Sky god ,
Shen rings in his grasp Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the Sun and Moon. Egyptians believed that the Sun was his right eye and the Moon his left and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Later, the reason that the Moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as
The Contendings of Horus and Seth. In this tale, it was said that Seth, the patron of
Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of
Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually, the gods sided with Horus. As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as
ḥr.w or "Horus the Great", but more usually translated as "Horus the Elder". In the struggle, Set had lost a
testicle, and Horus's eye was gouged out. Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a
lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as
nfr ḥr.w "Good Horus", transliterated Neferhor, Nephoros or Nopheros (reconstructed as ). or
Wedjat The
Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or
Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus's mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her. In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "wedjat" (
wɟt). It was the eye of one of the earliest Egyptian deities,
Wadjet, who later became associated with
Bastet,
Mut, and Hathor as well. Wadjet was a
solar deity and this symbol began as her all-seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "
gold,
faience,
carnelian and
lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of
Shoshenq II. The Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife" Horus was also thought to protect the sky. Horus was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from
Set, the god of the desert, who had killed Horus's father, Osiris. Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. In these battles, Horus came to be associated with Lower Egypt and became its patron. According to
The Contendings of Horus and Seth, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having
sexual intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's
semen, then subsequently throws it in the river so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus (or Isis herself in some versions) then deliberately spreads his semen on some
lettuce, which was Set's favourite food. After Set had eaten the lettuce, they went to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listened to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answered from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listened to Horus's claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answered from inside Set. in this statue, currently located in the
Egyptian Museum. However, Set still refused to relent, and the other gods were getting tired from over eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus and Set challenged each other to a boat race, where they each raced in a boat made of stone. Horus and Set agreed, and the race started. But Horus had an edge: his boat was made of wood painted to resemble stone, rather than true stone. Set's boat, being made of heavy stone, sank, but Horus's did not. Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt. Upon becoming king after Set's defeat, Horus gives offerings to his deceased father Osiris, thus reviving and sustaining him in the afterlife. After the New Kingdom, Set was still considered the lord of the desert and its oases. In many versions of the story, Horus and Set divide the realm between them. This division can be equated with any of several fundamental dualities that the Egyptians saw in their world. Horus may receive the fertile lands around the Nile, the core of Egyptian civilization, in which case Set takes the barren desert or the foreign lands that are associated with it; Horus may rule the earth while Set dwells in the sky; and each god may take one of the two traditional halves of the country, Upper and Lower Egypt, in which case either god may be connected with either region. Yet in the
Memphite Theology,
Geb, as judge, first apportions the realm between the claimants and then reverses himself, awarding sole control to Horus. In this peaceable union, Horus and Set are reconciled, and the dualities that they represent have been resolved into a united whole. Through this resolution, the order is restored after the tumultuous conflict. and
lower EgyptEgyptologists have often tried to connect the conflict between the two gods with political events early in Egypt's history or prehistory. The cases in which the combatants divide the kingdom, and the frequent association of the paired Horus and Set with the union of Upper and Lower Egypt, suggest that the two deities represent some kind of division within the country. Egyptian tradition and archaeological evidence indicate that Egypt was united at the beginning of its history when an Upper Egyptian kingdom, in the south, conquered Lower Egypt in the north. The Upper Egyptian rulers called themselves "followers of Horus", and Horus became the tutelary deity of the unified polity and its kings. Yet Horus and Set cannot be easily equated with the two halves of the country. Both deities had several cult centers in each region, and Horus is often associated with Lower Egypt and Set with Upper Egypt. Other events may have also affected the myth. Before even Upper Egypt had a single ruler, two of its major cities were
Nekhen, in the far south, and
Nagada, many miles to the north. The rulers of Nekhen, where Horus was the patron deity, are generally believed to have unified Upper Egypt, including Nagada, under their sway. Set was associated with Nagada, so it is possible that the divine conflict dimly reflects an enmity between the cities in the distant past. Much later, at the end of the
Second Dynasty (), Pharaoh
Seth-Peribsen used the
Set animal to write his
serekh name in place of the falcon hieroglyph representing Horus. His successor
Khasekhemwy used both Horus and Set in the writing of his serekh. This evidence has prompted conjecture that the Second Dynasty saw a clash between the followers of the Horus king and the worshippers of Set led by Seth-Peribsen. Khasekhemwy's use of the two animal symbols would then represent the reconciliation of the two factions, as does the resolution of the myth.
Golden Horus Osiris in a painting from the tomb of
Pashedu, thirteenth century BC Horus gradually took on the nature as both the son of Osiris and Osiris himself. He was referred to as Golden Horus Osiris. In the
temple of Denderah he is given the full royal titulary of both that of Horus and Osiris. He was sometimes believed to be both the father of himself as well as his own son, and some later accounts have Osiris being brought back to life by Isis. == Forms of Horus ==