Divine Wars: Choir vs Set (part 2)
“- Which of the actions, in your opinion, is the most noble? - asked Osiris Chora.
“To help the innocent victim,” Khor replied without hesitation.
- Which of the animals involved in the battle, do you think is the most useful? - Osiris asked his second question.
“The most useful animal in battle is the horse,” said Khor.
- Why is the horse? - Osiris was surprised. “Why did you not call a lion, but a horse?” After all, the most powerful of animals - the lion.
“The lion is needed by the defender,” answered Khor. - And the horse is chasing the evader.
Pleased with the son’s response, Osiris exclaimed:
“Truly, you are ready for battle!” Go and cast Seth! ”
Armed with a farewell to his father, Gore continued the battle with Seth. The struggle of the gods went with varying success, Gore managed to defeat Seth in the guise of a hippopotamus, a snake, a crocodile. Even to cut his body into parts, thus avenging his father. However, the stubborn Seth always resurrected and again rushed into battle.
The battles of Horus and Seth in the images of cult animals are present in almost all versions of the myths. Seth most often chose the guise of a male hippo. In ancient Egypt, the female hippo incarnated in the images of good goddesses (for example, Taurt or Opet), but the hippopotamus always seemed to be the embodiment of evil and chaos, which must be defeated in order for the divine order to triumph. On the walls of the tombs of all periods stories Ritual scenes are present in ancient Egypt, when the deceased appears as a spear to strike with various chthonic creatures, embodied in images of crocodiles, snakes, hippos, and sometimes birds (although at first glance, the viewer is presented with household sketches - Nile hunting or fishing). For example, a wooden gilded statuette from Tutankhamen’s tomb depicted a young king standing on a boat and spearing a hippopotamus as the very embodiment of chaos.
God the One with the head of an ibis was the god of knowledge and wisdom.
Note that in history there was a precedent according to which the divine animals of Set (hippopotami) were killed by the followers of Horus in the Delta region, as confirmed by the inscriptions in the temple at Edfu. So the myth probably had a historical basis. But Seth also had other incarnations: a donkey, a black pig, a goose, a snake. The latter image consolidated in later concepts, especially those that had passed through Greek processing, the connotation of Set with an evil fire-breathing many-headed Typhon.
Quite often in battle myths, Seth appears as a black boar (pig), which the Egyptians considered an unclean animal. Wild boar (Seth) has always been the enemy of grain (Osiris): wild pigs interfered with the growth of grass, tearing tender shoots, so they killed the boars. But they did not eat them, as there was a taboo. Sometimes pigs were sacrificed to Osiris: they were slaughtered in front of the door of the house, and the carcass was given back to the swineherd.
But let us return to the myth ... Eighty years charter from endless battles, having tried all the "beastly" possibilities, the rivals decided to turn to the court of the gods so that the Nine, led by Ra, finally decide which of them to give the crown to. That, as we understand, is rather strange - after all, Ra had promised power to Gore before birth, but ... and forgetfulness is also characteristic of the gods. Not only forgetfulness, but also squabbling and rancorousness: Ra, apparently, did not forget how Isis tricked him to reveal his secret name, and was in no hurry to satisfy her son's ambitions.
The trial further exacerbated the controversy, and other gods were also involved in the quarrel, who shared their opinions. The gods Shu, Toth and the goddess Isis put pressure on the court, inclined everyone to take the side of Gore. But Ra thought for a long time what had given Isis the opportunity to misinterpret his silence and, rejoicing ahead of time, hurry to summon the North Wind to tell Osiris good news: Gore received his father's crown! But Ra was in no hurry to fulfill the promise he had once made.
Not finding a solution, the gods sought advice from the fertility god Benebjet (he was worshiped in the form of a ram in Mendez). But he advised to turn to the great mother of the gods - Neith, who gave an unequivocal answer: the throne should be given to Gore. And she also offered an “alternative” and compensation for Set: “... I’m not so angry that the sky will fall to the ground .... And let the Lord of All That Be (Ra - auth.) Say: double the possessions of Set, give him Anat and Astarte , your daughters, but put Choir on the throne of his father Osiris "(cited by: J. Lipinska, M. Marciniak" Mythology of Ancient Egypt ").
Note that the myth is associated with the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, when the paternal race becomes dominant. Let us pay attention to the words and arguments of the supporters of Gore: “Will the title (of the king) be given to the mother’s brother, while the son of the flesh will be given?”; “Will the title of Osiris Setu, the great force, be given, at that time, how is the son of (Osiris) Horus available?” (Quoted in: M. Mathieu “Ancient Egyptian Myths”). From the reading of the text "The Dispute of Mountain with Set" it is clear that paternal law triumphed. In this connection, Hebe’s verdict on the grief of Set and Seth from the text of the Mysteries of Set is extremely indicative. And Geb said: “Look, I give the inheritance to the son of my son's heir, the first-born, the discoverer of the ways, just as Ra-Atum did for Shu, the Almighty’s elder son, just as Shu did to me. Also me. Look, I gave all my things to the son of Osiris Gore, the son of Isis ... Heir is the son of the heir ”(quoted in: M. Mathieu“ Ancient Egyptian Myths ”).
But Nate did not like the answer and did not convince Ra of the need to give the throne to Gore. He felt that Gore was still too young to rule Egypt, but Seth was older and more experienced, and besides that every night he helped to plunge the serpent Apophis. Passions reached such a level that the ruler of the universe, Ra, was insulted: the god Babai declared that “the sanctuary of Ra is empty” (in the sense that from now on no one will listen to it). This significantly delayed the proceedings, as the sovereign was offended and did not talk with Ennead (Nine) for many days until the goddess Hathor did not amuse him. Seth and Gore were again given the floor, but they could not agree. However, Seth tried to apply quite serious arguments: “I will seize my scepter in 4500 debin and will kill one of you every day!” (Quoted in: M. Mathieu “Ancient Egyptian Myths”). Then the gods decided to retire to the island and think there, in order not to be subjected to the pressure of the rival parties, forbidding the carrier Anti to ship the cunning Isis there. But the goddess deceived the hapless carrier by taking the form of an old woman, and, seducing him with a golden ring, she snuck onto the island. No wonder Seth did not want Isis to interfere in the process: she outwitted him too, having started an ambiguous word game. Taking the form of a beautiful maiden, in which her brother did not recognize her, she asked to judge the dispute. She told him: “... I was the shepherd's wife, and I gave birth to a son. My husband died, and the young man took the cattle of his father. Then the stranger came, sat down in my hut, and so he said to my son: "I will beat you, and I will take your father's cattle from you, and I will drive you out." So he told him. But I want you to marry him. ” And Seth told her: “Will the cattle be given to a stranger while the owner’s son is there?” And Ishida took the form of a bird Hut, sat on the top of the acacia, called Seth and said to him: “Cry for yourself! For behold, your own lips have said this, and your own mind has condemned you! ”(Quoted in: M. Mathieu,“ Ancient Egyptian Myths ”).
The fact is that in the ancient Egyptian language the words “cattle” and “san” have the same pronunciation (“iaut”), therefore the disputants, of course, spoke of different things. But nevertheless the gods decided that Seth passed judgment on himself and should give power to Gore. However, honesty and loyalty to the word were not among the virtues of Set: he immediately refused his words, and was consoled by the fact that he ordered the carrier Anti to be punished (“taking away the soles of his feet”, that is, to beat him with sticks). disobeyed and violated the ban. Result: Anti hated gold forever (such gifts were forbidden in his temples), and the battle of Gore and Seth continued.
God Sebek with the head of a crocodile.
Not inventing anything new, they decided to compete in the guise of hippos: dive under the water ("in the depths of the Great Green") and wait for those who will last less than three months. But the hippo, as we remember, is the sacred animal of Set, and Isis was frightened that he would gain unprecedented power in him, so she decided to help Gore. She tied a harpoon to a rope to hit Seth, but the harpoon hit Mount. Realizing her mistake, the goddess tried again, but Seth-hippo from the sea appealed to her sisterly feelings - and Ishida retreated. For this, Gore was angry with his mother and, having emerged, pounced on her and beheaded her, running away with a severed head to the mountains. In another folklore cycle, we encounter something similar: Gore, having overcome Set, led him in chains to Isis, but she took pity on her brother and released him to freedom; then Horus, in anger, tore the crown from his mother's head.
God Anubis with the head of a jackal.
Isis turned into a stone statue without a head, in such a pitiful form and found her gods. It was immediately decided to find and punish the murderer. Seth first found Gore while he was sleeping under a Shenush tree in the land of Oasis, and taking advantage of the case and the absence of witnesses, he tore out and buried Gore's eyes. This story ended well: the good goddess Hathor returned Gore's sight, pouring gazelle milk into his eye sockets.
And here again, the rivals appeared before the court, where Ra demanded that they give peace to the gods and briefly interrupt their competitions. Seth used this time to try to get around his nephew in a different way - not by force, but by cunning, having decided to "accomplish the cause of victory over him." To this end, he invited Gore to his house, having arranged a feast and inviting him to spend the night. At night, he tried to incline Gore to sodomy and “sow his seed in him”, thereby turning symbolically into a woman (and women certainly could not be on the throne, even in more recent times the female pharaohs had to change their name to men’s nature under men's robes). But Gore gathered Seth's seed into his hand and turned to his mother for help. Isis by that time, thanks to the magic of Thoth, ceased to be a stone statue, and apparently managed to forgive her son. She cut off his defiled hand with a copper knife and threw it into the swamp, magically invoking a new hand, and Gore poured out the seed on Set's favorite treat - lettuce, which he gladly treated himself, being sure that his trick was successful. In the Book of the Dead, we see a more dramatic story, where Isis, in anger, cuts off both hands to her son, who are then caught by the crocodile god Sebek, the Lord of the Backwaters. Having coped with the anger, Isis grows his hands to the body of Horus.
Appearing on divine judgment, Set announced his “victory business” and enjoyed the way the gods “spat in the face of Horus”. But not for long ... until Horus asked Thoth to invoke the seed of Set and his own. Then the seed of Seth responded from the swamp, and the “divine outflow” of Gore came forth as a golden disk over the head of the shocked Seth.
The gods rejoiced and hurried to put the crown on the head of Horus. Seth, of course, did not agree, and the opponents decided to arrange a race on stone boats. That is, only Seth thinks so, splitting off a decent stone piece from the rock and cutting a rook 138 long in length from it. And Gore, having become more skilled in the course of disputes with his uncle in cunning, covers the pine (according to a different version of the cedar) boat with gypsum, giving an appearance similar to a stone. Predictably, the boat of Set is sinking, and Gore wins the contest. Realizing that he was deceived, Seth turned into a hippopotamus and sank the rook Gore.
The dispute is not resolved, the divine court stalled, revealing its inconsistency; The time has come to go to the scene to Osiris, to whom the message was sent on behalf of the court of the gods. They sent messengers twice to Vladyka Duat, twice he made it clear that he was on the side of his son (this is so unexpected!), The last letter had an effect. Particularly unambiguous threat contained in it. Osiris writes: “As for this country where I am, it is full of fierce messengers, and they fear no god and no goddess. And I will force them to go out, and they will bring me the heart of everyone who does evil deeds, and they will stay here with me ”(quoted by: M. Mathieu“ Ancient Egyptian Myths ”).
“Enough, have fun,” the gods decided. They called Seth and again asked why he did not give San to Horus, but he humbly said: "Let Horus, the son of Isis, be called and give him the dignity of his father Osiris." A crown was put on the head of Horus and they said to him: “You are the king of Egypt beautiful and you are the ruler of a wonderful land every century and ages” (quoted by M. Mathieu Ancient Egyptian Myths). But Seth was not left without a throne: Ra called his son his own, invited him to sit on the throne with him, helping him fight the enemies of the sun god (“let him roar in the sky and fear him!”).
In the papyrus Zhumilyak (300 BC), you can find additional storylines of the myth, see the role of Anubis in this drama. And also to find out that Seth was not sitting on the throne with Ra, but being bound hand and foot was presented to Osiris as the original throne, but ran in the guise of a panther. Supporters of Anubis grabbed him and burned him, and then tore off his skin, and Anubis got into it. Then he burned his mark on it - so the spotted leopard appeared. And since then, the woab priest, who participates in funeral rituals, wears leopard skin. There are in the later papyrus and other discrepancies.
But the previous interpretation is much less bloody ...
So two sworn enemies were reconciled and the Two Lands united. And we, following the ancient Egyptian scribe, can summarize: "Finished safely in Thebes, a place of Truth."
It turns out that what was happening was done by the ancient gods of Egypt. Amazing isn't it?
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