5 - 11 July 2001
Issue No.541
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 5 - 11 July 2001 Issue No.541 |
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Who is Seth?
My last article under the title Seth did not attend the party stirred much interest in the identity of Seth. Friends called to ask to whom I was referring. Those without an Egyptological background asked, "Who is Seth?" My professional colleagues asked for the name of the individual who had not attended Ali Radwan's celebration. They were extremely curious and tried to figure out whom I meant; they started to discuss people in our field who had similar characteristics to the god Seth.
So, let me introduce you to this ancient Egyptian god whom we associate with the evil side of human nature.
Seth was the god of confusion and the spirit of disorder, best known as the god who was so jealous of the popularity of his brother Osiris -- who represented "goodness" -- that he murdered him. The myth of this first murder on earth is very interesting. Seth hosted a party at which he presented a beautiful sarcophagus and announced that anyone who could fit into it could keep it. Osiris tried the coffin, and his body fitted perfectly. His brother quickly closed the coffin, and threw it into the Nile. The faithful goddess Isis searched for her brother, who was also her husband, until she learned that the coffin had been placed as a pillar inside the palace of the King of Byblos (modern day Lebanon). She hid in the palace and worked as a servant until she had an opportunity to take the pillar and swim with it to the shores of Egypt. Isis was the goddess of magic, so she was able to restore Osiris to his physical senses and they created the child Horus.
Unfortunately, Seth chanced upon the mummified body and cut it into 14 pieces, which he dispersed all over Egypt. Isis wept, and from her tears flowed the Nile flood, which brought Osiris floating back to her. She collected the pieces of his mutilated body, and only the phallus was missing. Isis took the child Horus to the marshes, where she hid him and raised him to avenge his father's death. Seth and Horus battled to win the kingdom of Egypt and control of the earth. In one of their battles, Horus lost an eye and Seth lost his testicles, and, consequently, his reproductive semen.
Eventually, though, they made peace, and decided that Horus would be ruler of Lower Egypt, while Seth would rule Upper Egypt. Thus Horus would be "lord of the black land" -- the fertile flood plain -- and Seth would be "lord of the red land" or the desert, including foreign countries. After some time, the good god conquered the evil one, and Horus became king of "two lands", Upper and Lower Egypt.
The jealousy of Seth is not simply part of an ancient myth. I don't understand why, but the world of Egyptology is plagued with ill-feeling among foreign and Egyptian scholars alike. Should you ever attend an Egyptology congress, you would hear stories you would lind hard to believe. When Zaki Ghoniem discovered the "unfinished pyramid" at Saqqara in 1954, it was hot news all over the world. A year later, some of Ghoniem's colleagues accused him of stealing an object of antiquity. Unable to stand being accused of such a crime he threw himself into the Nile, where he drowned.
Who is Seth, you ask? Seth represents those people who, while inadvisedly criticising others, finally harm themselves. Other "modern Seths" are those who ruin the reputation of others through gossip.
So, if you are still asking, who was the one who did not attend Ali Radwan's party, I can only say that the answer is known to those who did attend this beautiful event at which my great friend was honoured. We did not care that Seth was absent.
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