Start Date
4-9-2021 3:15 PM
End Date
4-9-2021 4:50 PM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
Egypt -- Civilization -- To 332 B.C, Egypt -- Kings and rulers -- Religious aspects, Egyptian mythology -- History, Horus (Egyptian deity), Seth (Egyptian deity)
Description
As can be seen in Ancient Egyptian mythology, the gods Horus and Set had a rocky relationship that was most often represented as bitter rivalry. They both contended for the throne left empty by Osiris after his death with Horus eventually emerging victorious. Rather than remaining static in narrative and character, this is a story consistently tweaked across the fabric of Ancient Egyptian history. The Horus and Set of the Archaic Period are very different gods from the Horus and Set of the Late Period though the base story remains the same. By looking at the material and visual culture related to these two gods period by period, a pattern of the changes begins to emerge. These material and visual culture artifacts show just how closely the changing relations of eternal beings matched the ever-changing social context of the ancient present. The two who were once equals in power though unique in responsibility and jurisdiction became rivals unbalanced in might and notoriety as Egypt faced foreign invasions and Pharaonic difficulties. Set, god of foreigners and chaos, suffered from a series of social made mythological setbacks that blackened his reputation beyond recovery and started his decline into obscurity. Horus, in contrast, rose with every period until his honored position in the New Kingdom cemented his permanent prestige. Ancient Egyptian history mirrored their mythological contendings and ended with Horus on the throne.
PART OF SESSION 4D. ORDER AND DISORDER:
Comment: Bradley Franco, University of Portland
Chair: Steven Garfinkle, Western Washington University
Petra Ellerby, Western Washington University, undergraduate student
“May the Grass Grow Long: Hierarchy and Destruction in Ancient Mesopotamian Lamentation”
Zion G. Flores, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student
“Practical Anarchism: The Makhnovist Movement in the Ukraine, 1917–1921”
Gabrielle Goodwin, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“Changes in the Relationship Between the Horus and Seth: Set-tling the Score”
Mary Sweeney, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“Cursing in Medieval England: ‘By God’s Bones’ and Other Obscenities and Expletives”
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35228
Included in
Changes in the Relationship Between the Horus and Seth: Settling the Score
As can be seen in Ancient Egyptian mythology, the gods Horus and Set had a rocky relationship that was most often represented as bitter rivalry. They both contended for the throne left empty by Osiris after his death with Horus eventually emerging victorious. Rather than remaining static in narrative and character, this is a story consistently tweaked across the fabric of Ancient Egyptian history. The Horus and Set of the Archaic Period are very different gods from the Horus and Set of the Late Period though the base story remains the same. By looking at the material and visual culture related to these two gods period by period, a pattern of the changes begins to emerge. These material and visual culture artifacts show just how closely the changing relations of eternal beings matched the ever-changing social context of the ancient present. The two who were once equals in power though unique in responsibility and jurisdiction became rivals unbalanced in might and notoriety as Egypt faced foreign invasions and Pharaonic difficulties. Set, god of foreigners and chaos, suffered from a series of social made mythological setbacks that blackened his reputation beyond recovery and started his decline into obscurity. Horus, in contrast, rose with every period until his honored position in the New Kingdom cemented his permanent prestige. Ancient Egyptian history mirrored their mythological contendings and ended with Horus on the throne.
PART OF SESSION 4D. ORDER AND DISORDER:
Comment: Bradley Franco, University of Portland
Chair: Steven Garfinkle, Western Washington University
Petra Ellerby, Western Washington University, undergraduate student
“May the Grass Grow Long: Hierarchy and Destruction in Ancient Mesopotamian Lamentation”
Zion G. Flores, Eastern Washington University, undergraduate student
“Practical Anarchism: The Makhnovist Movement in the Ukraine, 1917–1921”
Gabrielle Goodwin, University of Idaho, undergraduate student
“Changes in the Relationship Between the Horus and Seth: Set-tling the Score”
Mary Sweeney, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“Cursing in Medieval England: ‘By God’s Bones’ and Other Obscenities and Expletives”