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Set (mythology)

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{{unreferenced}} {{Hiero|Sutekh|sw-W-t:x-E20-A40|align=right|era=egypt}} In Egyptian mythology, '''Set''' (also spelt '''Sutekh''', '''Setesh''', '''Seteh''') is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, one of the two main biomes that constitutes Egypt, the other being the small fertile area either side of the Nile. Due to developments in the Egyptian language over the 3,000 years that Set was worshipped, by the Greek period, the ''t'' in ''Set'' was pronounced so indistinguishably from ''th'' that the Greeks spelt it as '''Seth'''.

Desert god
image:Egypt.Mythology.Set.jpg left|thumb|150px|Set represented in the tomb of [[Thutmose III (KV34)]] As he was the god of the desert, Set was associated with sandstorms, and desert caravans. Due to the extreme hostility of the desert environment, Set was viewed as immensely powerful, and was regarded consequently as the chief god. One of the more common epithets was that he was ''great of strength'', and in one of the Pyramid Texts it states that the king's strength is that of Set. As chief god, he was patron of Lower Egypt, where he was worshipped, most notably at Ombos. The alternate form of his name, spelt ''Setesh'' (''stÅ¡''), and later ''Sutekh'' (''swtá¸«''), designates this supremacy, the extra ''sh'' and ''kh'' signifying ''majesty''. The exact translation of ''Set'' is unknown for certain, but is usually considered to be either ''(one who) dazzles'' or ''pillar of stability'', one connected to the desert, and the other more to the institution of monarchy. Set formed part of the Ennead of Heliopolis, as a son of the earth (Geb) and sky (Nuit), husband to the fertile land around the Nile (Nephthys), and brother to death (Ausare/Osiris), and life (Isis). The word for desert, in Egyptian language Egyptian was ''dshrt'', which is very similar to the word for red, ''dshr'' (in fact, it has the appearance of a feminine (grammar) feminine form of the word for red). Consequently, Set became associated with things that were red, including people with ginger hair, which is not an attribute that Egyptians generally had, and so he became considered to also be a god of ''foreigners''. Set's attributes as desert god lead to him also being associated with gazelles, and donkeys, both creatures living on the desert edge. Since sandstorms were said to be under his control as lord of the desert, and were the main form of storm in the dry climate of Egypt, during the Ramesside Period, Set was identified as various Canaanite storm deities, including Resheph.

The Set animal
In art, Set was mostly depicted as a mysterious and unknown creature, referred to by Egyptologists as the ''Set animal'' or ''Typhonic beast'', with a curved snout, square ears, forked tail, and Canidae canine body, or sometimes as a human with only the head of the ''Set animal''. It has no complete resemblance to any known creature, although it does resemble a composite of an aardvark, and a jackal, both of which are desert creatures, and the main species of aardvark present in ancient Egypt additionally had a reddish appearance (due to thin fur, which shows the skin beneath it). The earliest known representation of Set comes from a tomb dating to the Naqada Naqada I phase of the Predynastic Period of Egypt Predynastic Period (''circa'' 4000 BC–3500 BC), and the ''Set-animal'' is even found on a mace-head of the Scorpion King, a Protodynastic Period of Egypt Protodynastic ruler. A new theory has it that the head of the ''Set animal'' is a representation of the Mormyrus kannamae (''Nile Mormyrid''), which resides in the waters near Kom Ombo, one of the sites of a temple of Set, with the two square fins being what are normally interpreted as ears. However, it may be that part or all of the ''Set animal'' was based on the Salawa, a similarly mysterious canine creature, with forked tail and square ears, one member of which was claimed to have been found and killed in 1996 by the local population of a region of Upper Egypt. It may even be the case that Set was originally neither of these, but later became associated with one or both of them due to their similar appearance.

Contestings of Horus and Set
After Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, were unified, through the conquest of the lower half by the Upper, a representation of this conflict arose in mythology. Horus, who was the chief god of Upper Egypt, was depicted as having fought long and hard against Set in the struggle for the crown. It was said that in the struggle, Set's testicles were ripped off, explaining the desert's infertility, and one of Horus' eyes was partly gouged out, explaining why the moon was not as bright as the sun, since Horus, in this early form, was said to have the sun and the moon as his eyes. Ultimately, like the nations, the two gods were reconciled.

Saviour of Ra
As the Ogdoad system became more assimilated with the Ennead one, as a result of creeping increase of the identification of Atum as Ra, itself a result of the joining of Upper and Lower Egypt, Set's position in this became considered. With Horus as Ra's heir on Earth, Set, previously the chief god, for Lower Egypt, required an appropriate role as well, and so was identified as Ra's main hero, who fought Apep each night, during Ra's journey (as solar deity sun god) across duat the underworld. He was thus often depicted standing on the prow of Ra's night barque spearing Apep in the form of a serpent, turtle, or other dangerous water animals. Surprisingly, in some Late Period of Egypt Late Period representations, such as in the Twenty-seventh dynasty of Egypt Persian Period temple at Hibis in the Kharga Khargah Oasis, Set was represented in this role with a falcon's head, taking on the guise of Horus, despite the fact that Set was usually considered in quite a different position with regard to heroism. This assimilation also led to Anubis being displaced, in areas where he was worshipped, as ruler of the underworld, with his situation being explained by his being the son of Osiris. As Isis represented life, Anubis' mother was identified instead as Nephthys, leading to an explanation in which Nephthys, frustrated by Set's lack of sexual interest in her, disguised herself as the more attractive Isis, but failed to gain Set's attention, as Set was homosexual. Osiris, on the other hand, thought she was Isis, and they had sex, resulting in Anubis' birth. In some later texts, after Set lost the connection to the desert, thus infertility, and thus his sexuality, Anubis was identified as Set's son, as Set is Nephthys' husband.

God of evil
Naturally, when, during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Second Intermediate Period the mysterious foreign Hyksos gained the rulership of Egypt, and ruled the Nile Delta, from Avaris, they chose Set, originally Lower Egypt's chief god, as their patron, and so Set became worshipped as the chief god once again. However, following this invasion, Egyptian attitudes towards foreigners could be best described as xenophobia xenophobic, and eventually the Hyksos were deposed. During this period, Set (previously a hero), as the Hyksos' patron, came to embody all that the Egyptians disliked about the foreign rulers, and so he gradually absorbed the identities of all the previous evil gods, particularly Apep. When the Legend of Osiris and Isis grew up, Set was consequently identified as the killer of Osiris in it, having hacked Osiris' body into pieces, dispersing them, so that he could not be resurrected. Interpreting the ears as fins, the head of the ''Set-animal'' resembles the Oxyrhynchus fish, and so it was said that as a final precaution, an Oxyrhynchus fish ate Osiris' penis. Now that he had become the embodiment of evil, Set was consequently sometimes depicted as one of the creatures that the Egyptians most feared, crocodiles, and hippopotamus, and by the time of the New Kingdom, he was often associated with the villainous gods of other rising empires. One such case was Baal, an identification in which Set was described as being the consort of `Ashtart â€˜Ashtart or `Anat â€˜Anat, wife of Baal. Set was also identified by the Egyptians with the Hittites Hittite deity Teshub, who was a vicious storm god, as was Set. The Greeks later linked Set with Typhon because both were evil forces, storm deities and sons of the Earth that attacked the main gods. Some scholars hold that after Egypt's conquest by the Persian Empire Persian ruler Cambyses II, Set also became associated with foreign oppressors, including the Achaemenid Persians, Ptolemaic dynasty Ptolemaic Hellenistic Greece Greeks, and Roman empire Romans. Indeed, it was during the History of Greek and Roman Egypt GrÃ¦co-Roman Period that Set was particularly vilified, and his defeat by Horus widely celebrated. Nevertheless, throughout this period, in some distant locations he was still regarded as the heroic chief deity; for example, there was a temple dedicated to Set in the village of Mut al-Kharab, in the Dakhlah Oasis.

Use in fiction
* In the fantasy stories of Robert E. Howard about Conan the Barbarian, Set is the name of a serpent god worshipped in Stygia. Though Howard clearly took the name Set from the Egyptian deity, they are likely not the same god, as they have no similarities beyond their names. Still, many fans and authors attempt to identify one with the other. *List of Doctor Who villains#Sutekh Sutekh (Set) appears as the villain in the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''Pyramids of Mars''. *Seth (Stargate) Seth appears as a Goa'uld rebel villain who was the basis for the Set mythology on Earth in the Stargate TV series.[http://www.gateworld.net/omnipedia/characters/links/seth..html] *In the Marvel Universe, Seth was responsible for imprisoning the rest of the Egyptian gods since the death of Cleopatra, and became a major enemy of the Asgardians. *A fictional clan of Vampires called the Followers of Set, said to be founded by the Egyptian god Set, appear in White Wolf, Inc. White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade. *In one episode of the animated series Samurai Jack, Jack is pursued by three demons called "The Minions of Set", while he seeks out a magic scarab talisman. The Minions strongly resemble the classic representation of Set, featuring elongated snouts and square ears. *In ''Otherland'' by Tad Williams, Set is one of the avatars of an entity known as "The Other," an alien intelligence enslaved to be the master operating system of a very advanced virtual reality. *Set is one of the main characters in the Roger Zelazny novel Creatures of Light and Darkness. *The name of Seto Kaiba, a rival of the protagonist Yugi Mutou in the anime ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', is the Japanese phonetic equivalent of Set. *Set was the villain in the game ''Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation'' *Set was one of the bosses in the Sega Saturn/PlayStation/PC game "PowerSlave". *In the fictional world of the Forgotten Realms, Set is a member of the Mulhrondi pantheon, a group of gods who strongly resemble ancient Egyptian deities. He seeks to overthrow the rule of Horus-Ra. *In the cartoon Tutenstein on Discovery Kids, Seth appears as the villain who is trying to steal the Scepter of Was from the back-from-the-dead mummy of a young pharaoh. *In 2 videogames developed by Atlus - Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2, Set is categorized into tarot class Tower and demon clan Death God. *In the roguelike video game nethack, Set is the deity worshipped by alignment (role-playing games) chaotic humans.

References
*Kaper, Olaf Ernst. 1997. ''Temples and Gods in Roman Dakhlah: Studies in the Indigenous Cults of an Egyptian Oasis''. Doctoral dissertation; Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Faculteit der Letteren. *Kaper, Olaf Ernst. 1997. "The Statue of Penbast: On the Cult of Seth in the Dakhlah Oasis". In ''[http://print.google.com/print?id=dv_2slpteq4C Egyptological Memoirs, Essays on ancient Egypt in Honour of Herman Te Velde]'', edited by Jacobus van Dijk. Egyptological Memoirs 1. Groningen: Styx Publications. 231–241, ISBN 9056930141. *Osing, JÃ¼rgen. 1985. "Seth in Dachla und Charga." ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen ArchÃ¤ologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo'' 41:229–233. *Quirke, Stephen G. J. 1992. ''Ancient Egyptian Religion''. New York: Dover Publications, inc., ISBN 0486274276 (1993 reprint) *te Velde, Herman. 1977. ''Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion''. 2nd ed. Probleme der Ã„gyptologie 6. Leiden: E. J. Brill, ISBN 9004054022

See
*See Libya Libyan god of the desert, Ash (god) Ash.

See also
*Legend of Osiris and Isis *Temple of Set *Setianism *The Storm

External links

- Le temple d'Hibis, oasis de Khargha: ''Hibis Temple representations of Sutekh as Horus''
- SetSightings: An online archive of references to and images of Set {{Ancient Egypt}} Category:Egyptian gods Category:Sky and weather gods Category:War gods bg:Ð¡ÐµÑ‚ ca:Seth cs:Sutech da:Seth de:Seth (Ã„gyptische Mythologie) es:Seth fi:Seth fr:Seth he:×¡×ª it:Seth ja:ã‚»ãƒˆ lt:Setas nl:Seth (Egyptische mythologie) pl:Set pt:Seth ru:Ð¡ÐµÑ‚ (Ð¼Ð¸Ñ„Ð¾Ð»Ð¾Ð³Ð¸Ñ?) sl:Set tr:Set (mitoloji)

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