battle; it was later restored by Thoth. The wedjat
eye in a disk was also a representation of Horus
denoting protection that frequently appeared in
tombs and temples. Horus is presented in human
form as a male with the head of a hawk crowned
with a sun disk. Not all of Horus’s symbols consist
of disks and birds. He was shown as a suckling
child sitting on the lap of Isis. Beginning in the
Late Period, Horus could be represented as a
statue of a child atop two crocodiles and with var-
ious animals. This image, on a stele or amulet,
was used for its healing powers and as a form of
protection.
Since the earliest times, the celestial falcon was
equated with the king, who was perceived as
being a manifestation of Horus. Therefore, the
king bore a Horus name. The name was written
inside a rectangular glyph that is believed to be a
representation of the royal palace. On top of this
glyph, or serkeh, which appears in the early
dynastic and Old Kingdom tombs, appears a
falcon. To denote kingship, Horus is depicted as a
falcon with the double crown of Upper and Lower
Egypt. The explanation of how Horus came to be
associated with divine kingship is found in the
mythology.
Mythological Horus/HeruThese stories detail how Horus does battle with Set
for the right to rule Kemet. There are various ver-
sions of this episode that involve other neters. In a
popular version of this myth, Horus is the child of
Auset and Ausar and the nephew of Set and
Nephthys. Ausar, a good Earthly pharaoh, is killed
and dismembered into 14 pieces by his jealous
brother, Set. Auset finds all of the pieces of her
dead husband’s body except the phallus. She fash-
ions an artificial one and conceives Horus. Horus
would grow up in the marshes of Lower Egypt and
avenge the death of his father by fighting Set in an
80-year battle. The episodes in this war range from
racing in boats of stone to Set removing Horus’s
left eye and Horus castrating Set.
After the intervention of Thoth, Geb, deity of
the Earth and the father of both Ausar and Set,
and grandfather of Horus, settled the dispute.
Horus is declared the ruler of Lower Kemet, but
in other versions he is given dominion over all of
Egypt as the rightful heir to his father’s throne and
protector of all pharaohs. The transfer of power is
marked ritually by Horus performing the opening
of the mouth ceremony on his father. Subse-
quently, pharaohs are legitimized by their sons’
reenacting of this ceremony.
According to Charles Finch, the myth of Set
and Horus originates, at least partially, in celestial
phenomena that were not only carefully observed
by Egyptians, but considered sacred. Each morn-
ing when the sun rises, it overcomes or defeats
darkness or night. The Egyptians saw this as a vic-
tory that was by no means permanent or secure.
For after shining in glory all day, the sun must
again contend with the power of darkness because
night inevitably comes. Over the millennia of
Kemetan civilization, the story becomes more and
more elaborate, incorporating diverse political,
theological, and regional views without actually
displacing any of the preexisting ones. Because the
primal myths of Horus were never discarded and
his origins linked to the eternal process of night
and day, Horus emerged as a key archetype for
Egyptian culture.Archetypal Horus/Heru
One of Horus’s primary archetypes is that of the
champion over darkness and bringer of light
because when his eyes are open the universe is
filled with light and when they are closed there is
darkness. In a physical sense, this is seen at
sunrise; in a mythical sense, it is attested to when
Horus defeats Set. In the cosmology, Horus brings
light, discernment, and clarity, whereas Set repre-
sents darkness, chaos, and disorder. In this aspect
of Egyptian mythology that divides everything in
pairs, Horus and Set are twins or equals. Horus is
the ruler of lower Kemet and Set rules upper
Kemet. Over time, Horus becomes the ruler of all
of Kemet—the proverbial “good” twin or the
younger brother who supersedes the elder.
The preference or dominance of Horus occurred
gradually over hundreds if not thousands of years.
However, when a value is assigned to the qualities
of light and dark, the light that Horus represents is
considered good and preferred to Set’s darkness,
which is perceived as bad and rebuked. It is impor-
tant to note that the perception of good and evil in314 Heru, Horus