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Set (also Setekh, Seth, etc) was originally a god of strength, war, storms, foreign lands
and deserts in Egyptian
mythology. He protected desert caravans but also caused sandstorms. He was one of the Ennead and a son of Nuit and either Seb or
Re. He was usually the husband of ‘Ashtart or ‘Anat (in Semitic mythology) or the
Egyptian goddess Nephthys (with whom he
was the father of Anubis). He was closely associated with the god Ash.
One of the more common epithets was that he was 'great of strength'. In one of the Pyramid Texts it states that the kings
strength is that of Set. The Pharaoh himself was the heir to the two 'brothers' and
united the offices of Horus and Set or of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Seth protected the sun (Re) as he journeyed through the land of the dead during the night.
Most notably, he fought and killed Apep, the evil serpent of darkness who attacked Re each
night.
Later, when his brother Osiris became a much more important god, Set gradually
became thought of as his opposite. A new myth cycle developed in which Set kills Osiris in their struggles (see Legend of Osiris and Isis), so he became the god of
evil.
He was also seen to be in contrast to Horus, who was a god of the sky, so his breath was responsible for the worms. Metal ore
was called the "bones of Set" because they came from the ground. In the 3rd millennium BC, Seth (replacing Horus) became the patron god of the pharaohs, but as the story of
Set's murder of his brother became popular, Horus was switched back.
Set is sometimes incorrectly thought of as being a jackal-headed god. He is depicted
as having square ears, a forked tail and a curved
snout. Some people believe the animal represented was an aardvark, a type of
pig, or another as-yet-unidentiifed beast. In addition to the already mentioned animals, Set
was associated with gazelles, donkeys,
crocodiles and hippopotami.
The Greeks later linked Set with Typhon because both were evil forces that attacked
the main gods, though they are not otherwise very similar. After Egypt's conquest by the Persian ruler Cambyses II, Set became associated with foreigners
and particularly foreign oppressors, including the Achaemenid Persians, Romans, and Jews.
Other names
- Setech
- Setekh
- Setesh
- Seth
- Seti
- Sutech
- Sutekh
See also
In the fictional universe of White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade, the Followers of Set are a clan of
vampires.
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