#wepiu

Hor the Elder and Setesh the Elder

Pre-Dynastic deity brothers who fuckin’ hate each other but live together in a Libyan oasis temple anyway, because obviously that’s how you solve your familial problems. Exposure. Or whatever.

In the timeline of Pantheon, their story begins in the pre-dynastic period prior to the unification of Kemet. Hor and Setesh, both royal princes who rule in Nekhen and Naqada respectively, got along fine with each other (aside from general sibling rivalry) until the abrupt death of their father, Andjety, the god of kingship, who drowned in the Nile. His body was not recovered.

Shit hit the fan.

See, there were two problems: first, the brothers encountered their first experience with true death. Not the kind where you go take a visit to the underworld and reunite your ba with your ka, but True Oblivion that comes from dying and leaving behind an unrecoverable body. Without the body preserved, there can be no resurrection.

The second issue? Andjety also didn’t leave a will for his kingdom. Lack of writing systems and all back in those days. So Hor and Setesh, shattered by the loss of their father, both sank into their grief, and both felt obligated to step into their father’s sandals and become the new king.

This resulted in constant warfare between the two Upper Egyptian city-states as their patron gods struggled to handle their loss. In the process, they crushed the kingdom of Abdju between them, sending its gods—Khenti-Amentiu, Anpu, Wepwawet, and Wepiu—fleeing north, where they allied with the Delta gods: Ptah, Sokar, Kherty, and Neith.

Hor and Setesh set aside their differences and united against the common threat. The two, reconciled, steamrolled the Delta resistance. Khenti-Amentiu and sons fled to the underworld through Saqqara, displacing Sokar and Kherty’s family in an attempt to avoid getting killed by the enraged brothers.

But after their victory, Hor turned against Setesh and banished him to a Libyan oasis. He wanted to be the one and only king, and even the mortal kings loved and took on his name. Sure, Peribsen tried recalling Setesh, but Hor chased him away again.

Which worked great, until a new threat arrived. He called himself Ra, and Hor was no match for him. He begged Setesh to help. Setesh told him to go fuck himself. Ra took over the lands by the 3rd Dynasty and banished Hor to Libya as well, laying the foundation for his ironclad rule.

The age of the sun had arrived.

While looking through some of my files, I came across an excellent paper about the jackal deities which Terence wrote for a lecture back in 1999. While I don’t intend to upload everything I have of his, this was too relevant not to share on Per-Sabu. Enjoy. 

Followed a trail the other day which lead me to the catalog of an old private collection because it featured some amulets of a female jackal deity — quite a rare thing. But there was also something about Wepwawet.