Seth
Seth is a warlike divinity of the Egyptian Mythologie. By Seth thunder the storms, it is always opposed to the harmony things and arrangements, it is the force extreme, able to destroy any form of life.
It is one of the most complex and ambiguous gods; the myths relative to Seth depict it like an ambitious god, plotter, manipulator, when it is not summarized quite simply with an assassin. Well few virtues are thus in the active of this character that Re, the Master of World, defended against the opinion of all its family. The protection of coming Re owing to the fact that Seth is the guard of the Sun.
From his/her father Geb, one of the four paramount elements, it received the unproductive land, while his/her Osiris brother profited from the fertile grounds; also by his/her mother, Nouth, another original element, it is attached to Large Ennéade héliopolitaine.
It is called also the “red god”, large god the “of force” ( ˁȝ phty ), Master of the thunder, the lightning and the disorder, god of the desert and the aridity, the foreign countries: the Egyptians were wary about it much, except under Ramsès where he was venerated almost on an equal footing with Horus, venerated it all while fearing it.
The people with the russet-red hair or châtains were considered of its obedience. Other Egyptians dedicated secret worships to him which required human sacrifices, these sects always were cursed and continued by Pharaon. In a certain direction, Christianity recovered Seth under the name of the “Diable”.
Seth is associated with two great myths:
- the myth héliopolitain which puts it in scene with Re, of which he is the grandson born of the union of Geb and Nout the goddess of the sky. He is thus seen like a beneficial god representing the force and energy, defender of the solar boat against Apophis the snake, the incarnated Evil which threatens balance of the world.
- the Myth osirien where he assassinates his brother Osiris (Ausare), to reign in its place and is opposed to Isis and to the son whom she had of Osiris, Horus which claims the throne and the heritage of his/her father. The tricks of which it makes proof, the lawsuit to which it is confronted, all in its life makes of him a god to the very human profile.
The independent source for the Mythe osirien is the long narrative text of the papyrus Chester Beatty (), published in 1931, that the Egyptologists know under the modern title of the “Adventures of Horus and Seth” (“Contendings off Horus and Seth”).
The claim of Seth
Jealous of his/her brother who reigns on Egypt, Seth organizes a plot and tightens a trap with Osiris. He assassinates it by drowning it in the Nile. Isis, the wife of Osiris, finds the drowned god, the embaume and gives him a burial in the Delta of the Nile. Seth finds the burial of his/her brother, and of rage, cuts it up and disperses the pieces of the body in all the Egypt. Isis, untiring widow, finds thirteen of the fourteen parts of its beloved (the missing part being the sex of Osiris, called on this occasion its " talisman" ). Then Isis reconstitutes it, the breath of the eternal life insufflates to him, and by his magic conceives with him a son, Horus (Hor).
Beyond the assassination of Osiris by Seth, unceasingly pushed by its insatiable jealousy, Seth had early made defer its hatred on its Horus nephew.
Seth and Horus, a fight without end
Horus, wire of Osiris, in is also the heir: the crown of Egypt thus returns to him from right. But Seth, jealous and considering the primacy of its own rights, seized some by the force and nothing yields to him. Horus, supported his/her mother Isis, makes convene the court of the gods at any end to regulate this dispute. Re chairs, while Thot (Djéhouty) holds the role of the clerk.
Eighty years are however passed without the debate progressing. The court is even divided between holding of the legitimate royalty (ghost in Horus), and Re which sees in Seth its perpetual defender against Apophis. The debates, which turn in round, require an external opinion. It is thus with Neith, goddess of Know, famous for its infinite wisdom, that Thot is addressed. Its answer is without ambiguity: the crown returns to Horus. However not to penalize Seth, Neith proposes to offer to him the goddesses Anat and Astarté like wives.
If the court is delighted by this solution, Re, him, remains skeptic. wouldn't Horus be a little young to assume the direction of the kingdom? Isis, exceeded per so many tergiversations, proposes to move the debates with Héliopolis (Onou) in front of Atoum and Khépri. The tone goes up! Seth, furious, is opposed and ordered to it that the debates are done in the absence of Isis. But was to count without the tenacity of the goddess.
She reintroduces herself in the enclosure of the court under the features of a beautiful young woman who does not fail to draw the attention of Seth quickly. Both end even up conversing. Disturbed per such an amount of beauty, Seth is mislaid in remarks compromising, recognizing even under the cape legitimacy subsidiary of Horus. “The crafty one” Isis reveals herself then. The dramatic turn of events leaves Seth without voice. As for Re, it could judge imprudence of Seth, which entrusted without taking guard with an unknown factor. Also the crown returns it to Horus of the hands of Re itself.
Revenge
But Seth, jealous eternal, do not seem not decided to remain about it there. He proposes with Horus sporting plays. Among them, a watery test where the two gods transform themselves into Hippopotame S. With that which will longest remain under water to become king. But Isis, which follows closely the mishaps of his/her son, disturbs the part and attracts itself with final the dissatisfaction with the two protagonists. The three gods tear in violent arguments.
Re, despairing to witness a reconciliation finally, invites them to make peace around a banquet. Seth makes mine be reconciled with Horus; it attracts it at his place “to spend there one good moment”, the day passes, the two gods lie down and, during the night, Seth penetrates Horus and enjoys on its thighs (or between the hands of Horus): However, the fallen evening, one prepared to them to lay down it; they lengthened, the two men, but during the night, Seth hardens its member and slipped it between the thighs of Horus. Horus placed its hands between its thighs and collected the sperm of Seth.
The attack, intended to feminize Horus and to make it unworthy of the capacity, ends up being turned over against Seth. And the quarrel to begin again of more beautiful. Osiris, remained quiet, intervenes then and blames directly the court that he judges too laxist. As a god of the vegetation, he threatens to cut the vivres to the Egypt. The gods, hustled per such an amount of authority, are not long in making a verdict favorable to Horus. But Seth is not forgotten. Placed at the sides of Re, it becomes “that which howls in the sky” so that place in front of the creative god is made. Then Re-Horakhty known as: “That Seth is given to me, so that he lives with me and is my son. It will thunder in the sky, and it will be dreaded. ”
Seth, the defender of the solar boat
Since the first day, Re voyage in the sky on board its boat which takes it along the day of is in west, then the night of west in east. If the diurnal voyage is done to the point, the night crossing of the world of lower part proves much more perilous. Because, drowned in the darkness which it splits with sharp pace, the boat is épiée since the depths of darkness by Apophis, the snake of chaos. Terrifying, fast, the monster emerges and is drawn up, gigantic in front of the solar wherry. But is to count without Seth placed at the prow of the boat and which, of a blow of spade, sends the monstrous snake to be turned over some to the borders of the world.
Alas, the scene is unceasingly started again, as well as the nights and the days alternate indefinitely. This perpetual fight symbolizes the victory of the order over chaos. It is included/understood since Re has for Seth a certain regard. A regard such as it is worth with this last to be constant by the god of the gods, even when its case is indefensible.
The homosexuality of Seth
The incident with Horus in the Aventures passed a long time for a feature ribaud isolated which would testify to the popular culture, ipso facto vulgar, of late Egypt (the period of Ramsès being the apogee, and last fires, of the Pharaonic period); thus the princeps editor, Alan Gardiner, criticized at the same time literary and moral value work, which he imagined recited by a storyteller, with taken care, in front of audiences of peasants. In the same way, one could estimate that the Aventures , because of this episode of promiscuity and other scandalous passages like the decapitation of Isis, belong to a special branch of the Egyptian literature. But two other homosexual passages, one known since more than one century, the papyrus of Lahun/Kahun (of the Average Egyptian Empire), where Seth challenges Horus by praising the beautiful croup of this last, following what Horus tells in Isis that Seth wants to take it sexually and this one explains to his/her son how to deceive it during the report/ratio; the other announced only in 1977 and published in 2001 (one of the Texts of the pyramids new, dating from (found in the anteroom of the pyramid of Pépi {{Ier}}), where Seth and Horus are described in all letters like sodomizing itself mutually, contradict this conclusion and leave think that the bisexuality of Seth, in turn sexually aggressive and effeminatized ( hmty ), must be a feature of its divine personality like appears of confusion and chaos.
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