Shownotes Transcript
Hey everyone,Welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained, in today's video we're going to be discussing Set, the Egyptian god of war. Here's what's in store: a god impregnated by eating lettuce leaves; a god who travels through the underworld and fights a giant hell-serpent every night; a god who murders his brother and chops the body into pieces; and a god who surprise attacks his nephew in the desert, gouging out his eyes and leaving him for dead.Let's get into it.Set was one of the Ennead, a Greek word that refers to the first nine gods to come into existence in one of the main versions of the creation myth. In this version, Atum was the first deity to rise from the primordial mound. He was self-created, and after his genesis, he rose a second time, as Atum Re, making him both the chief creator and the embodiment of the sun. He independently sired two gods, shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). These two, in turn, begot Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), whose union produced the final four gods of this group, Osiris, the lord of the underworld, set, we'll get to him in just a moment, Isis, the goddess of healing and magic, and Nepthys, who was associated with many things, mourning, child bearing, and protection among them.set was the younger brother of Osiris, and he took Nephtys, his sister, as his consort, just as Osiris took Isis to be his. set was the god of many phenomena and abstractions associated with strength and destruction. Among these were violence, chaos, eclipses, earthquakes, the untamed desert, and storms of all natures. He and Osiris combined into a sort of dichotomy whereby Osiris was lord over the ancient Egyptian empire - civilized lands - and set was the lord over lands either populated by foreign countries or covered by rugged wilderness - uncivilized lands. In keeping with the divine aesthetic in ancient Egypt, set was depicted with the head of an animal. However, his appearance is unique in that, unlike the other gods with hybrid appearances, the animal whose likeness set's head was modeled after was never definitively identified. It looked to be dog-like in appearance, yet it possessed a vague similarity to an ant-eater; and today, it is hypothesized that the animal that inspired the appearance of set's head is likely a mythical amalgamation of many animals.Though never the most popular god, he was revered for his physical strength in earlier years. "The beloved of set" was a title taken by many pharaohs, equating their strength to that of the mighty god. This is exemplified by the depiction of set teaching Pharaoh Thutmose III how to shoot a bow. Later, around the eighth century BC, set ceased to be a deity honored by worship. He came to be the incarnation of evil and, as such, became a dark god, feared and reviled. I would guess that a primary contributing factor for the decline of set's image in the eye of the public was the role he played in the succession myth, which was, unequivocally, the part of the villain. Because Osiris was the older brother, he was made king, and to say that being subordinate to his older brother never sat well with set would be an extreme understatement. set coveted the throne, and his mind was consumed by machinations spawned from jealousy and rage. Eventually, brooding turned into action, and dark thoughts escalated to dark actions. set struck down his brother, chopped the body into pieces, and hid them across egypt. With Osiris gone, the other gods accepted set's rule, crystallizing the success of the usurpation. However, this victory was not to last.Many events ensue that I'm going to gloss over because set isn't directly involved in them, but here they are expressed as succinctly as possible: Osiris is resurrected for just enough time to impregnates isis with a son, Horus; Horus is born in secret; Isis brings Horus before the divine council to claim the throne, his birthright.