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Horus Biography

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HORUS (Egyptian Hôr) . An Egyptian deity. His name Hôr (u) is by some scholars explained as meaning "the superior, highest," but this is an improbable etymology, not more probable, perhaps, than the earlier comparison with Hebrew or (light), which is generally ridiculed at present. It is questionable where Horus had his original local cult: usually Edfu, where a large temple is still standing, is considered to have been the locality, although the god was worshiped at a great many other places. He was patron of Upper Egypt. On the very earliest monuments we find Horus as the chief god and type of the King; from the first the hawk is his symbol, and there are allusions to his antagonism to Set, so that the later theological ideas seem to be traceable to the time of the first dynasty. The original dominating position of Horus within the pantheon is shown by the fact that his hawk stands as hieroglyph for "god" in general. He appears as a sky god; then he personifies the sun, originally thought to fly over the sky in form of a hawk, and is usually represented as a young warrior with the head of a hawk, wearing the crown of Egypt. More specially he personifies the young sun, rising victoriously in the morning out of the hostile darkness. Therefore he is connected with Osiris, the sun dying in the west, and as his son he takes vengeance for his father on the powers of darkness. More rarely he is called the son of Rê, the midday sun. He is frequently called a posthumous son of Osiris, and after the nineteenth dynasty he is constantly represented as the son of Isis, who is even said to have formed him from the mutilated members of her murdered husband. Rising gloriously, Horus begins the fight with Set-Typhon, his wicked uncle, every morning--although later (partly euhemeristic) views consider the great fight between the gods as a single event, occurring at the beginning of the world. Avenging his murdered father, Horus overthrows and emasculates Set; but he loses one eye in the contest. Possibly this refers to the moon, which loses its light every month; or else the sun may be the single eye in the face of the god, i.e., the sky. The wounded eye is healed by the moon god (Dhouti, Thoth), which means that the second eye appears in the night. The blood of the wounded eye drips down and creates plants, animals, and all good and useful things on earth. It is curious to note how Horus is differentiated in regard to his various functions and phases. We find, e.g., Harpocrates (Horus as a child) distinguished from

Haroëris (the adult Horus); Harondotes (Egyptian: Harnez-iotef, the avenger of his father); Horus in Khemnis, as a babe hidden by his mother in the marshes of the Delta from the persecutions of Set; Harmachis (q.v.) ; "Horus uniting both lands"; and various other forms became localized and had their special cults. Many details of the Horus myth are obscure; e.g., the legend that he once cut off the head of his mother, which may have been borrowed from an Asiatic cosmogonic myth. The later theology explained this story by the statement that Isis had set free the wicked Set after Horus had delivered him to her in fetters, and that Horis mutilated her in his indignation at her act. The moon god (see above) replaced the head of Isis by a cow's head. The story of the fight against Set-Typhon is told with a great many variations, and the wicked adversary and his many helpers resist Horus in many forms and at many places. Later, the serpent Apap, as the personification of night and the hostile ocean, became confounded with Set (q.v.). The later Egyptians, under Greek influence, made strange attempts to harmonize these hundreds of different, contradictory myths. (Consult especially Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, and the accounts given by Diodorus.) Like Osiris, Horus was explained as typifying everything good in nature, although the solar meaning of most of the mythological facts was too manifest to be entirely overlooked. The planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were also considered as manifestations of Horus ("the red Horus," "the brilliant Horus," "Horus the bull"). In the mythical accounts of the early history of Egypt Horus was counted as the last of the divine rulers of the land. The principal temples of Horus were at Letopolis, in Lower Egypt, at Kus (Apollinopolis Parva), and at Edfu (Apollinopolis Magna-the Greeks identified Horus with their Apollo); he was worshiped also at Ombos, Denderah (Tentyra), Damanhur (Hermopolis Parva), etc. In Imperial Rome he became as popular as Isis and the other members of the Osirian family. See Plate of EGYPTIAN DEITIES, in the article EGYPT. Consult E. A. T. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, passim (London, 1904).