(Back to Hero Index) "The followers of Osiris blackened the character of Set from the moment of birth. They claimed that he was born neither at the right time nor in the right place, having torn himself from his mother's womb and burst through her side. He had red eyes and red hair, red being the colour of evil to the Egyptians."
Egyptian Mythology p 63.
Seth-Typhon is the principle of all that which burns, consumes. He has red hair, for example, for he represents the desert rocks, arid and sterile.
In a passage of The Book of the Dead (the chief Egyptian funerary text of ca. 1500 B.C. and thereafter) it is related that Seth, in the course of his battle with Horus, transformed himself in a whirlwind of fire into a black pig, which when Horus looked upon it burned out his left eye. And Re then said to all the gods: "The pig is an abominable thing unto Horus." To which the followers of Horus answered: 'Let sacrifices be made to the gods, of his bulls, and of his goats, and of his pigs.'
The Mythic Image, V 451.
(picture of Set as a Pig)(Back to Hero Index)
We think of all those sacrificed pigs in the Polynesian morai. Nor were those and the ritual of the eye the only features of that gruesome ceremony reminiscent of antiquity. The form of the morai itself recalls an ancient temple compound. The inspection of entrails for auspices suggests Etruria and Babylon. The special burial of chiefs, furthermore, with the removal of their entrails before embalmment, again calls to mind Egypt. . .
The Mythic Image, V 451.
"This myth combined the two aspects of Set. His presence in his good aspect as the slayer of Apep was essentialto the safe passage of Ra on his daily voyage; but it was equally essential that he should be banished from the boat before the divine party could proceed. . . Set was relegated to the desert borders as the personification of aridity and god of foreigners. . .Set was represented by the so-called Typhonian animal, or wore its head on human shoulders. This strange animal with its long curving snout, square upstanding ears and upright tufted tail has not been idetified, though some think it might be a wild pig, the form in which Set on one occasion attacked Horus. Desert animals, pigs and boars, hippopotami, crocodiles and serpents were associated with Set."
Egyptian Mythology p 66-67.
"One of the peculiarities of Egyptian thinking was the notion of dualism, i.e., a totality consisting of two elements in harmonious opposition. The concept was founded in Egyptian geography as well as early history. The country lends itself to such an approach easily: the known world = The Black Land (Kemet) + The Red Land (Deshret, the desert); Egypt = the valley (Upper Egypt) + the Delta (Lower Egypt). Historically, the earliest towns in Upper Egypt, where the idea would have developed, were Nekhen and Nubt, the homes of the rival gods Horus and Seth."
"...The first Dynasty of Egypt was founded by the Horu, a Hamitic people entering Egypt from the east to settle in and around Memphis, according to Petrie, with a written language, culture, social stratification and mythos of their own well in place at the time. Their standard of a Falcon on a pole, suggests an origin in the Seir, where these birds were first domesticated (the mountains which run from Jordan all the way down the east coast of the Red Sea to Yemen).
"Originally, in earliest times, Set was the patron deity of Lower (North) Egypt, and represented the fierce storms of the desert whom the Lower Egyptians sought to appease. However, when Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and ushered in the First Dynasty, Set became known as the evil enemy of Horus (Upper Egypt's dynastic god). Set was the brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, and husband of the latter; according to some versions of the myths he is also father of Anubis.
"These people were later invaded by the Seti (standard of the seti beast), also from the east, possibly invading up the Wadi Ham maat from the Red Sea and settling in and around Thebes."
"Set is best known for murdering his brother and attempting to kill his nephew Horus; Horus, however, managed to survive and grew up to avenge his father's death by establishing his rule over all Egypt and casting Set out into the lonely desert for all time.
"In the 19th Dynasty there began a resurgence of respect for Set, and he was seen as a great god once more, the god who benevolently restrained the forces of the desert; but this was short-lived and by around Dynasty 20 or 21 Set became once more dreaded as the god of evil."