610 Seven
Set then engaged in a long violent contest against
Heru, the son of Ausar, that ended when Heru
finally defeated Set at Edfu.
When the gods were called on to judge whether
it should be Set or Heru ruling the Earth, they
decided that Set, who was favored by Ra, should
rule the underworld, and that Heru would be the
god of the living. Although Set did not gain the
throne, he was able to remain a companion of Ra
and therefore to exercise considerable power over
activities on the Earth. Set’s power could be used to
create chaos in the weather, for example.
Set was revered by many in ancient Egypt and
in the 2nd dynasty had a status that was similar to
that of Heru. Actually, the 2nd-dynasty king
Peribsen chose to write his name in a serekh sur-
mounted by the image of Set instead of Heru.
However, after this dynasty, the serekh was only
associated with Heru.
When the Hyksos ruled the Delta region, they
worshipped Set because he was similar to their god,
Baal. Set and Baal were both thunder gods. By the
time of the 25th-dynasty kings, Set was widely
accepted as evil, and the Egyptians believed that
Heru should be celebrated for his moral authority.
Molefi Kete AsanteSee alsoGod
Further Readings
Quirke, S. (1992).Ancient Egyptian Religion.London:
British Museum Press.
Shaw, I., & Nicholson, P. (1995).The Dictionary of
Ancient Egypt. London: Abrams.
SEVEN
The significance as well as the symbolic, mytho-
logical, mathematical, and esoteric meaning of the
number 7 varies throughout Africa. In ancient
Egyptian, the word for 7 is sefhet, or Seshat.
Seshat is the feminine counterpart of Thoth. She is
the mistress of measure and the passage of time.
Her emblem is the flower with seven petals or
leopard skin. She was a personal deity of the
pharaoh and therefore was not worshipped by the
populace. Seshat was invoked at the stretching
of the cord ceremony, a ritual performed by the
pharaoh during the laying of a temple’s founda-
tion. The association of the number 7 with wis-
dom comes with Seshat’s title “Foremost of
Libraries” and her role as guardian of her hus-
band Thoth’s books.
Among the Bambara and Dogon, 7 is the num-
ber of harmony. It signifies the harmony of the male
or masculine, represented by the number 3, with
the female or feminine, represented by the number- It has been suggested that the pyramid also
embodies the harmony of 7 because it is a
4 (the square base) topped with a 3 (triangle).
Among the Akan, the queen mother’s number is 3
and the king’s is 4, a different configuration, but
still totaling 7. Also among the Akan, the number 7
is significant in divination because it is an odd num-
ber. The practice of attributing gender to numbers
is found throughout Africa. Among Sudanic cul-
tures, even numbers are feminine and masculine
numbers are odd, such as the case among the
Kolokuma Ijo people of the Niger Delta.
The number 7 is also central to Egyptian math-
ematics. The fundamental equation 1 + 2 + 4 = 7
reflects the Egyptian method of calculating based
on continued doubling. Further, when 7 is multi-
plied by doubling, the first three multipliers are
always 1, 2, and 4, which equals 7. These equa-
tions factor into the Egyptian table of length
used to calculate pyramid measurements.
Egyptian fractions are calculated by multiplying
them by the number 7.
Although 7 is a conspicuous number in many cul-
tures, it is also taboo. The Kolokuma Ijo associate
the number 7 with the great divinities, so it is to be
avoided. Among the Mandak and Ga, the avoidance
of the number 7 is found in speech where 7 is
referred to as 6+1. Among the Malinke people and
the Mbundu-speaking people, the word for the num-
ber 8 is used in place of 7. In both languages, the
word for 8 is six-two; so to say 7, one literally says
six-two. Because 7 is taboo, the danger of speaking
it can be divided between two speakers by one mak-
ing the gesture of the number while the other speaks
it. The Kikuyu use a non-number name for 7,mug-
wanja, and people do not divide things in portions of
seven nor do children travel in groups of seven.
Seven curses can be evoked, each represented by
seven sticks aimed at the victim. If seven items