Egyptian religious poetry

36 EGYPTIAN RELIGIOUS POETRY

acy throughout the long history of Egypt and were dethroned only by the advent of Christianity. This is seen by the fact that in hieroglyphic writing the cobra was the emblem of sovereignty for the King as well as being the sign for all goddesses, while the King was actually Horus himself. In the South the chief goddess was Nekhebt or Mut, the vulture, and the chief god was Setekh The vulture was the sign of sovereignty for the Queen, but the position of Setekh is peculiar. When, under Menes, the South conquered the North, Setekh’s position was high, but with the regularization of Osiris-worship the savagery of the ritual of Setekh told against him. He was feared rather than respected or loved, and except for certain centres of his cult he became, in the official religion during the xxiind dynasty and onward, the Evil Power, fighting against the Power of Good in the form of Osiris. If, as seems likely, the priest of Setekh disguised as that god actually put the Occupier of the Throne to death, the detestation in which Setekh was held in later times is explained. Whether Horus, as the heir of Osiris, then slew the slayer is uncertain ; if so, it was a later development, for originally it was the heir who sacrificed the King. This is clearly stated in the Pyramid Texts, “O Striker, thou hast slain thy father, thou hast killed one who is greater than thyself.” The evidence of the ritual and hymns shows that the slayer was himself slain, for Horus claims to have sacrificed the enemies of Osiris, and Setekh in particular. By one of those strange perversions so often caused in religious belief by ritual, Osiris then assumes the character of Setekh and becomes the Red God of human sacrifice who delights in blood.

1 The earliest writing of this name is Setesh, a dialectical form of Setekh. By some misapprehension the earlier Egyptologists called him Set ; modern Egyptologists call him Seth, although it is certainly a name of two syllables.