The War of Horus and Set

by David McIntee

  The vast interior of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, which clearly has plenty of room for gods and men to battle within. (Library of Congress)

  Can a god be killed? Set and his ally Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, were determined to find out what it would take to get rid of Osiris permanently.

  The queen, sadly, did not understand who Isis really was and spied on her. When she saw Isis put her son in a fire and fly round him in the form of a sparrow, she burst in to interrupt. Isis resumed her true form and revealed that the young prince was unharmed by the fire. In fact, repetition of the ritual would have made him immortal, but the queen’s interruption prevented this, so he was merely cured of his sickness. Nevertheless, Malcander and Astarte of Byblos fulfilled their side of the bargain: since Isis had cured their son, they gave her the sarcophagus. Afterwards, knowing that the tamarisk tree had indeed held a god, they worshipped it even more reverently.

  Isis had the sarcophagus loaded onto a boat and sailed back to Egypt. When she reached the Nile Delta, she hid the boat among the reeds and opened the sarcophagus. Osiris, inside, was dead and discoloured, but Isis was not ready to lose her husband yet. She went to her father, Geb, who gave her a spell for resurrecting the dead. The wise Thoth also helped, instructing her on how to preserve Osiris by mummifying him.

  Isis applied the sacred oils and potions, wrapped Osiris in linen, and performed the spell that returned him to life. Reunited once more, Osiris and Isis were more concerned for each other than about Set’s actions. Osiris, in particular, refused to believe that his brother had done this deliberately. They reassured each other and made love. Before long, Isis gave birth to a son, Horus.

  Set the Zombie Slayer

  Osiris had been careful to keep a low profile, so that his brother would not know that he had returned until it was too late, and Osiris could expose his treachery to all. Therefore, while Isis tended to their son, who had been stung by a scorpion, Osiris remained on board the boat that had brought him back to Egypt.

  The presence of Horus could not go unnoticed for long, however, and since Set’s wife Nephthys was helping to raise him, it was not long before Set learned from her that Osiris had returned from the dead. Set and the queen of Ethiopia, therefore, made contact with their 72 co-conspirators to tell them the news. Set did not know where Osiris was, but they all knew that the sooner he was found and destroyed permanently, the less chance there would be of him exposing their crime.

  Set and his allies scoured the whole of Egypt for Osiris, all the way from the borders of Ethiopia to the Nile Delta, and west through Libya and the great desert, but without success. Ironically, success finally came when Set stopped looking for Osiris and set off to hunt some wild boar. He had been tracking a pair of boar for some time, when they managed to lose him by hiding in a riverbank thick with reeds. While trying to rediscover their trail among the reeds, Set noticed a glint out of the corner of his eye. It was the gilded surface of the sarcophagus, sitting in a boat camouflaged with reeds. Set was thrilled by his discovery and considered how best to make use of the knowledge. He had immediately forgotten all about the boars, as he had more important prey now.

  GODS AND PHARAOHS

  It has been quite common for royalty in many cultures to be deified in some way. Usually kings were considered to be either appointed by the culture’s gods or to become a god themselves, by ritual or after death.

  Ancient Egypt went a lot further with its linking of god and pharaoh. Throughout Egyptian history, the pharaoh was always viewed as a divine being who was essentially an avatar of a god – usually Ra. When the pharaoh died, he would then literally become Osiris. Likewise, Osiris was always the pharaoh, and was depicted with the accoutrements of Egyptian kingship: crook, flail, and crown.

  Throughout the reign of a pharaoh, the royal court would also re-enact the important events from mythology at regular intervals, during which the pharaoh would not only take on the role of the most important god – generally Osiris, Ra, or Horus, depending on the myth being re-enacted – but would be considered actually to be the god at that point. It was, perhaps, similar to the way voodoo dancers are considered to be possessed by their gods when they dance. The murder and resurrection of Osiris, for example, was re-enacted around 13th November each year, while the contendings of Set and Horus were re-enacted in the Heb-Sed festival when a pharaoh’s reign reached its 30th year. Egyptian mythology is far from unique in having gods and historical mortals interact; Greek mythology is also full of such mixing, with various kings and heroes said be the offspring of gods. However, Egypt got there first. By the time Greek mythology was being written, Greek dynasties were already familiar with Egyptian myth, and the pattern of gods and real people mixing followed naturally from one to the other. There may well be a more practical reason for this mix, however. Egypt’s history is so long that, even by the Middle Kingdom in 2000 BC, the Egyptian empire was over a thousand years old, and the early dynasties were considered ancient by the Egyptians themselves. The kings and heroes of the pre-Dynastic era and the Old Kingdom had largely been forgotten, but the continuity of how things were done had to remain stable. The best way to remember things, culturally, has always been in the form of myth and story. It would be very surprising if at least some of the events in the myths were not genuinely based on events in Egypt’s history centuries before, since we know that a number of subsequent situations were mythologized even later in Egypt’s history, especially by the Graeco-Roman writers, and particularly involving the rivalry of Set and Horus.

  Set summoned Aso and his other allies and established that Osiris was in a temple on the riverbank, near to which the boat with his sarcophagus was moored. While most of the conspirators spread out to watch for either Isis approaching or Osiris leaving, Set and Aso entered the temple.

  Osiris was there and at first assumed Set had come to apologize for accidentally trapping him in the sarcophagus. Set corrected him at once, explaining how he deserved Osiris’s throne and had set out to take it. Osiris immediately reached for a weapon to defend himself against the brother who had already killed him once. He was a good fighter, but he was both outnumbered and weakened by his first death. Nevertheless, he put up a good fight against both his brother and the ambitious queen. Swords clashed, the sounds echoing throughout the temple, and the queen of Ethiopia might have lost her life to even the weakened god, if she had not been allied to Set. In the end, though, the outcome was inevitable – Set cut down his brother.

  The queen of Ethiopia could not believe what they had done. Osiris had not stayed dead before, after all, and so she was sure it was impossible to destroy a god. Set was determined to prove Aso wrong. As Osiris lay on the temple floor, he hacked the body into more than a dozen pieces, and announced with a laugh that he had done what she thought impossible. When the deed was done, they gathered up the pieces and divided them among their followers, so that each piece could be disposed of separately. Some were thrown into the Nile, others into lakes or deep pits, and still others into the merciless heat of the western desert.

  THE VENGEFUL NEPHEW

  The First Mummy

  As mentioned earlier, Horus had been stung by a scorpion, and Isis had gone to care for him. The young god was soon sufficiently recovered, and so Isis returned to where she had left Osiris and found him missing. Concerned about his safety, she went to her sister, Nephthys, to see if he had gone to visit her. Nephthys said she had not seen him either. Together with Nephthys’s son Anubis, and seven scorpions as bodyguards, they went in search of Osiris.

  Returning to the temple near his boat, they found plenty of signs of violence – overturned tables, broken chairs and toppled lamps – and, most worryingly of all, bloodstains all over the floor. It was clear to all of them what had happened, and Isis and Nephthys were both equally certain who was responsible. If Osiris had succeeded in fighting off an attack, he would have still been there, triumphant. Since he was not there, and there was so much blood, they knew he had not wo
n the battle that had been fought.

  Together, the two goddesses performed the funeral rites for Osiris in absentia, and then Isis insisted that Nephthys returned to protect Horus from anything Set might do to the innocent youngster. Though Nephthys did not believe her husband would harm an innocent child, she could not refuse her widowed sister anything. The goddesses, therefore, took Horus to the island of the cobra goddess, Wadjet, and then Isis used her magic to make the island float and move around the kingdom so that Set – or anyone else who might wish harm to the son of Osiris – would never know where to look for it. Isis then constructed a smaller boat for herself out of reeds, and set off to search for the pieces of her husband. It was a long search, taking Isis the length and breadth of Egypt. Sometimes a person would be able to tell her that they had seen something being thrown into the river, and it would turn out of be a piece of the body. At other times she used spells to find them, and when all else failed, she transformed into a bird to spy out the locations from above. Over time, she collected many pieces in her little boat.

  Isis was, however, suspicious that some of Set’s allies might be spying on her to see if she might resurrect Osiris once more. So, just to be on the safe side, every time she found a piece of the body, she built a shrine and performed the funeral rites on that spot. That way, she hoped, Set and his friends would look in one of those places for Osiris – if they looked at all – while she actually kept all the pieces in her reed boat. Once she had all the pieces, she sailed her boat to the gates of the Duat.

  More accurately, once she had all the pieces she could get. It was said that one piece was never found, having been eaten by a catfish; and that it was just as well she had already had a child by him.

  Isis then sewed all the pieces together into one body, with many new layers of wrappings. Into the wrappings she sewed protective amulets such as jewellery and stone scarabs, and also parchments with spells of both protection and guidance. Then she performed the resurrection rituals, opening his mouth so he could breathe once more. Once again, Osiris rose, but this time it was only to be parted from his wife. His body having been destroyed, Osiris could no longer live in the mortal world, but would instead rule the Duat as judge of the dead.

  Osiris would make the journey that all pharaohs after him had to make through the trials and tests of the Duat, and then would remain there as king of the dead, to make sure that all those who followed him would be treated fairly as they undertook their trials. Isis understood this, and, being a goddess, knew she could still visit him there at any time. Osiris had only one request of her in the living world: to make sure that Horus knew what Set had done and to act appropriately.

  Set and Horus ‘celebrate’ the union of Upper and Lower Egypt by tying lotus and papyrus reeds to the Pillar of Unity, in a tomb from the 12th Dynasty, circa 1900 BC. (The Art Archive / Alamy)

  Isis promised that this would be so.

  THE MUMMY

  In the Egyptian religion, to reach the Field of Offerings the deceased not only had to pass the various tests in the Duat, but his body needed to be intact and in good condition. It had to be protected for eternity, and the Egyptians decided that the best way to achieve this was to mummify the body.

  In purely physical terms, a mummy is a corpse – of a person or animal – that has been preserved by being dried out. There are different types of mummies from ancient cultures around the world, including Egypt and the Incas of Peru. Egyptian mummies are the most famous, not least because Ancient Egypt’s mummies were a central element of that civilization’s culture and society. The mummy in Ancient Egypt is tied directly to the myth of Osiris and his killing by Set. Essentially, Osiris in the myth becomes the first pharaonic mummy.

  The pharaoh in Egypt was always equated directly with various gods, and when he died he was believed to have become Osiris. Mummies in Egypt, as in Peru and elsewhere, were originally formed naturally, when a body was left in the desert with the correct conditions for it to dry out. The earliest surviving Egyptian mummy, British Museum Mummy 32751 (which was originally nicknamed ‘Ginger’ for its hair colour) was a man who was mummified by natural means, drying out in the desert. No one is quite sure whether he was placed there to be mummified intentionally, or whether he was simply found that way by the Egyptians and then considered to have received some kind of special favour from the gods. He dates from around 3400 BC, almost a thousand years before the earliest recording of the Osiris myth, which means he or someone like him may even have inspired this element of Egyptian beliefs and funerary rites. In any case, the Egyptians soon got into the habit of mummifying their most important people.

  What exactly did the Egyptians do first to their Pharaohs, and, later, to anyone else who wanted eternal life in the hereafter? First of all, the mortuary priests would wash the body in wine. They would then remove the stomach, liver, intestines and lungs. These would be packed in natron – a naturally-occurring salt – to draw out the moisture from them. The heart was left in the body, because the Egyptians believed it was both the seat of the souls (there were two) and of intelligence. They thought the brain was merely the source of nasal mucus – snot, if you will – and so had a special hooked tool to pull it out through the nose. The cadaver was then stuffed with rags and natron, and covered with natron, to absorb all its moisture. Then they left it for 40 days.

  Forty days later, the natron and rags were removed and the body washed again, then oiled, to keep the dried-out skin elastic and lifelike. It had to be usable for eternity, after all. Between the Old Kingdom and the Saïte period, from back in 2600 BC until the Persian conquest of 525 BC, the internal organs that had been removed would be placed into canopic jars. These were pottery jars each topped with the head of one of the sons of Horus, each representing one of the compass points. The stomach went into the jar with the jackal head of Duamutef, god of the east. The lungs went into the jar with the baboon-head of Hapi, god of the north. The liver went into the human-headed jar of Imsety, god of the south, while the intestines went into the falcon-headed jar of Qebehsenuef, god of the west. After 525 BC, through to around 30 BC, the desiccated organs were wrapped in linen and put back into the body. Canopic jars were still buried with the deceased but were just symbolic in the later era.

  Canopic jars, with lids representing (from left to right): Qebehsenuef, the god of the west; Hapi, god of the north; Duamutef, god of the east; Imseti, god of the south. (Ancient Art & Architecture Collection Ltd / Alamy)

  Any cavities in the body were then stuffed with sawdust, dried leaves, and anything else handy that would pad it out to the shape and size it had been in life. It was then anointed with perfumed oils, after which came the mummy’s most distinctive feature: the wrappings. Almost everything was wrapped individually in linen strips: the head, fingers, toes, arms and legs – in that order – and then, finally, the torso. There were multiple layers of linen, with charms and amulets between them. These items, in the form of jewellery and spells on papyrus, were meant to protect and assist the deceased in the Duat, as were the spells recited by an attending priest during the wrapping. The legs were tied together, and, finally, so were the hands, holding a scroll from the Book of the Dead, the indispensable guide to making it through the Duat. Mortals were also at risk of attack from Apep just as Ra was, so it was wise to be prepared. In particular, the Amduat gives a map, as well as details of each of the tests.

  In many ways, Set’s protection of Ra during his journey through the Duat is echoed by the embalmers and relatives of the deceased, who helped a deceased person – whether a pharaoh or otherwise – on their journey after death. By ensuring that the deceased had the right amulets and spells, that the Amduat would guide them, and that they would thus be able to avoid Apep on the way to the heart-weighing, they were, in a way, performing the role that Set played each night. Perhaps this is another reason why he remained such a memorable god, who still had worshippers and a cult even when demonized as a villain: everyone who helped bury a lo
ved one did something good that Set did.

  With the texts safely added, the whole package was then bound in wider lined strips, glued down with plant resin, and the outer surface painted as a portrait of Osiris. Once wrapped in rougher cloth, the mummy was ready.

  When Set and Horus finally came to outright battle, they both had allies, as mortal armies supported their chosen gods.

  Horus vs Set

  As a child, Horus had been raised on Wadjet’s moving island, while Set watched over both of the Two Kingdoms, making himself appear to be fulfilling a reluctant duty in taking care of his late brother’s land during his absence, as well as still ruling his own half. Eventually, however, the time came when Horus was ready to seek his father’s place. Isis fulfilled her promise to her husband by telling Horus what had happened to his father. As he learned the story, Horus grew more and more angry at what his uncle had done.

  Osiris then visited the living world for one day, to judge his son’s readiness for the task of seeking justice. He asked his son, ‘What is the noblest thing a man can do?’ Horus replied, ‘Avenge the evil done to his father and mother.’ Osiris then asked, ‘What is the best animal for seeking revenge?’ Horus said that would be a horse. For a moment, Osiris was puzzled, as this was not the sort of answer he had expected. He asked Horus why he did not choose a lion instead. Horus said simply, ‘A lion is best for a man in need of help of teeth and claws to defend himself with, but a horse is best for pursuing a fleeing enemy and cutting off his escape.’