Some Notes on Set

From Seth, God of Confusion:A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion by H. Te Velde (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1977).

The meaning of the name Seth is uncertain by modern etymological standards. For historians of religion, however, pseudo-etymological explanations of the believers themselves are certainly no less valuable than the etymological derivation. They may have influenced the religious conceptions, and may represent them.

Apparently the explanation given by Plutarch is not his own invention, but goes back to Egyptian tradition. He writes: "And the name 'Seth' by which they call Typhon denotes this: it means 'the overmastering' and 'overpowering" and it means in very many instances 'turning back' and again 'overpassing'."(p.3)

As to the bacchanalia [...] Seth and Hathor, the well-known goddess of drunkenness and love, were tutelor god and goddess of wine. There is no means of showing, however, that the Egyptian who left us a stela on which Seth and Hathor are depicted together, was a participant in such Egyptian bahhanalia. A wine-offering is sometimes made to Seth and wine from the Kharga oasis is a gift of Seth. According to the dream papyrus, a craving for drink is characteristic of the Sethian type. Of such a man it is said: "If he drinks beer, he drinks [it so as to engender strife (?) and] turmoil."

[...] The Egyptians seem to have attached the following three meanings to the name of Seth: instigator of confusion, deserter, drunkard. (p.7)

It is assumed that an ivory animal figure, found at Mahasna, is the earliest repesentation of the Seth-animal we know up to the present, although it has not got a tail. The excavators write: "The small ivory figure [...] was no doubt the ornament on a comb or some siliar object. It is of interest, since it appears to be the earliest instance of that strange beast sacred to the god Set [...]". A comb from another grave of the same cemetery might also be ornamented with such a Seth-animal, altough head and tail are lacking. As the head of this latter figure seems to be broken off, its representing the Seth-animal becomes very dubious. Another ivory comb, which has some resemblance to these two and also belongs to Nagada I, but was not found at Mahasna but in Nagada itself, is ornamented with a horned antelope [...]. Radiocarbon dating has given the absolute date of 3790 BCE for the beginning of Nagada I, with a possible variation of 300 years. (Editor's note: this gives a possible range to Nagada I of approximately 4090 - 3490 BCE). (pp.7-9)

[...] no "definite opinion" is possible regarding Seth-worship in Nagada I, owing to lack of material. [...] the religion of Nagada I must have consisted in the cult of animals, trees and an anthropomorphous fertility goddess. [...] Seth may have been their chief god. This conclusion seems to have been furthered by non-archaeological data. In the later Egyptian tradition Seth is often called lord of Ombos, and in Ombos or Nagada very many graves have been found of predynastic times. The supposition that Set was already the local god of Ombos in predynastic times is tempting. It must be observed, however, that so far no Seth-animals of Nagada I or II have been found in Ombos, let alone any predynastic temple of Seth.

The original inhabitants of Egypt who lived around Ombos, where so many graves have been found, would have venerated Seth as their principal god. Later they would have been subjected by the dynastic race, who worshipped Horus. A certain synthesis between the two races and their religions would have been the result. [...] "[...]Seth was not assimilated and throughout Egyptian history he remains a deity apart...obviously on grounds of political expediency, Seth was considered to be the personification of evil; so much so that in Classical times he was identified with Typhon."

Should it become evident that the animal figures from Nagada I [...] have nothing to do with Seth, then the earliest known representatations of the Seth-animal are to be found on the proto-historic votive mace-head of king Scorpion on which undoubtedly Seth-animals with treir truncated ears and raised tails are represented.(p.10-12)

The Seth-animal has been connected with the ass, oryx, antelope, greyhound, fennec, jerboa, camel, okapi, long-snouted mouse, aardvark or orycteropus, giraffe and a kind of hog or boar. A.S. Jensen drew attention to the fact that it has also been regarded as a hare, jackal, tapir, long-snouted mormyr of the Nile or the nh bird of the Egyptians.

The hieroglyph of the Seth-animal does not represent an actual living animal. It is not possible to determine from what living creatures the hieroglyph of the Seth-animal is derived. It is doubtful whether the hieroglyph of the Seth-animal goes back to any animal which ever belonged to the fauna of Egypt.

The view that as beast of destiny the animal of Seth does not represent an animal of good fortune but a beast of ill luck, is confirmed by its function as determinative in the system of writing. The falcon of Horus indicates divine reality and is used, for instance, as a derterminative for the names of gods. The Seth-animal functions as a determinative for words indicating concepts divergent from the natural order, which to the Egyptian mind was given by the gods and is guarded by them, and it has a negative meaning...

Going through the list of words determined with the Seth-animal, one gains the impression that Egyptian culture, as it shows itself in the script here, regarded the Seth-animal as an unpleasant rowdy disturber of the peace...

The Seth-animal seems to be an imaginary animal related to the griffin, but unlike the falcon-headed griffin it does not function as a guardian angel, but as an animal of fatality, a beast of ill-omen, an angel of death, sometimes accompanying the good shepherd as the god Seth accompanies the god Horus.

Seth is one of the gods composing the Ennead of Heliopolis: Atum, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nepththys. Primaeval time may be described as the time before duality had arisen in the land. The one primaeval god Atum, the lord of all, as the first act of creation brought forth a male-female twin by self-fecundation: the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut. This twin brought forth another twin: the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who in turn produced Osiris and Isis. The duality so fat is that of man and woman and is complimentary. However, Geb and Nut did not bring forth only one male-female twin, but also Seth and Nepththys. This disturbs the harmonious development of creation, wherein each pair of gods only produced one other pair. Thus the birthday of Seth is the beginning of confusion. Seth is the one who caused disorder before his name existed.

One of the most frequently employed epithets of Seth is "son of Nut"; it is so widely known that it can be used without any further addition as an equivalent of the name Seth.