Set (deity)

Set was a complex deity in the ancient Egyptian religious system. He was the god of deserts, storms, disorder, and violence. He was also associated with foreigners.

While he could be seen as a figure of chaos, he also held a protective role. Set was the lord of the Red Land, which was the desert. This role balanced the role of Horus, who was the lord of the Black Land, the fertile soil. This balance between desert and fertile land was a key part of Egyptian thought.

Set performed a vital service for the sun god, Ra. Every day, Ra traveled on a divine boat called a barque. During this journey, Set stood on the prow of the boat. His job was to repel Apep, a giant serpent that represented chaos. By fighting this serpent, Set helped ensure that the sun could continue its cycle.

This shows that even a god of disorder could act as a necessary protector of order.

In Egyptian art, Set was usually shown as an enigmatic creature. Egyptologists call this the Set animal. It does not clearly match any known animal from the modern world. It has a downward curving snout and long ears with squared-off ends. The creature also has a thin, forked tail with tufts of fur. Some people thought it looked like a jackal, a hyena, or an aardvark. However, the Egyptians used distinct depictions for those animals.

In later periods, Set was sometimes shown as a donkey or a man with a donkey head.

Set’s family history is central to many famous myths. He was the son of Geb, the Earth, and Nut, the Sky. His siblings included Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys.

Set married Nephthys, though scholars debate if they were the parents of Anubis. The most famous myth involves Set and his brother Osiris. Set was a usurper who murdered and mutilated Osiris to take power. Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris, worked with Nephthys to reassemble his body. This allowed Osiris to be resurrected long enough to conceive their son, Horus.

This event led to a massive, long-running conflict between Set and Horus. The two gods fought for the throne of Egypt. This struggle was sometimes seen as a violent battle and sometimes as a legal trial. A group of deities called the Ennead acted as judges. These judges might have been Geb, Ra, or Atum. The contests between them were varied. They raced boats and even fought while transformed into hippopotami.

Some accounts say this legal and physical dispute lasted for eighty years.

During these conflicts, the gods often suffered physical harm. Set sometimes damaged or stole the eye of Horus. This eye was highly significant in Egyptian religion. The right eye was considered the sun, and the left eye was the moon. The destruction of the eye explained natural events like eclipses or the moon's phases.

Set also faced losses that signified a loss of strength. In some stories, Horus managed to defeat Set through cleverness. These myths helped the Egyptians understand how order, or ma'at, could be restored after chaos.

Set's importance shifted throughout different eras of Egyptian history. During the Second Intermediate Period, a group called the Hyksos ruled the Nile Delta. The Hyksos were people from foreign lands. They chose Set as their patron because he was the god of foreigners. They saw similarities between him and their own god, Hadad. Even after the Hyksos were expelled, Set remained influential. The founders of the Nineteenth Dynasty had strong ties to the Set priesthood.

Many kings, such as Seti I, even took his name to honor him. In astronomy, the Egyptians also associated Set with the planet Mercury.