Horus

Isis gave birth to Horus after a pregnancy of ten months. She bore him in the papyrus marshes of Chemmis and hid him from Seth, who had killed Osiris. He was called Horus the Child, or Horus, son of Isis, to distinguish him from Horus the Elder. Isis raised him so that he could avenge his father and overcome Seth.

Isis was sometimes forced to leave Horus in the marshes while she searched for food. When she returned, she found him weak and too ill to suckle. She lamented that her family were either in another realm or hostile to her. She had no one to call upon except the people who lived in the marshes.

The marsh-dwellers shared Isis’s grief, but they could offer no help. A wise local woman then arrived, consoled Isis, and gave her advice. In another telling, Isis took refuge in the swamps of Buto with seven protective serpents and gave birth there. Other tellings had divine beings or humble marsh inhabitants protect Horus when Isis had to leave him. Serpents and diseases attacked the infant, but Isis shielded him with spells. She raised Horus in hiding until he could avenge Osiris and challenge Seth.

Horus brought his claim before the Ennead and the divine tribunal. He said that he should succeed Osiris as king of Egypt and that Seth was a usurper. Isis, Thoth and Anubis supported him. The gods agreed that Horus had made a good case and that he should replace Seth as pharaoh. When Seth heard this, he threatened the gods who had supported Horus. He said that he would use his royal sceptre as a club and kill one deity each day until they rejected Horus’s claim. The gods ignored his threat and placed Egypt’s crown on Horus’s head. They installed him in Osiris’s former position, and Isis cried out with joy for her son.

Seth refused to accept the decision. He challenged Horus to fight for the throne, and Horus agreed. Their conflict continued through many contests. In one contest, they changed into enormous hippopotami and remained beneath the deepest waters of the Nile. In another, Seth proposed a race in stone boats. Horus secretly made his boat from cedar wood and covered it with plaster so that it looked like stone. Seth used real stone, and his boat sank when it was launched. He escaped by changing into a hippopotamus, but Horus pursued him with a harpoon and wounded him.

The tribunal still could not settle the dispute. The gods approached Neith, but her judgement did not end it. At last, on Thoth’s advice, they appealed to Osiris for a final judgement. Osiris supported his son and reproached Seth.

In another telling, the struggle had already lasted eighty years. Ra-Harakhte presided over the tribunal and favoured Seth because Seth was Nut’s son, older and more experienced. Horus answered that succession gave him the right to rule. Shu and Thoth then recommended Horus’s case.

The traditions differed over the final process. Some said that the gods voted for Horus and crowned him king. Others continued with contests between the two gods, including the hippopotamus combat and the race in boats. The struggle was also presented as a conflict between the Followers of Horus and the Followers of Seth.

Hathor, the cow goddess, and Serqet, the scorpion goddess, attended the birth of Horus. They helped Isis nourish and protect him during his childhood in the marshes. Snakes and scorpions threatened the child. In the earliest tellings, Horus miraculously defeated the snakes sent against him. Later tellings made him more vulnerable, and snakes or scorpions poisoned him. Isis persuaded the sun god that her son had to be saved, and Thoth healed him.

When Horus grew up, he sought to avenge his father, Osiris. He put his case before a divine tribunal presided over by Ra or Geb. Horus claimed that he was entitled to succeed Osiris as king of Egypt and that Seth was a usurper. Isis, Thoth and Anubis supported him. In one telling, Ra-Harakhte favoured Seth because Seth was the son of Nut, older and more experienced, while Horus was still too young to rule. The dispute lasted eighty years.

The quarrel became a series of violent contests. Seth proposed that they sail in boats made of stone, with the victor inheriting Osiris’s throne. Horus agreed, but built a cedar boat and covered it with plaster. Seth’s stone boat sank, so he changed into a hippopotamus and tried to escape. Horus pursued him with a harpoon. Seth survived, and the gods still could not settle the case. Thoth later advised that Osiris should give the final judgement. Osiris declared for his son, and the gods voted to make Horus king.

The gods placed the crown of Egypt on Horus’s head and installed him in Osiris’s former position. They declared him the good king and lord of every land. Isis cried out in joy for her son. Seth refused to accept the decision and challenged Horus again. The divine tribunal reconciled the two combatants by assigning them different realms. Horus received Lower Egypt, while Seth received Upper Egypt and was summoned to live with Ra in the sky as god of storms. Other Egyptian tellings gave Horus all Egypt.

Horus gave the completed Eye to Osiris as a funerary offering. The Eye had been lost or mutilated during the conflict between Horus and Seth. Seth was usually named as the aggressor, and the attack endangered the whole cosmos. When Horus took the form of a celestial falcon, his right eye was the sun and his left eye was the moon. The restored Eye was called the wedjat, or whole Eye. It represented divine order, kingship, and offerings made to gods and the dead.

In one telling, Horus rescued the Eye himself. In another, a deity restored it. In a later telling, Seth tore out both eyes, buried them on a mountainside, and caused them to grow into lotus flowers. Hathor healed Horus. Horus had grown up as Isis’s son and had become determined to avenge his father. He claimed before a divine tribunal that he should succeed Osiris as king and that Seth was a usurper. Ra or Geb presided, while Isis, Thoth and Anubis supported Horus. The gods struggled to decide the case. After the conflict, they voted to make Horus king, and he was installed in his father Osiris’s former position.

Horus called together the Ennead and other gods and asked them to support his claim to Egypt’s throne. He recalled Seth’s crimes against Osiris and declared that he was entitled to succeed his father. The gods agreed that he had made a good case and said that he should replace Seth as pharaoh. When Seth heard this, he became enraged. He threatened to use his royal sceptre as a club and kill one god each day until the others rejected Horus’s claim. The gods ignored his threat and made Horus king. They placed Egypt’s crown on his head and installed him in Osiris’s former position. Horus accepted Seth’s challenge to fight for the throne.

Horus grew up in the marshes under Isis’s protection, with help from Hathor, Serqet and other deities. Snakes and scorpions threatened him during his childhood. In the earliest telling, he defeated the snakes by magic. In a later telling, snakes or scorpions poisoned him. Isis persuaded the sun god to save him, and Thoth healed him. When Horus grew up, he became determined to avenge his father. His deeds in the long war won him the name Harendotes, Horus the avenger of his father.

Horus showed great skill in battle. He pierced Seth with his lance, struck off his head and carried it to Isis. He repeatedly cut Seth’s forces to pieces. Seth recovered from his wounds each time, however, and Horus could not overcome him. Seth was an experienced warrior, while Horus was still young and could not always counter his uncle’s schemes. The war dragged on.

Seth sought arbitration by a tribunal of the gods. He had Osiris summoned before it, but Thoth argued so effectively that the gods declared Osiris true of voice. Horus and Seth also fought in contests and battles. In some tellings, they were brothers. In others, Seth was Horus’s uncle. They fought beneath the water in the forms of enormous hippopotami. Seth later ripped out Horus’s eyes. Their struggle continued through the battles between Horus and Seth.

Hathor travelled from Dendera to Edfu, and during the journey she joined Horus of Edfu in marriage. Their union joined Hathor, the goddess of joy and motherhood, with Horus, who held kingship over the living. Hathor was generally regarded as the wife of Horus of Edfu. Their marriage connected Hathor’s care for life with Horus’s royal power.

Hathor protected the youthful Horus-king, and her milk gave him the power to rule. She also became the Eye of Ra, the daughter who protected her father. In that role, she stood at the front of the solar barque and led its defence against Apophis, the serpent of chaos. Hathor also embodied the renewal of the cosmos. Her connection with Horus therefore joined motherhood, royal authority and the renewal of divine order.

Hathor bore Horus several children. Ihy was the god of music. Harsomtus carried a name that meant “Uniter of the Two Lands”. Through these children, Hathor’s family connection with Horus extended to music and to the joining of the Two Lands. Hathor’s journey from Dendera to Edfu ended with her marriage to Horus, and their union linked the two deities and their divine households.