignorance, and therefore a good pressence inspite of his adversity with Ausar(Osiris).
If you are familiar with Yoruba belief he is more of a trickster like Eshu.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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^ So, Set was more akin to Loki in Norse mythology than Satan, or maybe a more complex mix of the two?
Horus, IMHO was presented as much more a trickster than Set. The tricks Set played were for keeps, such as murdering Osiris, murdering Horus, etc., Both being redeemed and resurrected by Isis.
Posts: 2403 | Registered: Feb 2010
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quote:Originally posted by ausar: Ancient Egyptian belief,much like other African beliefs, did not really have a set definition in the Judeo-Christian sense of what good and evil was. Set,often seen as evil, was also seen as the slayer of Apep(the serpent which emulated ignorance, and therefore a good pressence inspite of his adversity with Ausar(Osiris).
If you are familiar with Yoruba belief he is more of a trickster like Eshu.
Exactly, of course some need so badly for the Bible to be a copy of Egypt to ease their Ego's. Set was never evil until later conquests by non African people starting with the 26th dynasty.
The Lord of Upper Egypt.
* Cult Center: Ombos.
* Attributes: Early in Egyptian history, Seth is spoken of in terms of reverence as the god of wind and storms. He was even known as the Lord of Upper Egypt. Horus being the Lord of Lower Egypt. It was Seth who stood in the front of the solar barque to defended the sun god Ra from his most dangerous foe, the serpent Apep. At this time, he seems to have had no conflicts with the cults of Isis or Osiris. In fact, he was part of the same family of gods, and married to his twin sister, Nephthys.
. . . . .However, it appears the followers of Seth may have resisted the followers of Horus and the First Dynasty pharaoh, Menes, when he united Upper and Lower Egypt. This struggle for control of Egypt seems to be reflected in the mythology. At this point, Seth is portrayed as questioning the authority of his brother, Osiris. The Osiris cults took this opportunity to discredit the followers of Seth; he was now considered to be Osiris' evil brother. And the story was told that Seth was evil since birth, because he ripped himself from his mother's womb by tearing through her side. In the Osiris legends, it is Seth who tricks and murders Osiris. He is also the antagonist of Horus. By the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, Seth was the embodiment of evil. He was depicted with red eyes and hair. The ancient Egyptians beleived red represented evil.Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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You are correct. It's been a minute since I cracked open Budge's Gods Of Book Of The Dead.
Set or Sutekh the eighth member of the company of the gods of Annu, was the son of Seb and Nut, and the husband of his sister Nephthys. The worship of this god is exceedingly old, and in the pyramid texts we find that be is often mentioned with Horus and the other gods of the Heliopolitan company in terms of reverence. He was also believed to perform friendly offices for the deceased, and to be a god of the Sekhet-Aaru, or abode of the blessed dead. He is usually depicted in human form with the head of an animal which has not yet been identified; in later times the head of the ass was confounded with it, but the figures of the god in bronze which are preserved in the British Museum and elsewhere prove beyond a doubt that the head of Set is that of an animal unknown to us. In the early dynasties he was a beneficent god, and one whose favour was sought after by the living and by the dead, and so late as the XIXth dynasty kings delighted to call themselves "beloved of Set." About the XXIInd dynasty, however, it became the fashion to regard the god as the origin of all evil, and his statues and images were so effectually destroyed that only a few which escaped by accident have come down to us. Originally Set, or Sut, represented the natural night and was the opposite of Horus; that Horus and Set were opposite aspects or forms of the same god is proved by the figure given by Lanzone (Dizionario, tav. 37, No. 2), where we see the head of Set and the head of Horus upon one body. The natural opposition of the day and night was at an early period confounded with the battle which took place between Horus, the son of Isis, and Set, wherein Isis intervened, and it seems that the moral idea of the battle of right against wrong became attached to the latter combat, which was undertaken by Horus to avenge his father's murder by Set.Posts: 2403 | Registered: Feb 2010
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''Grumman, it was meant tongue in cheek; a pun on "possession" by the devil. Obviously my jest missed the mark.''
Yes your jest did miss the mark. You probably understood that everyone would automatically know about Seth; maybe that's why you didn't offer an explanation until now.
Maybe I should check out the link on Set to get the hang of what everybody else already knows. It might be an interesting read.
Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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I found this comment about Seth on the Tour Egypt website:
quote:He was also believed to have white skin and red hair, with the Egyptians comparing his hair to the pelt of a donkey. Due to his association with red ( dshr - adding a t makes the word for desert, dshrt), red animals and even people with red hair were thought to be his followers. These animals were sometimes sacrificed, while the link between Set and red-heads - usually foreigners - gave him godhood over foreign lands. With the relationship to foreign peoples, Set was also a god of overseas trade of oils, wood and metals from over the sea and through desert routes. He was given lordship over western Asia because of this.
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^According to the above website Seth was also linked to sexual deviance. This is interesting in light of the association of the Judeo-Christian satan with sexual permiscuity.
Posts: 1038 | From: Franklin Park, NJ | Registered: Aug 2005
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I don't believe Set was white skinned because I am unware of any physical descriptions of Set in any Egyptian text. If some texts exist then please bring it to my attention.
I do believe that Set,from his inception, became associated with the color red. From contact with foreigners ancient Egypians thus associated him with red hair and thus foreigners.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:I don't believe Set was white skinned because I am unware of any physical descriptions of Set in any Egyptian text. If some texts exist then please bring it to my attention.
I've never read this before either but I've seen it repeated on a few websites. Lke anubis.org
quote:Significance: Set is the god of evil. From birth he was unliked because of his white skin and red hair. This combination of traits was extremely ostracized by the Egyptians.
quote:Originally posted by Apocalypse: I found this comment about Seth on the Tour Egypt website:
quote:He was also believed to have white skin and red hair, with the Egyptians comparing his hair to the pelt of a donkey. Due to his association with red ( dshr - adding a t makes the word for desert, dshrt), red animals and even people with red hair were thought to be his followers. These animals were sometimes sacrificed, while the link between Set and red-heads - usually foreigners - gave him godhood over foreign lands. With the relationship to foreign peoples, Set was also a god of overseas trade of oils, wood and metals from over the sea and through desert routes. He was given lordship over western Asia because of this.
I read this too, this pretty much blows away the idea of Redheads in Egypt...lol.
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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quote:Originally posted by ausar: I don't believe Set was white skinned because I am unware of any physical descriptions of Set in any Egyptian text. If some texts exist then please bring it to my attention.
I do believe that Set,from his inception, became associated with the color red. From contact with foreigners ancient Egypians thus associated him with red hair and thus foreigners.
Text does provide physical descriptions but not skin colour, hair colour, ect. In fact, early Set was always displayed with an unidentifiable animal head which to me resembles a donkey. Perhaps this attention to skin colour came later as Set's role modified.
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posted
^Exactly Jari. They had a completely different mind set. (No pun intended this time Grumman)
Posts: 1038 | From: Franklin Park, NJ | Registered: Aug 2005
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