Horus and Seth Battle Part 3/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 3/3
Isis, plotting to join the others on the island, disguised herself as an old woman with a bent back. Carrying a jar of barley and wearing a gold ring, she approached Anty and asked for a ride: “I have come for you to ferry me to Middle Island. I am taking ajar of barley to the little boy tending cattle there; he has been there five days and will be getting hungry.” Anty protested that he was not supposed to ferry women, but she asked if his orders were not for Isis alone. Succumbing to temptation and believing it safe to help this old woman, he asked what she would give him if he consented. She offered some barley, but he refused, declaring that he would not violate his orders just for some bread. She then offered the ring, and to no one’s surprise he took it.

 

Battle between Horus and Seth

Once on the island, she turned herself into a beautiful, seductive maiden. When Seth God saw her, he left the court and called out from behind a bush, “I would like to tarry here with you, fair child.” Coyly she set her trap: “Ah, my great lord! I was married to a shepherd and bore him a son, but my husband died and the boy had to look after his father’s animals. Then a stranger came and hid in the bam and told my son: ‘I will beat you, take away your father’s animals, and chase you away.’ Now I want to persuade you to help my son.” Seth God , never known for his subtlety, and lusting after this fair creature, replied: “Indeed, should one give animals to a stranger while the man’s son is at hand?” Isis immediately turned herself into a vulture and taunted her adversary from the branch of a tree: “Bewail yourself! Your own mouth has said it and your own judgment has judged you!” When Seth God returned to court, even Atum-Ra had to agree that Seth God had been tricked into foolishly judging himself. Anty nevertheless was sent for, and the court ordered that his lower legs be cut off as punishment; rumor tells that he “forswore the use of gold until the present day.”

When the court appeared ready to award the position to Horus God , Seth God challenged his nephew to yet another contest. This time they were to change themselves into hippopotamuses and dive into the sea. Whoever held his breath under water for three months would be the winner. After the two gods had dived under, Isis, fearing that Horus God would lose, decided to help him. Taking an ingot of bronze she forged, it into the head of a harpoon to which she fitted a long shaft, making a fearful weapon. Then she took careful aim at Seth God in the water and threw the harpoon with all her divine strength. The weapon went straight and pierced the sacred body of Horus God! With a cry of pain, he called his mother to remove the harpoon from his body. Regretting her mistake at once, she used her magic to free the harpoon and then cast once more at Seth God and successfully held him fast. Seth God in turn protested his treatment on the grounds that they too were flesh and blood. Moved by her brother’s plea, Isis ordered the harpoon to release him. Horus God was now angry again. He emerged from the water and cut off Isis’ head with a knife that weighed sixteen bars. Their disagreement, however, did not last long, and soon she was back on his side.

Following this event there seems to have been a truce declared, and Horus God and Seth God went off to try to resolve the problem themselves. Actually this was another of Seth’s tricks, for as soon as he was alone with the young god he raped him, in the hope that once

the other gods believed Horus God was homosexual (only the recipient of the seed was deemed homosexual), they would repudiate him Horus God ran to his mother for help. She took some of his semen and dropped it on some lettuce (henceforth a symbol of sexual potency). When Seth unwittingly ate the seed of Horus God in a salad, he became pregnant by his nephew. Soon he went to the court with his charge of homosexuality, and the court at first laughed at Horus God for his supposed weakness. He denied the charges and challenged the court to call up his seed. When summoned, the seed inside Seth God grew into a large disk on his head, but before he could remove it, Thoth grasped it and placed it on his own head as a headpiece, which explains the origin of the disk on many later representations of Thoth. So the court sided with Horus God.

Seth in animal from the Temple of Karnak
As usual when he was about to lose the decision, Seth God again challenged Horus God to combat. This time he suggested a race in boats made of stone. Horus God readily agreed; he made a boat of cedar covered with gypsum to give it the appearance of stone, and set it floating on the water. Seth God saw that his nephew had successfully launched what appeared to be a stone boat and hurried about doing the same. He cut the peak off a mountain and used the stone to build a large boat. He launched it and watched as it promptly and surely sank to the bottom.

When the court intervened again and was about to award the position to Seth God , Osiris finally made a plea on his son’s behalf. This brought him into argument with Atum-Ra, but despite the chief god’s words and threats from Seth, the court changed its mind and decided in favor of Horus God. Again Seth God challenged Horus God to combat, but by now even the court had had enough. Isis brought Seth God into court bound in chains like a criminal. Atum-Ra asked him why he was not willing to allow the court to settle the case after eighty years. Much to everyone’s surprise, Seth God agreed to end the fighting and permitted Horus God to accept the position of Osiris awarded by the court. Brought before the court and placed on the throne of his father with Osiris’ own crown, Horus God was told that he was the master of every land for all eternity. (Part of the irony here lay in the fact that the “master of every land” had to be told he was master and given a crown; he was comically dependent on those he was supposed to rule.)

Ptah realized that justice was being done, but he also saw that Seth God was being deprived of power that some believed he deserved. “What shall be done with Seth God ?” he asked. Atum-Ra quickly realized that he could make use of Seth’s warlike nature and ordered Seth God to stay beside him like a son: “He shall raise his voice in the sky and men shall be afraid of him.” Thus Seth God was given a permanent place, apparently in the solar boat, as the god of storms. There he intimidated human beings and protected Atum-Ra from his enemies.

Related Web Search :

• Horus God
• Horus God of War
• Seth God
• Egyptian God of Evil and Chaos
• Ancient Egyptian Gods
• Ancient Egyptian Gods And Goddesses
• Ancient Egyptian Gods for Kids
• List Of Ancient Egyptian Gods

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