204 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia“Hor-Be%udet changed his form into that of a winged solar
disc, which remained there above the prow of the bark of Ea.
He took with him Nekheb, the goddess of the south, and Uazit,
the goddess of the north, in the form of two serpents, in order
to annihilate the enemy in their crocodile and hippopotamus
bodies in every place to which he came, both in Southern and in
Northern Egypt.
“Then the enemy fled before him, they turned their faces
towards the south, their hearts sank within them from fear. But
Hor-Be%udet was behind them in the bark of Ra, with an iron
lance and chain in his hand. With him were his followers, armed
with weapons and chains. Then beheld he the enemy towards the
south-east of Thebes in a plain two schœni in size.”
Here follows an account of the several battles which drove
the enemies of Horus from place to place until eventually all
Egypt passed under his sway. The first battle, that which took
place south-east of Thebes, was at Aa-Zadmi, so called from
the“wounds”inflicted on the foe, which henceforth bore the
sacred name of Hât-Ra,“the House of Ra.”The second was at
[223] Neter-khadu,“the divine carnage,”to the north-east of Dendera;
the third at Hebnu, near Minia, in the nome of the Gazelle; and
others followed at Oxyrrhynchus or Be%nesa, and Herakleopolis
or A%nas, where a twofold Mesen or“Forge”was established.
Then the foe were driven through the Delta and defeated at
Zaru on its eastern frontier, whence they fled in ships down the
Red Sea, but were finally overthrown at Shas-%er, near the later
Berenikê, at the end of the road that led across the desert from
the Nile.
Osiris, was called Mesen at Edfu. The winged solar disc, which seems to
have originated there, is called sometimes“the lord of the city of Be%udet,”
sometimes“the lord of the city of Mesen.”Be%udet was formerly read Hud,
and it is possible that this was really the pronunciation of the name in later
days. At all events it seems to be the origin of the modern Edfu, which, of
course, has nothing to do with the verbdeb,“to pierce.”