Set and Heru - a story

For three days and for three nights the fight between them raged, and Heru gained the victory over Set, but when Aset saw that Set was being overpowered her heart was touched on his account, and she cried out and ordered the weapons which her son was wielding against her brother to fall down, and they did so, and Set was released. When Heru saw that His mother had taken His adversary's part He raged at Her like a panther of the south, and She fled before his wrath; a fierce struggle between Aset and Heru then took place, and Heru cut off His mother's head. Djehuty, by means of His words of power, transformed Her head into that of a cow which he attached to Her body straight away.

The Great Quarrel

This myth, called The Great Quarrel by some, is not a serious one. The story is mostly dialogue and was created for entertainment. It is a bit shallow and without real meaning. Alas, it is interesting, so here we go:

Once Heru is grown, he comes out of the Delta to claim his right to his father's office.

The counsel of the gods is considering giving the office to Set, because He is the larger and stronger of the two. After much discussion and consulting (the discussion went on more that eighty years), it was decided to give the crown to Heru. Set becomes angry and challenges Heru to a battle on the sea, both of Them taking the form of hippos. Heru accepts. His mother Aset tries to help him but ends up not really doing so at all - She rather makes it worse. First, She harpoons Heru accidentally and releases Him again. Then She harpoons Set, but releases Him as well because Set is able to persuade Her to do so. This angers Heru so much that He comes up from the water and cuts off His mother's head. He takes the head to the mountains to hide from the punishment He has just earned for Himself. He hides under a tree in an oasis, and the company of gods looking for him can't find Him.

Set is able to find Heru, however. He tears out Heru's eyes and plants them in the ground, where they grow into lotus flowers. Set denies having been able to find Heru before the council, but another god, Hethert, finds Heru again, restores His eyes, then brings Him to the council. A truce is called and Set and Heru leave to rest together.

This point in the story is a good example of how this myth is not to be taken too seriously: The material is vulgar in this portion. In not so many words, Set violates Heru that night. Heru runs to His mother with Set’s semen (seed) on His hand. Aset cuts off Heru's contaminated hand, throws the hand into a ditch, and puts some of Heru's semen in Set's garden. Set becomes pregnant when He eats fruit out of his garden.

Obviously, it was not as bad a crime to violate someone homosexually as it was to be violated homosexually, because Set and Heru went before the counsel and Set declared that Heru was unfit for the crown because He allowed Set to "treat" Him homosexually. Heru claimed this wasn't true and that the gods should call the seed of each to see who had treated whom. The gods did so. Set's seed answered from the ditch, while Heru's answered from Set. The gods declared Heru right. However, once again, Set challenged Heru to a contest. This time, it was a boat race in boats made of stone. Heru built His in the night, when no one could see. He made His of wood, but covered it with gypsum, making it look like stone. Set saw the boat, and made His of stone, thinking Heru's was also. The next day, Set's boat sank immediately, of course. He was enraged and tried to kill Heru, but the gods intervened.

After more discussion and consulting, Set finally agreed to let law rule over brute force and resigns. Heru was given the crown, and in compensation, Set was made god of storms. His main duty was to fend off the serpent of darkness, Apep, as It tried to overcome Ra's/Wesir's barge at sunrise and sunset.

This leads us to the myth of Set and Apep. The tone of this myth was the same as that of the Great Quarrel; however, it was not told in direct speech, but was an actual drama. During a confrontation with Set, Apep insults and embarrasses Set by mentioning Set's loss of His testicles during battle with Heru. This enrages Set and He wants to kill the serpent, but isn't brave enough to do so face to face. He tricks Apep into turning Its head, then cuts it off and chops it to pieces. He is disgraced by this and driven away from the company of the other gods.

The mythological and religious texts of all periods contain many allusions to the fight which Set waged against Heru, and more than one version of the story is known. Here are some of them:

ONE
This story merely records the natural opposition of Day to Night, or Night to Day, and the two Combatant gods are Heru-wer, or Heru the Elder, and Set.

TWO
The two battling gods are Ra and Set, and the chief object of the latter is to prevent Ra from appearing in the East daily. The form which Set assumes on these occasions is that of a monstrous serpent, and He takes with Him as helpers a large number of small serpents and noxious creatures of various kinds. The name of the serpent is Apep, or Aaapef, but It is also called Rerek, and since It was identified with a long series of serpent monsters It has as many names as Ra. The weapons with which Apep fights are clouds, mist, rain, darkness, etc. Ra, Its opponent, is armed with the burning and destroying heat of the sun, and the darts and spears of light. The result of the fight is always the same; Apep is burnt up by Ra, but It is able to renew Itself daily, and at the end of each night It collects Its fiends, and wages war against Ra again.

THREE
The gods are Wesir and Set. Set persecutes Wesir's widow and child, and He escapes punishment because Wesir has nobody to avenge Him after He died.

FOUR
We have Heru, the son of Wesir and Aset, and Set, and Heru's intention is to slay Him who slew His father Wesir. The two gods fight in the forms of men, and afterwards in the forms of bears, and Heru would certainly have killed Set, whom He had fettered, had not Aset taken pity upon Her brother and loosed His bonds and set Him free. The fight between Heru, son of Wesir, and Aset and Set, had a very important bearing on the destinies of the dead, for the moral idea of the victory of ma'at (good) over isfet (evil) was attached to it, and the deceased was believed to conquer Set as Wesir had done.

Thus in the Book of the Dead he says, "I have come, I have seen my divine father Wesir. I have stabbed the heart of Suti" (i.e., Set); and from Chapter 18 ff. we may see that although the fiends of Set changed themselves into wild beasts on the night of the breaking and turning up of the earth in Tattu, Wesir, by the help of Djehuty, slew them, and mixed their blood with the sods. In Chapter 23 we find the deceased praying that Djehuty will come to him, and will by means of His words of power loose the bandages with which Set has fettered his mouth; and in Chapter 39 we find him declaring that he is Set who "letteth loose the storm-clouds and the thunder in the horizon of heaven, even as doth the good Netcheb-ab-f. Elsewhere Apep is called both Hai, and Am-aau, i. e., the "Eater of the Ass," and He is declared to be a being abominable both to Wesir and to the god Haas, or; the Ass referred to here is, of course, Ra; the Ass was regarded in one aspect as a solar animal because of his great virility.

On the other hand, certain passages prove that even in the 18th Dynasty Set was regarded as a god who was friendly towards the deceased, for we read, "Tem hath built thy house, Shu and Tefnut have founded thy habitation; lo! drugs are brought, and Heru purifies and Set strengthens, and Set purifies and Heru strengthens." In the Chapter of the deification of members, the backbone of the deceased is identified with the backbone of Set, and elsewhere the deceased says "Suti and the company of the gods have joined together my neck and my back strongly, and they are even as they were in the time that is past; may nothing happen to break them apart." But in Chapter 86, the deceased says, "Set, son of Nut, {lies} under the fetters which He had made for me;" and elsewhere, He is said "to depart, having the harpoon of iron in him," and to have thrown up everything which He had eaten and to have been put in a place of restraint.