Set, Seth, Setekh, Setesh, Setech, Sutekh

[Ahautenites]

By whatever name you call Him, this thread is dedicated to Him, as perceived in the Kemetic sphere of influence (as opposed to the Setian / Temple of Set view, which seems quite different).

There's already a thread about Him in the History section (http://www.sdsmedia.com/showthread.php?t=635&page=1&pp=10&highlight=Setekh), but I wanted to put more information on Him here in the Gods and Goddesses forum for those who are interested in learning more.

When I was collecting this information, I put it all word for word into a journal that Wanderer In Gray gave me. The problem with all of this factual information is that I wasn't planning at the time to put it all here on MW so I didn't bother citing sources. The only times I did cite sources was when I copied something that didn't come from a source that was as scholarly as the rest. Case in point would be when I post the information I got from the Eye of Horus Oracle book. It's good information, and almost all of the facts are corroborated by all of the other books I looked through, but it also has interpretations of the runes that come with the book as well as a meditation designed for each oracle rune. It was still useful information, so I included it anyway.

But anyhow, here's the rest of the information, which is pretty much common knowledge in the Egyptological world and which is also less than 5% of each of the books I use, so I didn't think I was infringing on any copyrights. There is one source that I love that I won't be excerpting here, and that's Per-Set.org (http://www.per-set.org) She did a lot of work and has some wonderful images in her gallery, so I highly recommend everyone check out that link.

I'll be adding more stuff as I have time to transcribe it. (Dua Netjer that I type so much faster now than I did even two years ago.)

[Ahautenites]

Seth
God of chaotic forces who commands both veneration and hostility.

The complicated character if Seth is not solved by an acceptable etymology of his name, rendered in hieroglyphics as ‘Setekh,’ ‘Setesh,’ ‘Suty’ or ‘Sutekh.’

The creature of Seth, probably an heraldic composite animal, is a quadruped with a gently curving muzzle, two appendages jutting from the top of its head, and an erect tail terminating in a short bifurcation. It appears on the macehead of King Scorpion at the end of the Predynastic era. The god himself can take on the complete form of this creature or be shown in human form but with the animal’s head.

An early tradition of the violence associated with Seth is in the emphasis that at his birth in Upper Egypt, he tore himself savagely from his mother Nut. The site of his birth was the Ombos-Nagada region where his major southern sanctuary was built. In the Pyramid Texts the strength of the pharaoh is called ‘Seth of Nubet’ the ancient name for the site of his Upper Egyptian temple. The similarity of this name to the Egyptian word for ‘gold’ led to the reinterpretation of part of the pharaoh’s titulary from ‘golden Horus’ into ‘Horus over the one of Nubet,’ i.e. Set. His birthday was always regarded as an ominous event and was an unlucky day in the Egyptian calendar. As a god associated with foreign countries, he has consorts coming from the Semitic pantheon – Astarte and Anat. The Egyptian goddess linked with him is his sister Nephthys.

1. God of Royalty

Despite the ‘bad press’ usually accruing to Seth in Egyptian texts, it is clear that his cult was always held in high esteem in the northeast Delta and in Upper Egypt around the district of Ombos-Naqada. His adherents also came from the upper levels of Egyptian society. In the second dynasty the ruler cult, centered around Horus since the unification of Egypt in 3000 BC, underwent a drastic transformation during the reign of Peribsen. Instead of surmounting the ‘serekh’ proclaiming his throne name with the hawk-god, Peribsen chose to be heralded by the creature of Seth. His successor combined the two deities on the ‘serekh’ perhaps to symbolize a reconciliation between the rival cults. However, in the same reign Seth loses even this shared honour and never regains it. Nevertheless, the name and the cult of Seth are vigorously brought to the fore with royal support on a number of occasions.

Dynasty XII

Side panels on the thrones of statues of Senwosret I show Seth opposite Horus, separated by the emblem of unification.

Dynasty XVIII

Thuthmosis III calls himself ‘beloved of Seth.’

Dynasty XIX

This ruling family had its ancestral home in the Delta where Seth worship was prominent. Two of its kings have the name ‘Sety’ or ‘Sethite.’ Ramesses II fights at Kadesh on the river Orontes like Seth who is ‘Baal on the battlefield.’ In the same reign Seth is equated with another foreign god in the treaty which the pharaoh made his former enemies the Hittites: the document is sealed on a silver tablet engraved with an image of Seth ‘lord of the sky’ = storm god of Hatti.

Dynasty XX

The pharaoh Setnakht (‘Seth is mighty’) is called Kepri-Seth, vanquisher of rebels against royal authority.





2. Seth as an enemy

From the time of the Pyramid Texts the legend of Seth as Osiris and Horus’s antagonist was common currency. References to the viciousness of the struggle for the throne of Egypt mention how Seth’s foreleg and testicles are torn off by Horus. The god is condemned to carry Osiris on his shoulders eternally and the heads of Seth’s followers are offered to the king. However, in the papyrus documenting the culmination of the contest between Horus and Seth it is clear that initially Seth has very powerful supporters: the sun-god prefers the claim of Seth because Seth is the elder. Seth’s violent temper shows through when the gods become sympathetic to the case presented by Isis – he threatens to slay one god a day with his scepter (4,500 lbs in weight) if the goddess is not barred from the proceedings. Eventually, Seth loses his right to the throne of Egypt but remains in favor with the sun-god. Because of the upheaval and confusion Seth can cause, he was identified by the Greeks with their rebel-god ‘Typhon.’

[Isildae]

Seth is awesome!

[Ahautenites]

3. Seth in the Solar Boat and in The Underworld

After the tribunal of gods awarded the throne of Egypt to Horus, the sun-god Re announced that Seth would live with him as his son to speak out as thunder from the sky. In the Book of Coming Forth By Day, Seth, ‘lord of the northern sky,’ is held responsible for storms and cloudiness, a notion which we also find in an historical document: having concluded a diplomatic marriage with the daughter of the Hittite king, Ramesses II appeals to Seth to remove the obstacles of rain, cold and snow which are delaying the princess in the Lebanon en route to Egypt. Seth makes the skies clear and the weather warm.

There is a point of peril for the sun-god Re as he sinks into the western horizon. Apophis the snake attempts to swallow the sun but Seth in the prow of the sun-boat fetters and spears the coiled serpent. This imagery is borrowed by the pharaoh Ramesses III (Dynasty XX) to describe his destruction of the Sea Peoples commemorated on the northern wall of his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in western Thebes. Because Seth prevails over the sun-god’s arch-enemy, he receives the title ‘great of strength’ in the barque of millions.’

For the Underwords of the private Egyptian, Seth was a terror to be avoided. In the Middle and New Kingdom funerary literature, Seth is said to seize the deceased’s soul, swallow putrefaction and generally inhabit dark and gloomy quarters. His coterie are goats which were slaughtered in Osiris’s town of Busiris in the Delta so that their blood would fertilize the earth.

4. Animals linked to Seth

Certain creatures became symbolically sacrificed in temples as an act of triumph over Seth. On such animal, the desert oryx, is frequently represented with the pharaoh about to cut its throat. In the earliest literature the red ox, standing for Seth, is offered up as a sacrifice. Conversely, the pig becomes an abomination and not admitted as part of the sacrificial ritual in the cult of Horus: in the Book of Coming Forth By Day t he sun-god instructs Horus to look at a black boar (= Seth), which causes such a violent sensation in the god that he loses consciousness. The pig remained taboo in his cult from that time on.

The hippopotamus which has a benign role in Egyptian religion (see Taweret) can be a destructive phenomenon leaving in its wake upturned papyrus skiffs and trampled stalks of barley. As such it is Seth and has to be slaughtered. The royal hippopotamus hunt symbolizing the victory of Horus over Seth, is found already occurring in the first dynasty. Mastaba tombs of courtiers in the Old Kingdom use the theme of hunting hippopotamuses on their walls to create life for the deceased as he would have remembered it, but even in this depiction of a ‘sport’ there would still be Sethian undertones. On the walls of Edfu temple the priests had Seth’s annihilation as a hippopotamus carved, and would symbolically eat a hippopotamus cake to leave no doubt of his non-existence.

Other symbols of Seth include the crocodile into which the god had been transformed by Geb after the murder of Osiris. The Papyrus Jumilac gives an aetological myth on how the panther received its markings: Anubis branded Seth, who had changed into a panther creature with iron. From the Middle Kingdom a creature called the ‘hiu’ is also a manifestation of Seth: it is a braying donkey or a snake with an ass’s head. In Ptolomaic hieroglyphics the donkey is shown as killed by a knife in its back. The ritual of strangling a goose is also taken to be a symbol of Seth’s destruction: A master butcher called Khenmu, living in the Pyramid Age, has some mysterious phrases among his titles which seem to refer to this rite when he describes himself as opening the ‘darkness’ by throttling the ‘desert bird.’


(That's where my excerpt from that particular book ends.)

[Ahautenites]

Set
God of evil and darkness, the brother of Osiris and Isis.

He was the son of the earth, Geb, and sky, Nut, who had torn himself violently from his mother’s womb. He was abominated by the people for his harsh and bloody ways, and regarded as the personification of drought, darkness, and perversity, and the natural opponent to all that was good and life-giving in the universe.

Set’s worship was one of the oldest cults of Egypt. He was originally a beneficent god of Upper Egypt, who resided in the abode of the blessed dead, where he performed friendly offices for the deceased. When the followers of Horus (the elder), the supreme god of Lower Egypt, conquered the followers of Set, Set’s place in the Egyptian pantheon of gods fell into disrepute. The priests of Horus eventually declared him a god of the unclean, an enemy of all other gods, and ordered that his images be destroyed.

Set was the arch enemy of the sun god Ra, and almost all allusions and myths pertaining to him refer to the battles waged against the sun. In the earliest and most simple form of the myth, Set represented the cosmic opposition of darkness and light. In a later form, he is the antagonist of the sun god Rad, and takes the form of the monstrous serpent Apophis, to prevent the sun god from appearing in the east each day. The result was always the same. Apophis was annihilated by the burning heat of Ra, and Set, who could renew himself daily, collected his noxious cohorts and readied himself for the next night’s battle against the sunrise.

In the most famous and complex version of the myth, Seth is the murderer and dismemberer of his brother Osiris, who was sometimes called Set’s twin. He pursued and persecuted Osiris’s widow, Isis, who was also his own sister, and their child Horus (the younger). Later, Horus was called upon to avenge his father’s death, and in a series of battles defeated Set and would have destroyed him if Isis had not taken pity on her brother Set and spared him.

The Egyptians saw the battle between Set and Horus as the ultimate victory of good over evil. According to some interpretations, in the sphere of the eternal where there is no duality, Set and Horus are one; that is, life and death, darkness and light, are one force. In Egyptian religion this has been called “the secret of the two partners,” referring to the hidden understanding between the two combatant gods. Set who represents strife is perennially subdued but never destroyed by Horus who represents peace. There is reconciliation in the end.

The Pharaoh, sometimes known as the Two Lords, was identified with each of these gods as an inseparable pair. As the great antagonist of light, Set was frequently symbolized by the black boar, whose emblem was the primeval knife, the implement of dismemberment and death. His female counterpart was his sister Nephthys, who was herself a goddess of darkness and decay. In Egyptian art Set is usually portrayed as a man with the head of a fantastic beast, with pointed muzzle and high square ears. This unidentifiable creature has commonly been called the Typhonian animal, because Typhon was the god with whom the Greeks identified Set. Set is sometimes portrayed with horns, which made him the ideal image for the devil in Egyptian Christianity. Other animals associated with him were the antelope, the crocodile, and the ass.

In some texts, Set was described as having a mane of red hair and Plutarch, in his Isis and Osiris, writes that an ass was thrown down a precipice by the Coptites because the animal bore a resemblance to Set in its redness. People who had red complexions were often treated with great disdain.

Variants of Set’s name are Seth, Sethi, Sit, Sut, and Sutekh.


(Done with that book excerpt now, too. :) )

[liliana]

Wow!!!
I finally finished reading this - Great!!!!!
It must have really taken long, to collect all these informations!!!
Than you, NeferSesemet!!!

[Ahautenites]

Wow!!!
I finally finished reading this - Great!!!!!
It must have really taken long, to collect all these informations!!!
Than you, NeferSesemet!!!

**grins** Nah, not too long. I'm fortunate enough to have friends who love to give me useful books. Typing it doesn't take me too long, either. (It pays to be able to touch-type around 50 wpm on a good day. :) )

[Akatlarion]

Wow , thats quite an extensive compilation on the God Set(h) , very interesting:)



p.s. he , he , he.....my boyfriends name is Seth :)

[valis]

sutekh is also a wikkid techno producer out of sf :lol:

[Ahautenites]

**grins** I know. Every time I go searching for new links about Him, I have to weed through all of those links, too.

[darastar]

Fascinating info, NeferSesemet - would you mind if I printed it off to put in my journal??

[Ahautenites]

Absolutely. That's why I put it here. I still have to put a couple other entries into this thread, but feel free to take what's here now. (Just wanted y'all to check back once there's new stuff here so you can get that, too.) :)

[Ahautenites]

And here's the less-than-scholarly excerpt I mentioned earlier....

From Eye of Horus Oracle
Seth King of Chaos

The god Seth is the brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys. Born of Geb and Nut, he is of the royal line and some pharaohs associated themselves and their right to rule with his name rather than with the name of Horus and Osiris. Seth is generally depicted as a humanoid creature with the curving muzzle and tail of a beast, and two appendages jutting out from the top of his head. Legend paints Seth as a destructive, chaotic god. He is the murderer of his brother Osiris and he represents the rebellious, untamed forces within human and elemental nature that were feared by many. He is associated with stormy weather and cloudiness as well as various animals such as the hippopotamus, the crocodile and the boar. His color is red.

Seth the King

Seth was said to be ‘great of strength,’ an epithet indicative of the power that was attributed to this god and his central position in the culture and beliefs of many ancient Egyptians. In some regions, Seth was the sovereign god and was the deity linked with the right of kingship. The story of Seth’s murderous act upon his brother Osiris, and his subsequent contest with his nephew Horus for the throne of Egypt, is associated by some scholars with the process of rationalizing the supremacy of one set of belief systems over another.

Within Egypt, there were many different factions, each with their own belief systems and chief deities. The popularity, political correctness and expansion of some cults may have been based on associating one god with another or giving gods relationships that explain their positions within each new political or religious order. Seth may not have always been a chaotic, destructive force, but a powerful king whose Upper Egyptian cults lost ground to the Lower-Egyptian cults of Osiris and Horus.

Seth, the Destroyer

Seth’s violent, destructive nature was reputed to have been demonstrated from birth. He was said to have torn himself savagely from the womb of his mother, Nut. This is possibly a symbol for the destruction and chaos that can sometimes occur when a new order is being established. Seth became associated with forces of nature and aspects of the ancient world that were feared. He was the gods of the desert, the sea, stormy weather and foreign lands.

This latter association with foreign territories is, in part, indicated by Seth’s link with the goddesses Astarte and Anat, who were drawn into the Egyptian pantheon from the Semitic mythology of Syria and Canaan. During his contest with Horus, Seth is offered these goddesses as a consolation for Horus being awarded the kingship of Egypt. Seth was originally linked with his sister, Nephthys, but her role as his consort had ceased after the murder of Osiris. These foreign associations suggest a god whose influence is in exile and who may represent common fears of the unknown or of things beyond Egyptian jurisdiction and control.

The Symbology of Seth

In addition to the hippopotamus, the crocodile and the board, Seth was associated with many other animals, including the panther and a mythical creature called the hiu, which was a snake with the head of a donkey. In almost all cases, animals linked to Seth were feared or had some kind of taboo attached to them. The symbology of Seth also included the lettuce, which was said to have been a favorite food of the god!

The link between Seth and the hippopotamus comes from an episode of the contest for the throne of Egypt. Seth challenges Horus to a trial of endurance where they both become hippopotami competing to stay submerged under water.

Seth in a reading (refers to the Egyptian oracle runes that came with the book)

Upright:
If you have chosen this stone tablet in a reading, then it is time to create a new order in your life. Sometimes the creation of new beliefs, new relationships and new patterns of behavior can seem fraught with confusion and chaos. It may even appear that your whole world is falling apart as the old order of your life comes crashing down around you, and there may be a sense of instability and loss. However, this is not a negative time, but a time of opportunity and new direction. Your divine purpose is emerging and your higher awareness is asserting itself. Once you let go of the fear and trust your ability to handle change, the new phase that is being born will begin to make sense to you; the stormy weather will clear.

Seth has much to teach us about the creative nature of conflict. Many of us do not know how to handle confrontation and we waste energy in hiding from perceived conflict or reacting with aggression and violence. Often, facing our fears calmly and asserting our needs and desires can have a magical effect. Extraordinary compromises can be reached, and even situations that do not contain the potential for compromise offer a multitude of creative solutions beyond what we currently think possible. If we are wrapped up in fear and aggression we lose our objectivity, misdirect our imagination, stifle our intuition and limit our options. On the other hand, when we do our best to calm our fearful or angry thoughts, get as clear as we can be about our true feelings and face a situation head on, then we begin to transform our lives.

The stone of Seth can augur a time when some key relationships in your life are going through dramatic change and growth. Many relationships will be able to ride the storms to become stronger, more loving and more harmonious, while some will not.

Alternatively, the dramatic change you are experiencing could be related to your career, your place of work and the hierarchy around you. While it is good to be committed to the relationships and projects that you have created in your life, it is important to recognize that needs change and the breakdown of any situation, as destructive as it may initially appear to be, can liberate all parties to create something new and better.

Reversed:
IF the stone tablet is reversed, then you are a force for dramatic change in the life of another person. You may not intend to affect or influence others but your actions cannot fail to be transformative and disruptive at this time. You may find that even the simplest act causes a chain reaction affecting not just one but a number of other people.

Remember that in being powerful you can also respect the power and the rights of others. Making sure that your needs are met does not have to be congruent with exploiting others or depriving them of their ability to meet their own needs. Similarly, if you sacrifice yourself to the needs and whims of another person, then you need to recognize that it is your choice to do so and that you can make a difference that will be healthier for you both. Begin a process of change by knowing that when you are true to yourself, honest with others and willing to see all sides of an argument, then everyone will really win.

Attributes:
If this stone tablet represents a person, then they may well be foreign or alien to your in some way. Their beliefs and behaviour are quite different to your own and you do not immediately understand them. Perhaps it is you who fears being misunderstood. Alternatively, this stone represents someone whose influence you fear. It could be a figure of authority whom you in invest with or break your success, or someone whose presence appears to threaten the established order of your life. Let go of the fear and trust yourself. In western astrology, the qualities of Seth most directly relate to the signs of Aries and Scorpio.

Meditation:
Close your eyes, breathe deeply and relax. Focus on any areas of conflict, disagreement or fear you are experiencing at this time or any unresolved conflict from your past. How does it affect your life? How do you feel about it? Imagine this drama or conflict as a storm. This could be a rain storm with thunder and lightning or a dust storm of red desert sand. Picture yourself surrounded by a cocoon of bright, white light that shields and protects you as you walk straight through the middle of the storm. As you walk, see how beautiful this disturbance can be when you do not have to fear it, and see yourself arriving on the other side, safe and unharmed. Once the storm has settled, see how new and fresh everything looks.

Positive Affirmations:
- I am safe with my power.
- It is safe for me to dispose of the old and create the new.
- I release the past and trust my life to bless me with new gifts.
- I am able to harness and handle my divine purpose.
- The forces of nature heal and support me.
- I am loved and accepted wherever I go.

[Ahautenites]

Bumped for Rait, because I mentioned this thread in a PM to her.

[aluokaloo]

Thanks Nefer! He may not be my patron God, but I do worship Him, and I have been trying to find information on him besides short paragraphs bad rap and other odd stuff.

[Crescentia]

Thank you for posting this! I was actually looking for more information on Seth! My Solstice ritual honored Ra and Seth as the balance between darkness and light and during the invocations, I realized how much I knew about Ra and how little I knew about Seth! I have quite a few books, but few give more than the myth of his battles with Osirus and Horus. Nice to see more!

Thanks again!
Crescentia