THE SHRINE OF
HORUS


Horus (Her) One of the most important deities of Egypt. Horus as now conceived is a mixture of the original deities known as "Horus the Child" and "Horus the Elder". As the Child, Horus is the son of Osiris and Isis, who, upon reaching adulthood, becomes known as Her-nedj-tef-ef ("Horus, Avenger of His Father") by avenging his father's death, by defeating and casting out his evil uncle Set. He then became the divine prototype of the Pharaoh. As Horus the Elder, he was also the patron deity of Upper (Southern) Egypt from the earliest times; initially, viewed as the twin brother of Set (the patron of Lower Egypt), but he became the conqueror of Set c. 3000 B.C.E. when Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and formed the unified kingdom of Egypt. The name "Horus" is a general catchall for multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus-son-of-Isis (sometimes called Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, Osiris, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur. As the prototype of the earthly king, there were as many Horus gods as there were rulers of Egypt, if not more. The oldest of the Horus gods is appropriately named Horus the Elder (Heru-ur), and was especially venerated in pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt along with Hathor. In this very ancient form, Horus is also a creator god, the falcon who flew up at the beginning of time. The pre-Pharaohnic rulers of Upper Egypt were considered "shemsu-Heru" or "followers of Horus", and the original Horus is himself considered in some myths to be the brother of Seth and Osiris, second-born of the five children of Geb and Nut (Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, Nephthys). Horus the Elder's city was Letopolis, and his eyes were thought to be the sun and moon. When these two heavenly bodies are invisible (as on the night of the new moon) he goes blind and takes the name Mekhenty-er-irty, "He who has no eyes". When he recovers them, he becomes Khenty-irty, "He who has eyes". A warrior-god armed with a sword, Horus could be especially dangerous to those around him in his vision-deprived state, and during one battle in particular he managed to not only knock off the heads of his enemies but of the other deities fighting alongside him, thus plunging the world into immediate confusion that was only relieved when his eyes returned. Other notable Horus gods are the previously mentioned Harseisis, as well as Horus of Behdet (sometimes called simply Behdety) who was represented as a winged sun disk, Anhur (a form of Horus the Elder and Shu), Horakhety (Ra-Heru-akhety) who was a syncretism of Ra and Horus, and Harpokrates (Heru-pa-khered) or Horus the Child. In the form of Harpokrates, Horus is the danger-beset son of Isis with one finger to his lips, signifying his childish nature (also evident in his princely sidelock and naked status). Harpokrates represented not only the royal heir, but also the newborn sun. Horus deities are frequently depicted as hawks or hawk-headed men, though some are represented as fully human. The pharaoh was considered to be the Living Horus, the temporal stand-in for Horus in the earthly domain. As the opponent of Seth (who, though initially an Upper Egyptian deity himself, later came to represent not only Lower Egypt but the desert surrounding Egypt), Horus is alternately a brother vying for the throne and unification of Egypt (Horus the Elder), or a royal heir come to reclaim his inheritance (Horus the Younger). Horus can be seen at the top of the serekh of early kings, though in very rare cases his place was usurped by Set (Peribsen, Dynasty 2) or even shared with him (Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2). Horus is also depicted on the famous Narmer palette along with Bat, an earlier form of Hathor. A passage from the Coffin Texts (passage 148) sums up Horus in his own words: "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." The God Horus has several forms, all aspects of the principal solar deity. Thus he carries the energy and power of Ra downward onto the Earth, and becomes the stabilizing power behind the pharaoh's rule. He is the God of kingship and warfare in a just cause. He is generally depicted with a hawk's head, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. In his oldest form, Heru-ur, he is the third son of Nut and Geb. Unlike his siblings, Heru-ur was not born into the world with a feminine partner. Instead, he elected to leave the Earth with Ra and return to the Boat of a Million Years. This is the form of Horus that is most closely associated with Hathor. The Horus energy reenters the world through the union of Isis with Osiris, after the latter's death at the hands of Set. In his youth, as Harpocrates (Heru-pa-krat), he was a sickly, weak child hiding in the marshes at the Nile's delta to avoid Set's notice. He nearly died from the bite of a scorpion during this time, but Isis worked with Thoth to save him. As Horus grew to manhood, he became Heru-behutchet, Horus the warrior, who personifies the midday Sun. In this form, he battled with Set to reestablish the rule of justice and order on Earth. Set blinds Horus by tearing out one of his eyes (Heru-khenti-an-maati), while Horus tears away Set's "manhood." The Gods then intervened, and split Egypt into two kingdoms between the pair. Ra gave Horus one of his own eyes, the Uatchet, to replace the one Set destroyed. Horus' right eye is generally depicted as the Sun--the one given by Ra, while the left eye is the Moon. Later, Horus again battled Set and finally defeated him, becoming Heru-sma-taui, "Uniter of the South and North." This form of Horus is said to be the son of Hathor, although this may be a reflection of the myth of his vengeance against Isis. (Isis protected Set from Horus' destruction, so Horus tore her head off in anger and Thoth replaced it with a cow's head, a symbol of Hathor.) In the histories of Egypt that have been found, the pre-dynastic rulers of Egypt were known as the "Shemsu Hor," or companions of Horus. The first of the dynastic pharaohs, Narmer, took on the earthly form of Horus to justify his own rule. It is through this assumption of the Horus energies that the pharaohs were seen to be "divine." For us today, Horus shows us ways to rule fairly and without bias. With his early experiences, he learned what it means to be hurt and weak, so he is the patron of those who are ill or disabled, helping them to find the strength to continue. He teaches us to fight only in just battles, and in his mature form, how to control one's temper. Horus (Heru-khuti or Harakte) is also the personification of Ra on Earth, channeling the vital energy of the Sun's rays into the health of the Earth.