The Sky God

Son of Isis and Osiris.

Horus the savior of his father (Har-nedj-itef Greek Harendotes), which refers to the vindication of Horus' claim to succeed Osiris, claiming his father's former earthly domain from Seth. It is written that he was a war (Nemty) and hunting god becoming a majestic symbol of power to the Pharaohs. The Kings were embodiments of him. He was told by his mother, to protect the people of Egypt from Seth, the god of the desert, storms and chaos. He is from the old religion. Throughout different eras and dynasties his character changed with the times, such as when he merged with Ra, he became Ra-Horakhty. Horus united Egypt and bestowed divinity upon the Pharaohs.

The most common genealogy of Horus is as the son of Osiris and Isis, as the tenth member of the family tree of the Heliopolitan Ennead. However, one must remember that this god's worship spanned some three thousand years, during which time he was venerated throughout Egypt, as well as outside of Egypt. Therefore, the full picture of his genealogy is more complex. Hathor, herself sometimes identified with Isis, also appears as the mother of Horus.

As Horus was the son of Osiris, and god of the sky, he became closely associated with the Pharaoh of Lower Egypt and became their patron. The association with the Pharaoh brought with it the idea that he was the son of Isis, in her original form, who was regarded as a deification of the Queen.

As you read this you'll come to find that Horus is an extremely complicated deity, appearing in many different forms and his mythology is one of the most extensive of all Egyptian deities. Some of the reasons is due to the fact that from the very earliest of times, the falcon seems to have been worshiped in Egypt as representative of the greatest cosmic powers. Many falcon gods existed throughout Egypt, though over time, a good number of these crossbred into Horus. Hence from all his of many forms, it is nearly impossible to distinguish the "true" Horus. Basically I'm only covering what I feel is important.

Horus wrapped around the neck, protecting the Pharaoh

Since he was god of the sky, Horus became depicted as a falcon, or as a falcon-headed man, leading to Horus' name, in Egyptian, Heru, which meant the distant one. As a falcon he is shown on the Narmer Palette dating from the time of unification of upper and lower Egypt. Horus was also sometimes known as Nekheny meaning falcon, although it has been proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen city of the hawk, that became identified as Horus very early on. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one) and was also married to Hathor.

Horus the Elder

In this form he represented the god of light who can appear in the Heliopolitan family tree as the brother of Osiris and the son of Geb and Nut. Osiris can also be equated with Horus, who in that scenario is the murdered victim of Seth. At Edfu, Horus appears as the consort of Hathor and the father of another form of himself, Harsomtus, or "Horus Uniter of the Two Lands". Horus and Seth are sometimes described as nephew and uncle, but at other times as brothers. He also became the patron of the pharaohs, and was called the son of truth. He is seen as a great falcon with outstretched wings whose right eye was the sun and the left one was the moon. He became the patron of Nekhen (Heirakonpolis) and the first national god (God of the Kingdom).

In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile, Horus' right eye had been gouged out by Seth, which explains why the moon, which it represented, was so weak compared to the sun. It was also said that during a new-moon, Horus had become blinded and was titled Mekhenty-er-irty (he who has no eyes), while when the moon became visible again, he was re-titled Khenty-irty (he who has eyes). While blind, it was considered that Horus was quite dangerous, sometimes attacking his friends after mistaking them for enemies. it is said, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Upper Egypt by Lower Egypt in about 3000 BC. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus. As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis (Heru-ur, and Har-Wer, in Egyptian), meaning Horus the Great, but more usually translated as Horus the Elder.

Horus the Younger

In this form he is represented in the form of a youth wearing a lock of hair,a sign of youth on the right side of his head. In addition, he usually wears the united crowns of Egypt. He is a form of the rising sun, representing its earliest light. Some believe this to be his original form. Horus was also once again referred to as Neferhor. In the version of the Ogdoad creation myth used by the Thoth cult, Thoth created Ra-Herakhty, via an egg, and so was said to be the father of Neferhor which the name means beautiful Horus or young Horus.

Statue of Horus at the Temple of Horus in Edfu.

Re-Horakhty

The sun god Re, worshiped in Heliopolis, was so important in Egypt that eventually all of the most important deities were assimilated into the worship of Re, each having a place in an intricate mythology and iconography. Horus was initially the god of kingship of the unified Egypt. The kings were mortal manifestations of Horus. They were also known as "sons of Re." By the 12th dynasty, the "son of Re" was appointed "shepherd of the Land" by Horakhty, "Horus on the Horizon." And by the 21st dynasty, Horakhty was now Re-Horakhty. He is depicted as a king with a falcon head, crowned with a red disc of the sun. He carries the two scepters of kingship, the crook and the flail, thus identifying Re-Horakhty as the ruling king and signifying that the king embodies both Horus and Re.

"Horus of the two horizons", Horus was the god of the rising and setting sun, but more particularly the god of the east and the sunrise. In the Pyramid Texts, the deceased king is said to be reborn in the eastern sky as Horakhty. Eventually, Horakhty became a part of the Heliopolis sun cult and was fused with its solar god as Re-Horakhty. As Behdety, or "he of the behdet", Horus was the hawk winged sun disk which seems to incorporate the idea of the passage of the sun through the sky. As Hor-em-akhet (Harmachis) or "Horus in the horizon", Horus was visualized as a sun god in falcon or leonine form.

The Sons of Horus

One of the four sons of Horus was Hapi, which is not to be confused with the Nile god Hapy.

Going from left to right: The four sons of Horus

Imsety- (South) the human headed god looks after liver

Duamutef- (East) the jackal headed god looks after the stomach

Hapy- (North) the baboon headed god looks after the lungs

The earliest reference to the sons of Horus is found in the Pyramid texts where they are described as friends of the king, as they assist the king in his ascension to heaven in the eastern sky by means of ladders.Their association with Horus specifically goes back to the Old Kingdom when they were said not only to be his children but also his souls.The classic depiction of the four sons of Horus on Middle Kingdom coffins show Imsety and Duamutef on the eastern side of the coffin and Hapi and Qebehsenuef on the western side. Because the eastern side is decorated with a pair of eyes and the mummy was turned on its side to face the east and the rising sun, this side is sometimes referred to as the front. The sons of Horus also became associated with the cardinal compass points, so that Hapi was the North, Imsety the south, Duamutef the east and Qebehsenuef the west. Animal heads were only in existence after the end of the 18th dynasty, before that time they use imgaes of the deceased.

The canopic jars of King Tut

Ramesse's being crowned at Abu Simbel

The similarities with the ancient Mayan.

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