(11) SET

 

And ass-headed Set brayed in the desert…

Set often strikes me as similar to Loki, except more loyal when in balance or harmony with the rest of the Egyptian pantheon, until he was transformed into their antagonist. For example, he had a positive role where he accompanied Ra on the solar barque to repel Apep or Apophis, the serpent of chaos who would otherwise be the foremost villain of Egyptian mythology but for Set’s infamy.

However, with a divine brief as the god of the desert – lord of the Red Land as opposed to Horus as Lord of the Black Land or fertile land of the Nile – it was perhaps inevitable that Set would assume an antagonistic role, again as opposed to Horus, infamously by killing the father of Horus and husband of Isis, Osiris.

That ass-headed reference might not be accurate – “in art, Set is usually depicted as an enigmatic creature referred to by Egyptologists as the Set animal, a beast not identified with any known animal, although it could be seen as resembling a Saluki, an aardvark, an African wild dog, a donkey, a jackal, a hyena, a pig, an antelope, a giraffe or a fennec fox”. Of course, I prefer the ass version.

Interestingly, it may not have been so much his role as god of the desert that cast him as villainous but his role as god of foreigners, with the foreign conquests of Egypt – “Set’s negative aspects were emphasized during this period. Set was the killer of Osiris, having hacked Osiris’ body into pieces and dispersed it so that he could not be resurrected. The Greeks would later associate Set with Typhon and Yahweh”(!) – “a monstrous and evil force of raging nature (being the three of them depicted as donkey-like creatures).”

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)