192: The Trouble With Seth

Identity crisis. Seth (aka Sutekh / Setekh / Suty) is a complicated deity. A master of storms, winds, deserts and seas, Seth dominates foreigners and the world outside Egypt. However, he is also treacherous, violent, and aggressive; a god who slew his own brother and tried to seize the throne for himself. As a result, Seth has a complicated relationship with the Egyptian kingship. Part defender and source of legitimacy, but also a threat to the stable order of the world (ma’at). Most kings navigated this relationship fairly easily. But then, most kings weren’t named after the god himself. As a pharaoh of Egypt, a living Horus, and the son of Osiris, King Sety I had to work hard to reconcile his personal identity with his divine. The results are visible on his monuments…

Date: Reign of Sety I (c.1300 BCE).

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Music intro, outro, and interludes: Michael Levy.

Music interludes: Keith Zizza and Luke Chaos.

Logo image: A Seth-headed-Sphinx, on an obelisk of Sety I, originally from Heliopolis but now in Alexandria (Line drawing by Dominic Perry, based on a photo by Heidi Kontkanen).

Select Bibliography:

J. P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2nd edn, 2015).

P. J. Brand, The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis (2000).

E. Cruz-Uribe, ‘The Father of Ramses I: OI 11456’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 37 (1978), 237—244.

E. Cruz-Uribe, ‘Stḫ ꜥꜣ pḥty “Seth, God of Power and Might”’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 45 (2009), 201—26.

A. el-Sawi, ‘Some Variations of Writing of the Names of Sety I at Abydos’, Annales du Services des Antiquités de l’Egypte 70 Supplement (1987), 53—63.

J. G. Griffith, The Conflict of Horus and Seth from Egyptian and Classical Sources (1960).

C. A. Hope, ‘Reconstructing the Image of Seth, Lord of the Oasis, in his Temple at Mut el-Kharab in Dakhleh Oasis’, Rich and Great: Studies in Honour of Anthony J. Spalinger on the Occasion of his 70th Feast of Thoth (2016), 123—145.

K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Translated and Annotated: Translations Volume I: Ramesses I, Sethos I and Contemporaries (Second Publication edn, 2017).

W. M. F. Petrie and J. E. Quibell, Naqada and Ballas 1895 (1896).

D. Schorsch and M. T. Wypyski, ‘Seth, “Figure of Mystery”’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 45 (2009), 177—200.

D. Stewart, ‘The Myth of Osiris in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Monash University (2014).

I. R. Taylor, ‘Deconstructing the Iconography of Seth’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Birmingham (2016).

H. te Velde, ‘The Egyptian God Seth as a Trickster’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 7 (1968), 37—40.

H. te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion (1967).

H. te Velde, ‘Seth’, in D. B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 3 (2001), 269—271.

P. J. Turner, ‘Seth – A Misrepresented God in the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon?’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, The University of Manchester (2012).

R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (2003).

H. E. Winlock, The Temple of Ramesses I at Abydos (1937).

‘Stèle Cintrée E26017’, Musée du Louvre, accessed 2.2.2024.

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