9 World Chronicles

The two Horus of Kemetic/Egyptian mythology

Horus was the celestial Falcon and the embodiment of kingship. The conflict between Horus and Seth the two Lords was an enduring theme an Egyptian mythology.

The name Horace translates to meaning the distant one  but there were two main forms of Horace that appear in Kemetic mythology.

These are sometimes regarded as separate gods belonging to completely different  epox but sometimes has aspects of the same deity.

Horace the great or Horace the elder was a primeval being who initiated creation. As Lord of the Sky his wingspan the heaven, and his eyes were the sun and the moon. This Horus was the son of a Sky goddess either Nut or Hathor. Horace the younger was the son of Isis or Auset who grew up to avenge his murder father who was Osiris and take his place as the ruler of Kemet.

He was usually shown as a Falcon headed man. He represented Kingship Each King of Egypt was acclaimed as a living Horus.

Egypt's earliest Kings were shown as Hawks praying on their enemies. Many Egyptian deities could be represented by birds of the Hawk family. The hawk the cult of some of these gods such as Nekheny  were gradually assimilated with that of Horus.

One of the earliest divine images known from image from Egypt is that of a Falcon in a barque. This represents Horus as a star or planet crossing the winding waterway of the Sky. And later text paint a dazzling picture of “the one of dappled plumage who opened his eyes to dispel both darkness and chaos”.

Like other primary primeval deities the celestial Falcon coalesce with the creator son God.

He then became Ra Horakthy meaning Ra Horace of the double horizon. He  Who triumphed over his enemies to rise in the East. The union of these two powers could be symbolized by a Falcon Crowned with the sun disk or a sun disk with a falcon's wings.

When a King appeared to his subjects it was compared with the glorious rising of Horace in the horizon. The two Lords, Horus and Seth were depicted either as brothers or as nephew uncle.  Many theories have advanced to explain the origins of their combat from memories of an ancient civil War Two observations of storms or astronomical phenomenon.

When the combatants are Horace the elder the celestial Falcon and set the chaotic God of storms the conflict seems to belong to the primeval age 1 opposing element come together to create a divine order. Thus order dominating chaos.

The necessity of Horus and Seth being reconciled is stress in many sources. one of the key images of Royal art was Horus the Uniter Set tying together the plant of upper and lower Kemet to symbolize the union of the two lands into one perfect Kingdom.

although the figure is sometimes replaced with Thoth indicating that Set’s role as the Slayer of Osiris could not be overlooked.

When the great conflict is presented as a dynastic feud between young Horace and his usurper uncle.

Horace must triumph and Seth must be punished so that just kingship can be established for humanity. Horace who was son of Isis was destined to be King from the moment of conception his epitaph Horus who is upon the papyrus alludes to the myth that Auset hid the infant Horace in the papyrus thickets of a hidden island among the Marshes. The nest of Horace was guarded by divine beings such as a cow and scorpion goddess.

The young Horace grew up to become “the pillar of his mother” and “the Avenger of his father”.

 Advised by isis Horus fought Seth in many different ways. He turn set sexual aggression to his own advantage and overcame the temporary loss of power in his eye . Horace argued his father's case before the divine tribunal led by Geb.

Osiris is granted sovereignty over the dead and Horace over the living .

Horace the devoted son becomes the prototype for all funerary priests and performs a series of rituals to rise up Osiris. He also becomes an intermediary between the world of the living and the dead.

Horace is shown in the book of coming forth by day presenting  deceased souls before the throne of Osiris. The reign of Horus as King of Egypt was considered the model for all subsequent rains. The semi divine Kings who came after him in mythological history were called the followers of Horus

 In a few magical test text a scorpion goddess called Ta Bitjet is called the wife of Horus.

 A passage in the coffin text makes Horus the elder and his sister Isis the parents of four protective deities known as the sons of Horus. A festival at Edfu temple celebrate the beautiful union between Horus and Hathor the lady of Dendera. Here Horace is an aspect of the sun God uniting with the goddess to renew the cosmos.

.A mythical history of temples relates how to mysterious being subdued the primeval swamp by cutting down reads. When they struck a Reed in the ground it became a perch for the celestial Falcon, Horus the Elder.

The Reed Hut built to house the Falcon was set to be the center of the world and the first temple.

In the legend of the wing disc Horace the distant one takes the role usually given to the distant goddess and transforms himself into a fiery disc to blind and destroy the sun God's enemies. In the ritual drama known as triumph of Horace. Horus the son of Isis harpoons Seth in his hippopotamus form. After a series of battles by land and water he drives Seth and his followers out of Egypt just  as the Egyptian Kings hoped to drive out foreign invaders.