Built a chest to his brother's exact measurements, then sealed him in it at a banquet
The murder that begins the Osiris myth.
Myth · Egyptian
Set
Egyptian mythology — god of storms, the desert and disorder
God of the desert, storms, foreigners and violence, and the murderer of his own brother. He is the necessary disruptive force: the one who kills the king and fights his nephew for eighty years, but also the only god strong enough to stand in the sun god's boat and spear the serpent of chaos each night. Worshipped as a royal patron in the Ramesside period, he was later demonised outright.
How to spot them
- ▸A strange composite animal with a curved snout, square ears and a forked tail
- ▸God of the red desert land, as against the black fertile soil
- ▸Stands in the prow of the solar boat spearing a giant serpent
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Ombos', 'the red-haired one', 'the Sethian animal', 'Ramesses and Seti are named for him'
Stories & episodes
Cut the recovered body into fourteen pieces and scattered them across Egypt
Isis found all but the phallus, eaten by a Nile fish.
Contended eighty years with his nephew before the tribunal of the gods, and tore out his eye
The Contendings, including a boat race in stone boats he tried to fix.
Spears the serpent of chaos nightly from the prow of the sun god's boat
The one job only his violence can do; Apophis is repelled every night.
Patron of the Ramesside kings, two of whom were named after him
Seti I and Seti II; the Nineteenth Dynasty came from the eastern Delta where his cult was strong.
Paired with Horus in a rite where the two gods knot papyrus and lotus around the throne
The sema-tawy, the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The Greeks equated him with the monster Typhon
Plutarch calls him Typhon throughout On Isis and Osiris.
Quick-fire facts
- •Also spelt Seth or Sutekh; Egyptian Sutekh
- •His animal, the 'Set animal' or sha, has never been securely identified with a real species
- •His cult centres were Ombos (Nubt) in Upper Egypt and Avaris in the eastern Delta
- •He is red-haired and associated with the red desert, deshret, against the black land, kemet
- •The Hyksos rulers of Avaris identified their storm god with him
- •The Greeks equated him with Typhon, hence 'Typhonic' for his animal
- •In the Late Period he was increasingly demonised and his images defaced
- •He killed Osiris, fought Horus, and yet defends Ra's boat — Egyptian myth keeps both roles
- •Seti I and Seti II take their names from him, as does the god's role in the name Sutekh
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Richard H. Wilkinson — The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
- H. te Velde — Seth, God of Confusion