Seth
Seth, also known as Set and Suetekh, was the Egyptian god of war, chaos, and storms, brother of Osiris, Isis, and Horus the Elder, uncle to Horus the Younger, and brother-husband to Nephthys. His other consort was the goddess Tawaret, a hippo-headed deity who presided over fertility and childbirth.
He is one of the first five gods created by the union of Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) after the creation of the world. His name is usually translated as “instigator of confusion” and “destroyer” and he was associated with disorder, foreign lands and people, and the color red.
He is sometimes depicted as a red-haired beast with a forked tail and cloven hooves or a shaggy red dog-like beast known as a sha (or, to modern-day scholars, as the Set Animal) which some scholars claim was modeled on the Saluki breed while others maintain was a purely mythological creature imagined specifically to represent Set whose other symbols were the griffin, hippopotamus, crocodile, and tortoise (though he was primarily associated with the serpent). His epithets include “Lord of the Desert” and “Ruler of the South” as he was originally a god of Upper Egypt (the south) and the barren lands beyond Egypt’s borders.
It was said that each night Apophis hypnotized Ra and the entourage who sail with him except for the god Seth who resisted the serpent’s deadly stare and repulsed him with the thrust of a great spear. (221)
In doing so, Set assured that the sun would rise the next morning. Set was also seen as a benefactor who helped the people in life and provided for them after death, but by the time of the New Kingdom (c. 1570-c. 1069 BCE) he came to be best known as the first murderer, who killed his older brother Osiris to reign over the world and then tried to murder Osiris’ son Horus.
To the Greeks, he was associated with Typhon, the god-monster who challenged the might of Zeus and was hurled into Tartarus. Precisely why Set’s attributes and image changed from a hero-god to the enemy of order and justice is unknown, but by the time the Osiris myth became popular during the New Kingdom, Set’s transformation was complete. He was still invoked by common people and pharaohs for assistance, however, and his name is evident of that of rulers such as Seti I, Sethnakhte, and Seti II.