What was Seth the god of? God Set in Ancient Egypt: what place does he occupy in Egyptian mythology? "Golden periods" of Seth worship

According to Egyptian mythology, the god Set was the deity of the desert and the personification of evil. Seth's parents were Geb and the heavenly goddess Nut. According to myths and legends, the god Set wanted to take possession of the sister of his brother Osiris and take away the earthly throne from him. First of all, for this purpose he carried out his insidious plan.

On his orders, the craftsmen made a golden sarcophagus (according to other versions, a chest), just the height of Osiris. Having invited many guests to his house (including Osiris’s brother), he said that he had decided to give this sarcophagus to anyone who could fit into it. The moment Osiris lay down, the traitors closed the lid and threw the sarcophagus into the Nile. Traveling in this way, he washed up along the Nile to the shores of Phenicia, where his wife Isis found him. And immediately Osiris was returned to the Nile Delta. Here the treacherous Seth found him and cut him into fourteen pieces. After the death of Osiris, Set became the rightful master of Egypt. The son of Osiris, the god Horus, enters into battle with the murderer and wins thanks to the help of Ra. However, Seth remains alive and the opponents decide to go to the divine court to clarify the rights of kingship.

The legal battle lasted more than eighty years, but the gods could not come to a consensus. Only the intervention of the revived Osiris helped to find the right solution. Set was deprived of the Egyptian throne, and Amon Ra took him with him to heaven to frighten everyone.

God Set was depicted in the guise of an animal, which is quite difficult to accurately define in a zoological sense. Attempts at interpretation have been quite extensive - starting from the aardvark through the okapi and the canine family and ending with the antelope. During the Old Reign, he looked more like a donkey.

But, in any case, in the image of this animal, the nomads of Upper Egypt personified power, while among the farmers of Lower Egypt it was the main symbol of trouble. Thus, Set became Horus's partner and ruled equally with him over the other part of Egypt.

Any Egyptian pharaoh was a combined personification of both brothers.

Standing on the bow of a solar ship, the Egyptian god Set fights the serpent Apep. Before the appearance of the Hykses in Egypt, Set was the supreme god, and during the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties he protected the Ramessides (hence the name of the pharaoh - Sethos).

As the “red” deity, Seth became the personification of all evil forces - “through his breath worms come to the earth.” He is the ruler of all metals - iron ores were called the “bones” of this god. With the spread of the cult of Osiris, Seth becomes outlawed for some time.

The animals that were identified with Seth are primarily the donkey, antelope, hippopotamus, pig, fish and crocodile.

In almost every world mythology there are two principles - evil and good. In Egyptian mythology, the role of the evil principle is assigned to Seth - although there are also darker, evil, cosmic forces, for example, the serpent Apep. But they are identified primarily with the elements, while Seth is endowed with completely human qualities (cruelty, envy, deceit) and appears most often in the images of a god-man.

During the period of the Old Kingdom, Seth was also given some positive features. For example, valor and strength were attributed to him after he saved Amon Ra from Apophis: positioned in Ra’s boat, Seth strikes the serpent with a spear. But gradually he gains evil qualities - the murder of Osiris made him the god of countries hostile to Egypt, a harmful god, the lord of the desert. By his origin, Seth belonged to the supreme gods - he was the third child of Geb and Nut (after Isis and Osiris). The fourth child of this divine couple (the goddess Nephthys) was, according to legend, the wife of Set.

Apparently, initially the gods were very similar to people, they were also very contradictory, which is normal for people, but does not fit with divine symbols. Over time, human and divine traits separated and in this sense, in the god Seth, the consciousness of the Egyptians could express the ongoing process of desertification of the land around the Nile Delta. Due to human activity, a similar process has been going on for several millennia.

Let's begin.

Osiris, in Egyptian mythology, the god of the productive forces of nature, the ruler of the underworld, the judge in the kingdom of the dead. Osiris was the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, brother and husband of Isis. He taught the Egyptians agriculture, viticulture and winemaking, mining and processing of copper and gold ore, the art of medicine, the construction of cities, and established the cult of the gods.
Osiris was usually depicted as a man with green skin, sitting among trees, or with a vine entwining his figure. It was believed that, like the entire plant world, Osiris dies annually and is reborn to new life, but the fertilizing life force in him remains even in the dead. Myth:
Set, his brother, the evil god of the desert, decided to destroy Osiris and made a sarcophagus according to the measurements of his older brother. Having arranged a feast, he invited Osiris and announced that the sarcophagus would be presented to the one who fit the bill. When Osiris lay down in the sarcophagus, the conspirators slammed the lid, filled it with lead and threw it into the waters of the Nile. (Picking up a sarcophagus during life was normal at that time.)
The faithful wife of Osiris, Isis, found her husband’s body, miraculously extracted the life force hidden in him and conceived a son named Horus from the dead Osiris. When Horus grew up, he took revenge on Set. Horus gave his magic Eye, torn out by Seth at the beginning of the battle, to his dead father to swallow. Osiris came to life, but did not want to return to earth, and, leaving the throne to Horus, began to reign and administer justice in the afterlife. Seth, in Egyptian mythology, the god of the desert, that is, “foreign countries,” the personification of the evil principle, the brother and killer of Osiris. During the era of the Old Kingdom, Set was revered as a warrior god, assistant to Ra and patron of the pharaohs.
As the personification of war, drought, death, Seth also embodied the evil principle - as the deity of the merciless desert, the god of foreigners: he cut down sacred trees, ate the sacred cat of the goddess Bast, etc.
The sacred animals of Seth were considered to be the pig (“disgust for the gods”), antelope, giraffe, and the main one was the donkey. The Egyptians imagined him as a man with a thin, long body and a donkey's head. Some myths attributed to Seth the salvation of Ra from the serpent Apophis - Seth pierced the giant Apophis, personifying darkness and evil, with a harpoon. Myth:
Set, jealous of his brother Osiris, killed him, threw his body into the Nile and legally took his throne. But the son of Osiris, Horus, who had been hiding for many years, wanted to take revenge on Set and take his throne. Horus and Set fought for eighty years. During one of the battles, Seth tore out Horus's eye, which then became the great amulet of the Udjat; Horus castrated Seth, depriving him of most of his essence. Horus or Horus, Horus (“height”, “sky”), in Egyptian mythology the god of the sky and the sun in the guise of a falcon, a man with the head of a falcon or a winged sun, the son of the fertility goddess Isis and Osiris, the god of productive forces. Its symbol is a solar disk with outstretched wings. Initially, the falcon god was revered as a predatory god of the hunt, with his claws digging into his prey. Myth:
Isis conceived Horus from the dead Osiris, who was treacherously killed by the formidable desert god Set, his brother. Retiring deep into the swampy Nile Delta, Isis gave birth to and raised a son, who, having matured, in a dispute with Set, sought recognition of himself as the sole heir of Osiris.
In the battle with Set, the killer of his father, Horus is first defeated - Set tore out his eye, the wonderful Eye, but then Horus defeated Set and deprived him of his masculinity. As a sign of submission, he placed the sandal of Osiris on Seth's head. Horus allowed his wonderful Eye to be swallowed by his father, and he came to life. The resurrected Osiris handed over his throne in Egypt to Horus, and he himself became the king of the underworld. Isis or Isis, in Egyptian mythology, the goddess of fertility, water and wind, a symbol of femininity and marital fidelity, the goddess of navigation. Isis helped Osiris to civilize Egypt and taught women to reap, spin and weave, cure diseases and established the institution of marriage. When Osiris went to wander the world, Isis replaced him and wisely ruled the country. Myth:
Hearing about the death of Osiris at the hands of the god of evil Set, Isis was dismayed. She cut her hair, put on mourning clothes and began searching for his body. The children told Isis that they had seen a box containing the body of Osiris floating down the Nile. The water carried him under a tree that grew on the shore near Byblos, which began to grow rapidly and soon the coffin was completely hidden in its trunk.
Upon learning of this, the king of Byblos ordered the tree to be cut down and brought to the palace, where it was used as a support for the roof in the form of a column. Isis, having guessed everything, rushed to Byblos. She dressed poorly and sat down by a well in the center of the city. When the queen's maids came to the well, Isis braided their hair and wrapped it in such a fragrance that the queen soon sent for her and took her son as a teacher. Every night Isis placed the royal child in the fire of immortality, and she herself, turning into a swallow, flew around the column with her husband’s body. Seeing her son in the flames, the queen uttered such a piercing cry that the child lost his immortality, and Isis revealed herself and asked to give her the column. Having received the body of her husband, Isis hid him in a swamp. However, Seth found the body and cut it into fourteen pieces, which he scattered throughout the country. With the help of the gods, Isis found all the pieces except the penis, which had been swallowed by the fish.
According to one version, Isis collected the body and revived Osiris to life using her healing powers, and conceived from him the god of the sky and sun, Horus. Isis was so popular in Egypt that over time she acquired the characteristics of other goddesses. She was revered as the patroness of women in labor, determining the fate of newborn kings.

God Set is a demonic character in ancient Egyptian mythology. This is the god of chaos, destruction and death.

From the very beginning, Set opposed Osiris and his son Horus (Horus) - good and fair deities, rulers of the earth and the underworld.

But it is noteworthy that Set was both the brother of Osiris and the uncle of Horus, apparently for the Egyptians this meant that good and evil, creation and destruction, birth and death are inseparable from each other and come from a common source.

Seth is the forerunner

Satan (Shaitan) in Abrahamic religions, whose name comes from the name of this Egyptian god. However, Satan is an absolute villain, a stubborn destroyer and murderer, while the figure of Set was more complex and contradictory.

Seth acquired full-fledged demonic traits quite late; at first he acted on the side of the light.

Set was the protector of the god Ra and the patron of royal power, he was a powerful warrior with red eyes and the only creature capable of defeating Apophis - the mythical serpent, who, in turn, personified absolute darkness and evil for the early Egyptians.

Subsequently, when the idea of ​​the struggle between Horus and Set as a struggle between good and evil developed, it was believed that these two gods could merge into one two-headed creature called Kheruifi.

The name Set was often included in the names of the pharaohs (for example, the famous Seti, as well as Setnakht). A vast region in North Africa - Sudan (now an independent state) was dedicated to this god.

The cult of Set flourished in cities such as Ombos, Kom-Ombos and others. Ramses III built himself a fortified city, one of the temples of which was dedicated to Set.

Birth

Like Seth, Seth was the son of the earth god Geb and the heavenly goddess Nut. According to one myth, he emerged from the side of Nut, who was revered in the guise of a cow. The Egyptians considered his birthday unlucky and tried not to do anything important on this day.

Image In the drawings, Seth was represented in different ways. One of the options is in the form of a donkey or an aardvark: with an elongated muzzle, long ears and a mane. The mane and eyes were red, which the Egyptians associated with death (as it is the color of desert sand).

Other options are in the form of a hippopotamus, crocodile, snake or a combination of these animals. During the battle with Horus, Set took the form of a pig. Another option is “the beast of Set.” It even corresponded to a separate hieroglyph, which meant “evil”, “wild”. This image somewhat resembles an aardvark or okapi (pygmy giraffe).

A description of this creature is found even in Arabic books, in which it is called “salawa”.

Why don't Semitic peoples eat pork?

It is known that Jews and Arabs (as well as all Muslims) are forbidden to eat pork. Arabs consider the pig simply a dirty animal, and Jews consider it “unkosher” because the pig does not chew its cud. The ancient Egyptians also had such a ban.

The mythological background of this law was different: the demonic god Set turned into a black pig when he fought Horus, the god of light and protector of Osiris. Obviously, the ban on eating pork was inherited by these peoples from their common ancestors and was associated with some hygienic considerations.

Perhaps the pig seemed to the Egyptians to be such a vile creature that they considered Seth himself to be its patron.

Hippopotamus

The male hippopotamus was considered the same unclean animal as the pig (unlike the female, who was identified with the good-natured goddess Taurt), so Seth was also depicted in his guise. On certain holidays, the Egyptians organized a ritual hunt for him. The people's hostility towards hippopotamuses was justified by the fact that they destroyed crops and attacked livestock.

In the story about the lawsuit between Set and Horus, the first offered the second a competition - racing on boats made of stones. Horus decided to outwit his brother and made a boat from light wood, covering it with wax, which was similar in color to stone. Seth did not accept the fact that his brother beat him, turned into a hippopotamus and overturned Horus's boat.

Seth's front leg

According to one story, during the battle with Horus, one of Seth’s legs was thrown into the sky, where the gods chained it with iron chains to a heavenly support. The hippopotamus Hesamut, the sacred animal of Isis, was entrusted with guarding this leg.

Identifications of God

Set was identified with other gods among various peoples and among the Egyptians themselves.

• Under the rule of the Hyksos (nomadic tribes of Indo-European origin), he was identified with their god Baal.
• The Libyans brought him closer to Ash, the ancient Egyptian deity of the desert.
• The Hurrians identified him with Teshub, the stern god of thunder.
• The Greeks brought him closer to the giant Typhon, generated by Gaia and emerging from volcanic fire and smoke.

Thus, Set has long played the role of an antagonist, a god of harsh natural conditions, although not an absolute villain. Even after the lost dispute with Horus, he remained the patron saint of the southern Egyptian regions and the god of military valor and courage. Only under the later pharaohs, especially the Ptolemies, who exalted Horus and his cult, did Seth finally go over to the side previously occupied by Apep.

Every culture has its own personifications of evil forces. They have a wide variety of guises and play an important role in the destinies of people. And if there is no way to resist them, then you have to somehow get along with them and get along. Such a purely negative character in mythology was the ancient Egyptian god Set, one of the most powerful rulers of the desert.

Youth and the struggle for power

Unfortunately, it has been the case since time immemorial that respectable parents do not always give birth to worthy children. So a very respected couple - Heb - the god of the earth and his wife, the beautiful Nut - the mistress of the sky - had a son, who caused them a lot of trouble in childhood, and with age, finally plunged them into sadness. Having barely reached his youth, he was inflamed with passion for Isis, the wife of his elder brother Osiris. In addition, he intended to remove him from the earthly throne, where he sat legally. To this end, the insidious god Set undertook the following.

By his order, a wondrously beautiful golden sarcophagus was made, the dimensions of which exactly corresponded to the height and build of Osiris. And then one day the young intriguer threw a dinner party, to which he invited his brother, among other guests. When the fun was in full swing, the servants brought the sarcophagus into the hall, and the owner of the house announced that he would give it to those present who could fit into it most comfortably.

Treachery disguised as generosity

Such a valuable gift brought everyone into excitement, and the guests began to take turns laying down in the golden depths. But, as we know, the god Set hatched insidious plans, and when Osiris found himself inside the sarcophagus made to his measurements, he closed the heavy lid. The servants immediately arrived and threw the unfortunate brother in his ill-fated ark into the Nile, where he was immediately picked up by the current and carried away to the shores of Phenicia.

Further events, as narrated by ancient Egyptian mythology, are like a poem about devotion, love and treachery. The beautiful Isis rejected Seth's advances and went in search of her husband. She found him in the coastal reeds, freed him from the sarcophagus and brought him home. But the insidious brother completed his dirty deed - snatching his sword, he cut the unfortunate Osiris into fourteen pieces (no more and no less). In such a criminal way, the god Seth seized undivided power over Egypt.

The trial and the happy ending of the story

But his joy was premature. It turned out that the brother he killed had a son, also a god, named Horus. And so the nephew decides to take revenge on his uncle for the death of his parent, and at the same time gain the rights to reign. Realizing that he cannot cope alone, he takes his friend, the solar Ra, to help. Together they defeat the despicable fratricide, but despite many wounds, he remains alive. Scoundrels are generally tenacious people...

Then they (all three of them) turned to the divine court so that it could decide who should rule the world. It cannot be said that in those days justice was administered faster than in our days. Their litigation dragged on for eighty years and probably would have lasted even longer if the whole story had not suddenly had a happy ending. Osiris himself miraculously came back from the dead. He became the owner of both supreme power and a beautiful wife - the faithful Isis. Evil was punished. God Ra took his friend to heaven, but there he was destined for a very unenviable role - to instill fear in everyone. However, he coped with this very well.

Symbol of Evil Origin

For everything he had done, the god Seth became the personification of chaos and disorder among the ancient Egyptians. The famous “Book of the Dead” attributes to him all the troubles caused by hurricanes and storms. They were afraid of him and tried to appease him as much as possible. It is not surprising that in the vast heavenly pantheon one of the central figures was the god Set. The photo given at the beginning of the article represents one of his figures that has come down to us. Quite a lot of such monuments have survived. In different historical periods, the appearance of the deity changed, but he was always given the features of some kind of animal.

Archaeological excavations carried out in Egypt show that his worship began in prehistoric times. This is evidenced by sculptures and amulets found in various parts of the country, which depict Seth, the god of the desert. The earliest of them is the mace of one of the first pharaohs, who lived in the fourth millennium BC. Symbols personifying the formidable lord of evil forces are clearly visible on it.

Some positives

Speaking about this character, it should be noted that he was not always given such negative traits. In the early stages of history, his image was much more attractive, and only over time it took on such a negative connotation. Historians tend to see the reason for this metamorphosis in a series of political and social disasters, reflected in mythology, and, as a result, Seth - the god of Egypt - became their personification.

But it would be unfair to reduce his role solely to the manifestation of evil. When they learned to smelt iron on the banks of the Nile, which at that time was the hardest of all known materials, it was given a name that translated means “bone of Set.” The reason lies in the fact that this deity was credited with the patronage of all those who work with metals.

Assistant in military affairs

And one more important detail. As we have already mentioned, Seth was one of the most formidable gods, but this quality of his greatly impressed the warlike Egyptian pharaohs. He was seen as the personification of strength and military might. From the myths that have come down to us, it is known that he was excellent with a spear, and his main weapon was a giant mace. Before starting hostilities, the country's rulers always tried to enlist his support. For this purpose, the priests developed an extensive complex of ritual actions, including sacrifices.

It has long been noted that anyone, even the most bloodthirsty inhabitant of the heavenly pantheon, always had positive sides. Actually, the very concept of evil was considered as a necessary element for the expression of good - its antipode, and therefore carried a positive load. Set - the Egyptian god, symbol of chaos - was no exception. He was assigned an important role - to kill with a spear the terrible serpent Arop, who attacked the boat of Ra when he made his nightly voyages through the underworld. But in general, a bad reputation followed him relentlessly. It is not without reason that it was considered extremely unwise to start any business on his birthday.

Cult centers

It is quite understandable that they tried to live in peace with such a strong and unpredictable personality. Set and Horus are Egyptian gods who equally distributed their influence over Upper and Lower Egypt. Therefore, each of them received in his part of the country the honors due to him. Nowadays, archaeological finds indicate the predominance of cult centers dedicated to Set in the upper Nile. The largest of them was in his homeland, in the city of Nubta. The place of worship of him is also known in the ancient capital of the pharaohs Pi - Ramses.

Visual image of the lord of the deserts

Set, the god of ancient Egypt, in his images, as a rule, had the appearance of a creature with a human body and the head of some fantastic animal, similar to a donkey or an anteater. The similarity was broken only by the overly large rectangular ears. However, other options are known. For example, the body of a predator with a long branched tail. In addition, he often appeared in the guise of animals, the attitude towards which was twofold at that time. Among them are a hippopotamus, a crocodile, a hyena and even a pig. Obviously, ancient artists were not constrained by rigid canonical boundaries, and when creating an image, much depended on their imagination.

Egyptian myths say that Seth had red eyes and hair. This is no coincidence. This color was associated in people's minds with the hot sand of the deserts, of which he was the ruler. It is curious that subsequently animals whose fur had a reddish tint, and even red-haired people, were considered, to one degree or another, followers of this god. They were treated with caution and certainly tried to avoid quarrels with them.

Double crown on the forehead of the ruler

In order to protect themselves from the negative influence of hostile forces, they made amulets depicting Seth. The Egyptian god always took their owners under protection. In order to achieve as much favor as possible, a double crown was placed on the patron's head - this symbolized the supreme power over the entire country and, of course, flattered him. Not many such medallions have survived; you can see them in different museums around the world. There is an excellent exhibition in the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg.

Set

Set(Seth, Sutekh, Suta, Seti) - in ancient Egyptian mythology, the god of rage, sandstorms, destruction, chaos, war and death. Initially he was revered as the “protector of the sun”, the patron of royal power, his name was included in the titles and names of a number of pharaohs. Later he was demonized, became an antagonist in the dualistic struggle and Seth, the personification of world evil, Satan. Also, Horus and Set can merge into a single two-headed deity Kheruifi. He was the patron saint of distant countries and foreigners.

During the period of the Old Kingdom, Set, along with Horus, was considered the patron god of royal power, which is reflected in the “Pyramid Texts” and in the titles of the pharaohs of the 2nd dynasty (the combination of the names Set and Horus means “king”). Under the Hyksos, Seth was identified with their god Baal, and the capital of Egypt, Avaris, became the place of his cult as the main god. At the beginning of the New Kingdom period, the names of “Network” are still encountered quite often; these names were borne by the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty: Seti, Setnakht; Seth was given the epithet “mighty.” In the treaty of Ramesses II with the Hittites, Seth is mentioned along with the Hittite gods.

The planet Mercury was considered the heavenly image of Set - “Seth in the evening twilight, God in the morning twilight.” Seth's color is reddish-red, the subject side of the world is south.

Objects depicting an animal symbolizing Set appeared in the Predynastic period, during the era of Negad 1 (3800-3600 BC). They were found in the Naqada area. At that time, Set was the deity of metals and the patron saint of Upper Egypt, and negative traits had not yet appeared in his character. In the era before the unification of Egypt by Pharaoh Narmer, supporters of Set and Horus fought for power. The victory went to Horus, and his name became an integral part of the monarch's title; when Horus and Set are depicted together, then Horus certainly stands in front of Set.

The cult of Set flourished in Ombos (near Naqada), Kom Ombos, Gipsel, the oases of Dakhla and Kharga, and especially in the northeastern Nile Delta. The oracle of Set existed in the oasis of Dakhla until the XXII dynasty. Although already during the 26th dynasty he became a clear personification of evil.

Set was the youngest son of the sky goddess and earth god. He was a brother, and for the latter he was also a husband. According to the Heliopolis cosmogony, Seth was born by jumping out of the side of his mother Nut. His birthday - the third New Year's Day - was considered unlucky for all of Egypt; on this day they tried not to do practically any important things.

Image

Set is depicted, as a rule, with long ears, a red mane and red eyes (the color of death, that is, desert sand, although his image can be found in a completely different way).

There are images in the form of various animals: a crocodile (relief in the southwestern hall of the temple in Dendera), a male hippopotamus (Jumilyak papyrus), a snake (relief in the temple of Ramesses II in Aswan), and also in a composite form: a hippopotamus in the skin of a crocodile (fresco on wall of Mentuhotep's tomb). But there is no exact confirmation that this is Seth.

There is a well-known myth about Seth, who spat in the eyes of Horus, taking the form of a black pig. Because of this, pigs were considered unclean (despite the fact that in ancient times there were images of Nut in the form of a pig with star piglets).

The images of Seth are quite zoomorphic; there is no consensus on what animal was the image of Seth.

Set and Horus

According to legend, Seth, jealous of his brother, killed him, threw his body into the Nile and legally took his throne. But the son of Osiris, Horus, who had been hiding for many years, wanted to take revenge on Set and take his throne. Horus and Set fought for eighty years. During one of the battles, Seth tore out Horus's eye, which then became the great amulet of the Udjat; Horus castrated Seth, depriving him of most of his essence. According to one legend, Seth's front leg, cut off in battle, was thrown into the northern part of the sky, where the gods chained it with golden chains to the eternal supports of heaven and set it to guard the formidable hippopotamus - Isis Hesamut. According to myth, after Horus won a dispute with Set, he founded the city of Edfu, where a temple built in his honor is located. The walls of the temple are decorated with reliefs from the reign of Pharaoh Caesarion, representing the struggle of two deities.

With the end of the Old Kingdom, his cult was gradually demonized from the great protector of Ra into an evil, powerful deity, without losing its original functions (“The Trial of Horus and Set”). After such a transformation, Seth was by no means perceived by the Egyptians as something evil and hostile (for example, like a snake or a crocodile Magus). Despite the lost dispute and numerous crimes, including the murder of Osiris, Set remains the ruler of the southern regions of Egypt, the master of the forces under his control - bad weather and sandstorms. He was especially revered by the Ramsessides as the lord of military valor and courage. Seth's main function was to fight alone with the serpent Apep, protecting the Solar Boat (Zhumilak papyrus). However, starting from the 3rd transition period, especially in the Ptolemaic era, when the cult of Horus was raised especially high, Seth turns purely into a symbol of evil and becomes a hated villain, the source of universal evil.