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Ancient Egyptian Warfare › Antique Origins
Definition and Origins
The Narmer Palette, an ancient Egyptian cermonial engraving, depicts the great king Narmer (c. 3150 BCE) conquering his enemies with the support and approval of his gods. This piece, dating from c. 3200-3000 BCE, was initially thought to be an accurate historical depiction of the unification of Egypt under Narmer, the first king of the First Dynasty. Recent revisions in scholarship, however, now interpret the artifact as a symbolic rendering of this historical event and claim that Narmer (also known as Menes ) may or may not have united the country by force but that the concept of the king as a mighty warrior was an important cultural value and so Narmer was depicted as a conqueror.
The great kings of Mesopotamia, especially the Assyrian rulers, left behind many inscriptions of their military victories, prisoners taken, cities destroyed but for most of Egypt's early history such records do not exist. The Egyptians considered their land the most perfect in the world and were not so much interested in conquest as in preservation of what they had. The early records of Egyptian warfare all have to do with civil unrest, not conquest of other lands, and this would be the paradigm from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-2613 BCE) until the time of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) when the kings of the 12th Dynasty maintained a standing army which they led on military campaigns beyond their borders.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL WARFARE
Although modern day scholars disagree on whether Narmer united Egypt through conquest, there is no doubt that a military force under a strong leader was necessary to hold the country together. Throughout the First Dynastic Period there is evidence of unrest, perhaps even a division of the country at one point, and civil wars between factions fighting for the throne.
DURING THE NEW KINGDOM PERIOD EGYPT EXPANDED ITS EMPIRE & WAS CONSTANTLY AT WAR. THUTHMOSE III LED AT LEAST SEVENTEEN DIFFERENT CAMPAIGNS IN TWENTY YEARS.
Through the time of the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE) the central government relied on regional governors ( nomarchs ) to supply men for the army. The nomarch would conscript soldiers in their region and send them to the king. Each battalion carried standards bearing the totem of their district ( nome ) and their loyalties were with their community, their brothers-in-arms, and to their nomarch. The effectiveness of this early militia is attested to by the successful campaigns in Nubia, Syria, and Palestine of Old Kingdom monarchs to either secure the borders, quell uprisings, or seize resources for the crown. The soldiers fought for the king and their country but they were not a united Egyptian army so much as a band of smaller military units fighting for a common goal. The conscripts were often supplemented by Nubian mercenaries who had the same degree of loyalty to the king as long as they were being paid.
The rise in the power of individual nomarchs was among the contributing factors in the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181-2040 BCE). The central government at Memphis was no longer relevant as each district's nomarch assumed control of their own region, built temples in their own honor instead of a king's, and used their militia for their own ends. In an attempt to regain some of their lost prestige, perhaps, the kings at Memphis moved their capital to the city of Herakleopolis, which was more centrally located. They were no more effective at the new location, however, than they had been at the old and were overthrown by Mentuhotep II (c. 2061-2010 BCE) of Thebes who initiated the period of the Middle Kingdom.
Narmer
It is likely that Mentuhotep II led an army of conscripts from Thebes but he may have already mobilized a professional fighting force in his district. It is also entirely possible that there was a core of professional soldiers who fought for the king as far back as the Pre-Dynastic Period (c. 6000-3150 BCE) but the evidence for this is unclear. Most scholars agree that it was Mentuhotep II's successor, Amenemhat I (c. 1991-1962 BCE) who created the first standing army in Egypt. This would make a great deal of sense because it would have taken power from the individual nomarchs and placed it in the hands of the king.The king now had direct control of an army which was loyal to him and the country as a whole, not to different nomarchs and their regions.
ARMIES & WEAPONS IN THE OLD KINGDOM
The weapons of the Pre-Dynastic and Early Dynastic Periods were primarily maces, daggers, and spears. By the time of the Old Kingdom the bow and arrow, among other weaponry, had been added as historian Margaret Bunson explains:
The soldiers of the Old Kingdom were depicted as wearing skull caps and carrying clan or nome-totems. They used maces with wooden heads or pear-shaped stone heads. Bows and arrows were standard gear, with square-tipped flint arrowheads and leather quivers. Some shields, made of hides, were in use but not generally.Most of the troops were barefoot, dressed in simple kilts, or naked (168).
The Egyptians used a simple single-arched bow which was hard to draw, had a short range, and unreliable accuracy. The soldiers were all from the lower-class peasantry population and had little training. It is unlikely, though possible, that they would have had experience with a bow in hunting. The peasantry owned no land in Egypt and hunting was prohibited without the consent of the upper-class landowner. Further, the Egyptian diet was mostly vegetarian and hunting was a sport of royalty.Still, with archers firing en masse from a close position, these weapons could be very effective. After a volley or two of arrows, the soldiers would close with their opponents using hand weapons. The Egyptian navy at this time was used only to transport troops, not for enemy engagement.
Egyptian Soldiers
MIDDLE KINGDOM WARFARE
By the time of the Middle Kingdom the troops carried copper axes and swords. The long, bronze spear became standard as did body armor of leather over short kilts. The army was better organized with "a minister of war and a commander in chief of the army, or an official who worked in that capacity" (Bunson, 169). These professional troops were highly trained and there were elite "shock troops" used as the vanguard. Officers were in charge of an unspecified number of men in their units and reported to a commander who then reported up the chain of command; it is unclear exactly what the individual responsibilities were or what they were known as but military life offered a much greater opportunity at this time than in the past. Historian Marc van de Mieroop writes:
Although our knowledge of the military in the Middle Kingdom is very limited, it seems that its role in society was much greater than in the Old Kingdom. The army was well organized and in the 12th dynasty it had a core of professional soldiers. They served for prolonged periods of time and were regularly stationed abroad. The army provided an outlet for ambitious men to make careers. The bulk of the troops continued to be recruited from the populations of the provinces and participated in individual campaigns only. How many troops were involved and how long they served remains unknown (112).
The military of the Middle Kingdom reached its apex under the reign of the warrior-king Senusret III (c. 1878-1860 BCE) who was the model for the later legendary conqueror Sesostris made famous by Greek writers. Senusret III led his men on major campaigns in Nubia and Palestine, abolished the position of nomarch and took more direct control of the regions his soldiers came from, and secured Egypt's borders with manned fortifications.
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE HYKSOS
The kings of the 12th Dynasty, like Senusret III, were strong rulers who contributed a great deal to Egyptian stability but the 13th Dynasty was weaker and failed to maintain an effective central government. The Hyksos, a Semitic people who immigrated from Syria-Palestine, settled in Lower Egypt at Avaris and, in time, had amassed enough wealth to wield political power. The rise of the Hyksos marks the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1782-1570 BCE) when the country was divided between the Hyksos in the north, the Egyptians in the middle, and the Nubians to the south. This situation continued, with the three engaged in trade and an uneasy peace, until the Egyptian king at Thebes, Seqenenra Taa (c. 1580 BCE), felt challenged by Apepi, the Hyksos king at Avaris, and attacked. The Hyksos were finally driven out of Egypt by Ahmose I (c. 1570-1544 BCE) of Thebes and this event marks the beginning of the New Kingdom.
Egyptian Bronze Sword
The Egyptian army during the Second Intermediate Period was largely made up of Medjay, Nubian warriors who fought as mercenaries. Medjay served as scouts, light infantry, and finally as cavalry units. Prior to the arrival of the Hyksos, the horse was unknown in Egypt and so, of course, was the chariot. Although later Egyptian and Greek writers characterized the time of the Hyksos as a dark age of chaos and destruction, the foreign kings introduced a number of significant innovations to the culture, especially concerning warfare and weaponry. Egyptologist Barbara Watterson notes:
The Hyksos, being from western Asia, brought the Egyptians into contact with the peoples and the culture of that region as never before and introduced them to the horse-drawn war chariot; to a composite bow made from wood reinforced with strips of sinew and horn, a more elastic weapon with a greater range than their own simple bow; to a schimitar-shaped sword, called the Khopesh, and to a bronze dagger with a narrow blade cast in one piece with the tang. The Egyptians developed this weapon into a short sword (60).
Egypt had never been invaded and occupied by a foreign power before and the rulers of the New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) wanted to make sure it never would be again. The early kings of this period, therefore, placed particular emphasis on expanding the borders of the country to create buffer zones and, in doing so, launched the Egyptian Empire.
THE ARMY OF THE EMPIRE
The period of the New Kingdom is the best known by modern day audiences with some of the most famous rulers ( Hatshepsut, Thuthmoses III, Seti I, Ramesses II ). It was the period when Egypt reached its height in prestige, power, and wealth. Van de Mieroop writes:
New Kingdom Egypt was an imperialist state: the country annexed territories outside its traditional borders and controlled them for its own benefit. This policy had its roots in earlier periods, when military conquest was a regular part of royal duties, but peaked in the New Kingdom when Egypt was in an almost permanent state of war (157).
Statue of King Thutmose III
The empire of the New Kingdom starts with Ahmose I's pursuit of the Hyksos out of Egypt, through Palestine, and into Syria but really begins with the reign of Amenhotep I (c. 1541-1520 BCE) who expanded the southern borders into Nubia.Thuthmose I (1520-1492 BCE) went further and campaigned through Palestine and Syria into Mesopotamia, reaching the Euphrates River. Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE) sent expeditions to Nubia and Syria and organized a trade mission to Punt which included a military escort. Thuthmose III (1458-1425 BCE), however, is considered the greatest warrior king of the early New Kingdom, conquering Libya, expanding into Nubia, and securing regions throughout the Levant. Thuthmose III, leading at least 17 different campaigns in 20 years, established the Egyptian Empire at its height and, to do this, required a professional army. Bunson writes:
The army was no longer a confederation of nome levies but a first-class military force. The king was the commander in chief but the vizier and another administrative series of units handled the logistical and reserve affairs...The army was organized into divisions, both chariot and infantry. Each division numbered approximately 5,000 men. These divisions carried the names of the principal deities of the nation (170).
Under this new organization, the chain of command in a division, from the lowest to highest rung, was strictly hierarchical. In each division there was an officer in charge of 50 soldiers who reported to a superior officer in charge of 250 men. This officer, in turn, reported to a captain who was responsible to a troop commander. Above the troop commander was the troop overseer, a military official in charge of a garrison, who reported to the fortification overseer, a higher official in charge of the forts where the division was stationed, who reported to a lieutenant commander. The lieutenant commander reported to the general who was responsible to the vizier and the pharaoh.
Ramesses II at The Battle of Kadesh
An important aspect of this new army was the horse-drawn chariot introduced by the Hyksos. Van de Mieroop notes how, "Charioteers were trained fighters and also men of wealth, who provided their own equipment. They received greater rewards than other soldiers and had a high social status" (158). The Egyptians modified the chariot of the Hyksos to make it lighter, more maneuverable, and faster. Each chariot held two men, a driver and a warrior. They wore scale armor on the upper body and a light kilt below. The driver was a highly trained charioteer who controlled the vehicle while the warrior, armed with bow, arrows, and a spear, engaged the enemy. Chariot forces were divided into squadrons of 12 chariots and 24 men with a thirteenth as squadron commander.
It was this army which expanded Egypt into an empire and allowed for the opulent reigns of pharaohs such as Amenhotep III(1386-1353 BCE) under whose rule Egypt enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity. This is not to say there were no conflicts during his reign but the army kept such unpleasantness far from the borders of the country. This is also the army, under Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE), which engaged the Hittites in 1274 BCE at the famous Battle of Kadesh.
Ramesses II moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to a new city he built on the former site of Avaris in Lower Egypt, Per-Ramesses ("City of Ramesses"). As usual, this pharaoh spared no expense in lavishing his new capital with adornments and monuments, temples to the gods, and beautiful buildings but, as Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson explains, there was more going on at Per-Ramesses than architectural advancements and religious festivals:
While the court scribes and poets lauded Per-Ramesses as a great royal residence, filled with exuberance and joy, there was also a more menacing side to this most ambitious of royal projects. One of the largest buildings was a vast bronze-smelting factory whose hundreds of workers spent their days making armaments. State-of-the-art high-temperature furnaces were heated by blast pipes worked by bellows. As the molten metal came out, sweating laborers poured it into molds for shields and swords. In dirty, hot, and dangerous conditions, the pharaoh's people made the weapons for the pharaoh's army. Another large area of the city was given over to stables, exercise grounds, and repair works for the king's chariot corps...In short, Per-Ramesses was less pleasure dome and more military-industrial complex (314).
Ramesses II launched his campaign against the Hittites at Kadesh from Per-Ramesses, riding in his chariot at the head of four divisions of 20,000 men. According to his inscriptions, the battle was an overwhelming Egyptian victory but his opponent, Muwatalli II of the Hittite Empire, claimed precisely the same for his side. Scholars today have concluded that the Battle of Kadesh was more of a draw than a victory for either side but Ramesses had details of his great victory inscribed and read throughout the country and the conflict would result in the world's first peace treaty signed between the Egyptian and Hittite Empires in 1258 BCE.
Hittite War Chariot
THE EGYPTIAN NAVY
Besides the army and the chariotry, there was a third branch of the military, the navy. As noted, in the Old Kingdom the navy was used primarily to transport infantry. Even as late as the Second Intermediate Period, Kamose was using the navy simply as transport to bring his troops down the Nile for the sack of Avaris. In the New Kingdom, however, the navy became more prestigious as foreign invaders threatened Egypt's prosperity by sea.
The best documented, and most determined, of these invaders are known as the Sea Peoples, a mysterious group who have yet to be positively identified. They seem to have been a coalition of different ethnicities who harried the coasts of the Mediterranean between c. 1276-1178 BCE. Ramesses II, his successor Merenptah (1213-1203 BCE) and Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE) all fought off the Sea Peoples during their reigns.
Ramesses II, who had a very efficient intelligence network, learned of the coming invasion in time to place his navy along the coast at the mouth of the Nile. He then positioned a small fleet in a defensive position to draw the ships of the Sea Peoples into a trap. Once they were in position, he released his more numerous and larger ships from the sides and destroyed his opponent.
This engagement, like many others of the Egyptian navy, was fought at sea by land troops. Although the soldiers were trained to fight on water they were not seamen. The Egyptians were not a seafaring people and their navy gives evidence of this. The ships were often incredibly large with a crew of around 250 men. Smaller ships held a crew of 50 with 20 of these delegated to rowing, sailing, maneuvering the vessel and 30 assigned to combat. Although Ramesses II emphasized his victory in a sea battle, it was actually a land battle fought on water. The Egyptian ships closed with those of the Sea Peoples enabling boarding and then sinking of the enemy ships; the ships themselves did not do battle.
Egyptian Warship Model
This same is true of Ramesses III's engagement with the Sea Peoples. He incorporated his predecessor's trick of luring the Sea Peoples into a trap and then relied on guerilla warfare to destroy them. Merenptah avoided a sea engagement entirely and met the enemy on land at Pi-yer where his New Kingdom army slaughtered over 6,000 enemy soldiers.
The true value of the Egyptian navy was intimidation of potential invaders and transport of land troops quickly. Thuthmoses III used the navy to good effect in a number of campaigns and former cargo ships were frequently conscripted and turned into naval vessels for campaigns up or down the Nile. The ships would be outfitted with bulwarks to protect the crew from incoming missiles and would sometimes also be improved for maneuverability.
DECLINE OF THE EGYPTIAN MILITARY
Ramesses III was the last effective pharaoh of the New Kingdom and, after he died, great military successes became more and more a thing of the past. The pharaohs who followed him were not strong enough to hold the empire and it began to fall apart. A contributing factor to this decline was actually Ramesses II's decision to build Per-Ramesses and move his capital there from Thebes. Thebes was the site of the great Temple of Amun at Karnak and the priests of Amun, not just there but throughout Egypt, were very powerful. When the capital moved to Per-Ramesses the priests at Thebes found they had a good deal more freedom to amass even more wealth and power than before. By the time of the reign of Ramesses XI (1107-1077 BCE) the country was divided between his rule from Per-Ramesses and that of the priests of Amun at Thebes.
This division begins the era known as the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069-525 BCE). Whatever power Egypt had at sea was eclipsed by the Greek and Phoenician navies of the time which were much faster, better equipped, and manned by experienced seafarers. Egypt entered the so-called Iron Age II in c. 1000 BCE when they began producing iron tools and weapons. Forging iron required charcoal from burned lumber, however, and Egypt had few trees. In 671 BCE the country was invaded by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon who, with his professional army wielding weapons of iron, massacred the Egyptian army, burned the city of Memphis, and brought royal captives back to Nineveh. In 666 BCE his son Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt and conquered the land all the way past Thebes. Again, the iron weapons, better armor, and tactics of the Assyrians proved superior to the Egyptian military.
Assyrian Battle Scene
Egyptian history enters the Late Period (525-332 BCE) after the Assyrian invasions which is marked by dwindling power of Egyptian rulers and incessant warfare. The Egyptian royalty fought one another for supremacy using Greek mercenaries who would as easily fight for one side as another. Eventually many of these Greek soldiers stopped fighting entirely and just settled with families in Egypt.
The Egyptian military had acquired iron weapons by this time and developed a strong cavalry but these innovations were not enough to raise it to the level of efficiency and power it had before. Iron was very expensive because all the elements required had to be imported.
The Persians invaded in 525 BCE and defeated the Egyptian garrison at Pelusium but this had nothing to do with superior military might. The Persian general Cambyses II knew of the great veneration the Egyptians had for animals in general and cats in particular. He ordered his men to round up as many animals as possible and drive them before the army. Further, he had his soldiers paint the image of the goddess Bastet, among the most popular of all Egyptian deities, on their shields. He then marched on the city with the animals in front of him declaring that he would hurl cats over the walls if he did not receive an immediate surrender. The Egyptians, fearing for the safety of the animals (and also their own if they should offend Bastet), lay down their arms and surrendered. Afterwards, Cambyses II is said to have thrown cats from a sack into the faces of the Egyptians in contempt.
Alexander the Great took Egypt from the Persians in 331 BCE and, after his death, it came under the rule of his general Ptolemy who became Ptolemy I of Egypt (323-283 BCE). The Ptolemies were Macedonian-Greek rulers who employed the military tactics and weaponry of their own country. The history of ancient Egyptian warfare essentially ends with the New Kingdom. Whatever innovations and progress in weaponry were made after 1069 BCE no longer mattered on a large scale to the Egyptian military because there was no longer a strong central government to support it.
Horus › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Horus is the name of a sky god in ancient Egyptian mythology which designates primarily two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), the last born of the first five original gods, and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis. According to the historian Jimmy Dunn, "Horus is the most important of the avian deities" who takes on so many forms and is depicted so differently in various inscriptions that "it is nearly impossible to distinguish the 'true' Horus. Horus is mostly a general term for a great number of falcon deities" (2). While this is certainly true, the name 'Horus' will usually be found to designate either the older god of the first five or the son of Isis and Osiris who defeated his uncle Set and restored order to the land.
The name Horus is the Latin version of the Egyptian Hor which means "the Distant One", a reference to his role as a sky god.The elder Horus, brother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, is known as Horus the Great in English or Harwer and Haroeris in Egyptian. The son of Osiris and Isis is known as Horus the Child ( Hor pa khered ) who was transformed into the Greek god Harpocrates after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 331 BCE. 'Harpocrates' also means 'Horus the Child' but the deity differed from the Egyptian Horus. Harpocrates was the Greek god of silence and confidentiality, the keeper of secrets, whose statuary regularly depicts him as a winged child with his finger to his lips.
Horus the Younger, on the other hand, was a powerful sky god associated with the sun, primarily, but also the moon. He was the protector of the royalty of Egypt, avenger of wrongs, defender of order, uniter of the two lands and, based on his battles with Set, a god of war regularly invoked by Egyptian rulers before battle and praised afterwards. In time, he became combined with the sun god Ra to form a new deity, Ra-Harahkhte, god of the sun who sailed across the sky during the day and was depicted as a falcon-headed man wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt with the sun disk on it. His symbols are the Eye of Horus (one of the most famous Egyptian symbols) and the falcon.
HORUS WAS GIVEN CHARGE OF THE SKY AND, SPECIFICALLY, THE SUN.
HORUS THE ELDER
The elder Horus is one of the oldest gods of Egypt, born of the union between Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) shortly after the creation of the world. His older brother Osiris was given the responsibility of governing the earth along with Isis while Horus was given charge of the sky and, specifically, the sun. In another version of the story, Horus is the son of Hathor while, in others, she is his wife and, sometimes, she is mother, wife, and daughter of Horus. The scholar Geraldine Pinch notes that "one of the earliest divine images known from Egypt is that of a falcon in a barque" representing Horus in the sun barge traveling across the heavens (142). Horus is also depicted as a creator god and benevolent protector.
There were many falcon gods (known as Avian Deities) in Egyptian religion who were eventually absorbed into the god known as Horus. Some, such as Dunanwi from Upper Egypt, appear early in history while others, like Montu, were popular later. Horus' early association with Dunanwi has been challenged by scholars but there is no doubt he was later combined with the god as Horus- Anubis. Dunanwi was a local god of the 18th upper nome (province) while Horus was widely worshipped throughout the country. It is possible that, like Inanna in Mesopotamia, the figure of Horus began as a local god such as Dunanwi but it seems more likely that Horus was fully realized early in Egypt's religious development.
Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson comments on how "Horus was one of the earliest of Egyptian deities. His name is attested from the beginning of the Dynastic Period and it is probable that early falcon deities such as that shown restraining the `marsh dwellers' on the Narmer Palette represent this same god" (200). Rulers of the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000-3150 BCE) were known as "Followers of Horus" which attests to an even earlier point of veneration in Egypt's history.
In his role as The Distant One he performs the same task as The Distant Goddess, a function associated with Hathor (and a number of other female deities) who go forth from Ra and return, bringing transformation. The sun and the moon were considered Horus' eyes as he watched over the people of the world day and night but could also draw near to them in times of trouble or doubt. Imagined as a falcon, he could fly far from Ra and return with vital information and, in the same way, could quickly bring comfort to those in need.
From the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-c.2613 BCE) onwards, Horus was linked with the king of Egypt (though later rulers associated themselves with Horus the Younger). Historian Margaret Bunson writes, "The Serekh, the earliest of the king's symbols, depicted a falcon (or hawk) on a perch. As a result, devotion to Horus spread throughout Egypt but in various locales the forms, traditions, and rituals honoring the god varied greatly" (116). This variation gave rise to a number of different epithets and roles for this deity and eventually led to his transformation from the elder Horus to the child of Osiris and Isis.
HORUS THE YOUNGER & THE OSIRIS MYTH
The younger Horus is sometimes mentioned as related to the older god but quickly eclipsed him and assumed many of his characteristics. By the time of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE), the last dynasty to rule Egypt, the elder Horus had been completely replaced by the younger. Statues of Horus the Child from the Ptolemaic period show him as a young boy with his finger to his lips perhaps representing the time when he had to remain quiet when hiding from his uncle Set as a child. In his young form he "came to represent a promise by the gods to take care of suffering humanity" since he had himself suffered as an child and knew how it felt to be fragile and surrounded by dangers (Pinch, 147). It was this form of Horus who would become the Greek Harpocrates whom Plutarch called "the second son of Isis" and who would go on to become popular in the Roman world. The Cult of Isis was the most popular mystery cult in Rome, greatly influencing the development of Christianity, and Harpocrates was the divine son depicted in ancient Roman art with his mother.
Isis
The story of Horus comes out of the Osiris Myth which was one of the most popular in ancient Egypt and gave rise to the Cult of Isis. This story begins shortly after the creation of the world when Osiris and Isis ruled over a paradise they created. When men and women were born from the tears of Atum (Ra) they were uncivilized and barbaric. Osiris taught them culture, religious observances to honor the gods, and the art of agriculture. The people were all equal at this time, men and women, owing to the gifts of Isis which were dispensed to all. Food was plentiful and there was no want or need unfulfilled.
Osiris' brother, Set, grew jealous of him and this envy turned to hatred when Set discovered that his wife, Nephthys, had transformed herself into the likeness of Isis and seduced Osiris. Set was not angry with Nephthys, however, but focused his revenge on his brother, "The Beautiful One", who had presented a temptation too strong for Nepthys to resist. Set tricked Osiris into laying down in a casket he had made to his brother's exact specifications and, once Osiris was inside, Set slammed the lid on and threw the box into the Nile.
The casket floated down the river to eventually lodge in a tamarisk tree by the shores of Byblos where the king and queen admired its beauty and sweet scent and had it cut down for a pillar in their court. While this was going on, Set has usurped Osiris' rule and reigned over the land with Nephthys. He neglected the gifts which Osiris and Isis had bequeathed and the land suffered drought and famine. Isis knew she had to bring Osiris back from wherever Set had banished him to and went out searching for him. She finally found him inside the tree-pillar at Byblos, asked the king and queen for it, and brought it back to Egypt.
Divine Family from Ancient Egypt
Osiris was dead but Isis knew she could bring him back to life. She asked her sister Nephthys to stand guard over the body and protect it from Set while she went to gather herbs for potions. Set, meanwhile, had heard that his brother had returned and was out looking for him. He found Nephthys and tricked her into telling him where the body was hidden; then he hacked Osiris into pieces and scattered the body parts across the land and into the Nile. When Isis came back she was horrified to find her husband's body missing. Nephthys told her how she had been tricked and what Set had done to Osiris.
The two sisters then went in search of the body parts and reassembled Osiris. His penis had been eaten by a fish and so he was incomplete but Isis could still return him to life. Isis used her magic and potions and, in some versions of the story, is aided in this by Nephthys. Osiris revived but could no longer rule among the living because he was no longer whole; he would have to descend to the underworld and reign there as Lord of the Dead. Prior to his departure, though, Isis transformed herself into a kite (a falcon) and flew around his body, drawing his seed into her own and becoming pregnant with Horus. Osiris left for the underworld and Isis went into hiding in the Delta region of Egypt to protect herself and her son from Set.
HORUS & ISIS
Isis endured a difficult pregnancy with exceptionally long labor and gave birth to Horus alone in the swamps of the Delta. She hid herself and her son from Set and his demons in the thickets, only going out at night for food accompanied by a bodyguard of seven scorpions who were given her by the goddess Selket. Selket (and, in some versions of the story, Neith ) watched over Horus while Isis went out. Isis, Selket, and Neith nurtured Horus and educated him in their exile until he was grown to manhood and was strong enough to challenge his uncle for his father's kingdom.
The story of the battles between Horus and Set have many different versions but the best known is from a manuscript dating to the 20th Dynasty (1090-1077 BCE), The Contendings of Horus and Set which describes their contest as a legal trial in front of the Ennead, a tribunal of nine powerful gods. In this version of the story, Horus brings a complaint against Set - who is one of the nine - claiming he has unlawfully taken the throne from Osiris - who is also one of the nine judges. The tribunal is asked to decide between Horus and Set and most of the gods choose Horus but Ra, the supreme god, claims that Horus is too young and inexperienced and Set has the better claim to rule. Horus and Set must compete in a series of battles to prove which is best able to reign. In the course of these battles, Horus loses an eye and Set is castrated (or, at least, severely damaged) but Horus is victorious each time.
Set Defeated by Horus
These contests go on for over 80 years and Ra continues to deny Horus his right to the throne. Meanwhile, the land is suffering under Set's rule and Isis is desperate to do something to help her son and her people. She transforms herself into a beautiful young woman and sits down in front of Set's palace where she begins to cry. When Set comes out and sees her, he asks the cause of her sorrow and she tells him how a wicked man, her husband's own brother, has killed him and taken his land and, further, seeks the life of her only son and has banished her to the swamp lands and the thickets where only the scorpions are her companions.
Set is outraged by her story and declares that this man should be punished. He swears that he, himself, will go find this man and cast him from the lands and restore the woman and her child to their rightful place. Isis then throws off her disguise and reveals herself and the other gods in attendance. Set has condemned himself by his own decree and Ra agrees with the other gods that Horus should be king. Set is then banished to the desert lands beyond Egypt's borders while Horus assumes the throne of his father with his mother and aunt Nephthys as consorts.
In another version of the story, the trial lasts for 80 years until the frustrated gods turn to the wise goddess Neith, mediator of disputes, who rules in favor of Horus. She suggests that Set be given reign of the desert regions while Horus rules the fertile Nile River Valley. As a consolation, she proposes, Set should also be given two foreign goddesses as consorts - the warrior-goddess Anat from Syria and Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, from Phoenicia. This version of the story explained how Set came to be associated with people of foreign lands as well as the desert regions.
Set and Horus Blessing Ramesses II
HORUS & THE KING
Having conquered Set and restored order, Horus became known as Horu-Sema-Tawy, The Horus, Uniter of the Two Lands.He reinstated the policies of his parents, rejuvenating the land, and ruled wisely. It is for this reason that kings of Egypt, from the First Dynastic Period on, aligned themselves with Horus and chose a "Horus Name" to rule under at their coronation. Osiris had been the first king of Egypt who established order and then passed on to the underworld while Horus was the king who restored that order after it was overturned by Set and who raised Egypt up from chaos to harmony. Egyptian kings, therefore, identified themselves with Horus in life and Osiris in death. During their reign, they were the physical manifestation of Horus under the protection of Isis (a notable departure from this custom being the king Peribsen, sixth king of the Second Dynasty, who aligned himself clearly with Set). Ramesses II famously invokes the protection of Isis and Horus in his Poem of Pentaurfollowing the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE as do many other kings and pharaohs of Egypt. Wilkinson writes:
Horus was directly linked with the kingship of Egypt in both his falcon form aspect and as son of Isis. From the earliest Dynastic Period the king's name was written in the rectangular device known as the serekh which depicted the Horus falcon perched on a stylized palace enclosure and which seems to indicate the king as mediator between the heavenly and earthly realms, if not the god manifest within the palace as the king himself.To this "Horus Name" of the monarch, other titles were later added, including the "Golden Horus" name in which a divine falcon is depicted upon the hieroglyphic sign for gold (201).
Since the king of Egypt was the `great house' who protected his people, all the citizens of Egypt were under the protection of Horus. He was worshipped in many forms and in many different sites. Wilkinson notes that, "Horus was worshipped along with other deities in many Egyptian temples and imporant sites of his worship are known from one end of Egypt to the other" (203).His importance as the uniter of the two lands and maintainer of order made him a representation of the concept of balance which was highly valued by the Egyptians.
WORSHIP OF HORUS
Horus was worshipped in the same way as any of the other gods of Egypt: temples were built as homes for the god and his statue placed within the inner sanctum where only the chief priest was allowed to attend him. The clergy of the Horus Cult were always male as they associated themselves with Horus and claimed protection from their `mother' Isis. Attendant priests took care of the temple complex which, like any other, was constructed to mirror the afterlife of the Field of Reeds. The reflecting pool of the temple was Lily Lake (also known as The Lake of Flowers) which the souls of the justified dead were rowed across by the divine ferryman Hraf-hef (`He-Who-Looks-Behind-Himself'). The temple was the afterlife palace and home of the god and the courtyard, decorated with flowers, was his garden.
Ra-Horakhty Stela
The people of Egypt would come to the courtyard to ask for assistance or to receive alms, deliver donations or have their dreams interpreted. They would also visit the temple for advice, interpretation of omens, medical assistance, marriage counseling, and for protection from evil spirits or ghosts. The sites of the worship of Horus, as Wilkinson notes above, are too numerous to list but the major cult centers were Khem, in the Delta region, where Horus was hidden as a child, Pe, the site where Horus lost his eye in his battle with Set, and Behdet (both also in the Delta). In Upper Egypt he was worshipped along with Hathor and their son Harsomptus at Edfu and Kom Ombos. Edfu hosted the annual Coronation of the Sacred Falcon "in which an actual falcon was selected to represent the god as king of all Egypt, thus uniting the ancient falcon god with his form as Horus son of Osiris and with the king" (Wilkinson, 202). This ceremony, like other royal festivals, had to do with empowerment of the king and rejuvenation of his reign but was not as important as the Heb Sed Festival. Horus was also venerated at Abu Simbel through statuary and inscriptions and amulets were regularly worn by people seeking his protection.
THE FOUR SONS OF HORUS
This protection extended through life and beyond death. Horus was associated with the afterlife through his Four Sons who protected the vital organs of the deceased. These four gods represented the four cardinal points of the compass and each was presided over and protected by a goddess. The Four Sons of Horus were:
- Duamutef - a jackal god who protected the stomach, represented the east, and was protected by Neith.
- Hapy - a baboon god who protected the lungs, represented the north, and was protected by Nephthys.
- Imsety - a god in human form who protected the liver, represented the south, and was protected by Isis.
- Qebehsenuef - a hawk god who protected the intestines, represented the west, and was protected by Selket.
These organs were held in canopic jars which sometimes had the head of the protector-god as the lid handle. The most famous example of the canopic protectors is the alabaster artifact from the tomb of Tutankhamun in which Isis, Neith, Nephthys, and Selket are carved. All four of the protector-gods were depicted as mummified men with their respective different heads of jackal, baboon, human, and hawk. These were all seen as manifestations of Horus who was a friend to the dead.Horus was invoked at funerals for protection and guidance for those who had departed and for the living who remained behind.
Canopic Jars
HORUS & JESUS CONTROVERSY
The Cult of Horus in Egypt, as noted, was already ancient by the time the Osiris Myth became popular and that myth elevated the worship of Osiris, Isis and Horus to a national level. The Cult of Isis became so popular that worship of the goddess traveled through trade to Greece and then to Rome where it became the greatest challenge to the new religion of Christianity in the 3rd-5th centuries CE. Horus traveled with her in the form of Horus the Child and influenced Christian iconography of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child.
There is no doubt the woship of Isis influenced early Christianity through the concepts of the Dying and Reviving God who returns from the dead to bring life to the people, eternal life through dedication to that god, the image of the virgin mother and child, and even the red-hue and characteristics of the Christian devil. This is not to say, however, that Christianity is simply the Isis Cult re-packaged nor that Horus was the prototype for the risen Christ.
Isis Nursing Horus
The book The Pagan Christ by Tom Harpur (2004) makes this very claim, however, and has given rise to the so-called Horus-Jesus Controversy also known as the Son of God Controversy. Harpur claims that Christianity was invented wholly from Egyptian mythology and that Jesus Christ is simply Horus re-imagined. To support his claim, Harpur cites `experts' on the subject such as Godfrey Higgins, Gerald Massey, and Alvin Boyd Kuhn, all writers from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, none of whom were biblical scholars or Egyptologists. Higgins was an English magistrate who believed all religions came from the Lost City of Atlantis ; Massey, a self-styled Egyptologist, was an English spiritualist who studied available inscriptions at the British Museum; Kuhn was a self-published author whose primary focus was promoting his Christ Myth Theory which was essentially just a re-write of the work done by Higgins and Massey.
Harpur presents these `experts' as though they had uncovered something miraculous and unheard of when, in reality, their observations are often innacurate re-treads of earlier works (such as those of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius ) or wildly speculative theories presented as though they are brilliant insights. The Dying and Reviving God motif had existed for thousands of years before the apostle Paul began is evangelical efforts c. 42-62 CE and the concept of eternal life through personal dedication to a god was equally well established. Harpur's book presents a number of very serious problems to any reader acquainted with the Bible, Christianity, and Egyptian Mythology and history but his most serious offense is the claim that Horus and Jesus share "remarkable similarities".
This claim, which is quite obviously false to anyone who knows the stories of the two figures, has become the best known of the book. Unfortunately, many readers who do not know the original stories take Harpur's claims as legitimate scholarship when they are not. To cite only a few examples, Harpur asserts that both Horus and Jesus were born in a cave - this is false, Horus was born in the Delta swamps and Jesus in a stable; both births were announced by an angel - also false, as the concept of the angel, a messenger of God, is absent from Egyptian beliefs; Horus and Jesus were both baptized - false, baptism was not practiced by Egyptians; both Horus and Jesus were tempted in the wilderness - false, Horus battled Set in many different regions, including the arid desert while the gospel stories make clear that Jesus was tempted in the desert or the wilderness; Horus and Jesus were both visited by Three Wise Men - false, Horus is never visited by wise men and, even more damaging to Harpur's 'scholarship', there are not 'three wise men' mentioned in the Bible which only references `wise men' who bring three kinds of gifts; Horus and Jesus both raised the dead back to life - false, Horus had nothing to do with raising Osiris or anyone else from the dead.
Horus
Further, Egyptian religious beliefs would have rejected any such concept as a dead person returning to life on earth. Even Osiris, the great god and first king, was not allowed to return to his place on earth after death; he took his place among the dead, where he belonged. The Egyptian understanding of earthly life was that it was only one part of a much longer eternal journey and no one would have been welcomed back who had already departed for the afterlife. Further, no Egyptian would have wanted to;the Egyptian afterlife was a mirror image of one's life on earth except it lacked disappointment, loss, and death.Any person or object one had left behind on earth was found again in the Field of Reeds, whether one's deceased loved ones, pets, or even one's favorite tree in one's yard.
HORUS THE REDEEMER
All of Harpur's further claims are equally untenable owing to extremely poor scholarship and a reliance on sources which are not credible. Neither Horus nor Jesus benefit from his shoddy comparison of their lives. The concept of Horus as redeemer was well established in Egypt but this does not necessarily mean that concept was exclusive to him nor that there were not other `redeemers' in between the time of the popularity of Horus and the development of Christianity. Horus was a redeemer of health and humans in their earthly form; not of souls needing salvation from sin and eternal punishment. Horus the Child was one of a number of so-called 'child gods' of ancient Egypt who appeared in the form known as Shed (Savior) but was a savior from earthly troubles, not eternal ones. Geraldine Pinch writes:
He appeared on stelae of the late New Kingdom dressed as a prince who vanquished dangerous animals with his bow or curved sword. This was a forerunner of the type of magical stela known as a cippus. On these, the naked Horus child tramples on crocodiles and squeezes the life out of other dangerous creatures such as snakes, lions, and antelopes. When the Greeks saw such objects, they identified Horus the Child/Harpocrates with the infant Herakles ( Hercules ) who strangled two snakes that attacked him in his cradle (147).
Horus also, through his Four Sons, watched over and was a friend to the dead but was primarily a god of the living. He was the distant god who could draw close in time of need, the dependable friend, the caring brother, the protector, and one's guide through the perils of life. He shares these qualities and characteristics with other deities in cultures around the world up through the present day but to the Egyptians he was wholly unique because he was their own; as it is and has always been with any god of any faith anywhere.
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