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.
