taken from the mind of egypt
history and memaning in the time of the pharaohs
by jan assman
various exerpts
The myth of Heru and Set relates the foundation of the state in terms of the overcoming aggression
(text taken from the memphite theology. a slab from the 25 dynsaty)
warning: for some odd reason mr assman likes to reffer to heru the elder and heru the young without diferentiantation. This is confusing to me at the least so I thought I would give fair warning. In some text is is said that Heru the elder is a brother of Asar, Set, Auset, Nebt-Het. Heru the younger was born of Auset and Asar via hekau....
Geb commanded that the Ennead assemble before him
and he separated Heru and Set
he prevented them from carrying on thier conflict
he set up Set as nswt (meaning south and or political) King in Upper Egypt
even to the place where he was born in Sw
And thus Geb set up Heru as bit (north and or religious) king in lower egypt
even to the place where his father had drowned
Thus Heru stood in the one place
and Set stood in the other place
they agreed on the two counties in Ayan
that is the boundary between the two lands
Bad it was in the opinion of Geb (or Geb regretted)
that the share of Heru was equal to the share of Set
Then Geb gave heru the heritage of his father
for he is the son of his son, his first- born
Geb speaks to the Ennead: I have declared [Heru] you to be successor to the throne
Geb speaks to the Ennead : you alone [Heru} the Heritage
Geb speaks to teh Ennead: belongs to that inheritor [Heru} My heritage
Geb speaks to the Ennead: belongs to the son of my son to the Upper Egyptian jackle
Geb speaks to the Ennead: To an opener of the body [Heru] Wepwawet
Geb speaks to the Ennead: That is a son who was born [Heru] on the birth day of Wepwawet
Heru stood up over the land
he it is who united this land.
Called by the great name Tatenen
South of his wall, lord of djet (eternity)
The two magic realms grew on his head
There appeared Heru as nswt and as bit king
who united the Two Lands in Inb-hd (memphis)
at the place at which the Two Lands were united
It came about that reed and papyrus were attatched to the double gate of Pert en Ptah (the house of ptah)
That is to say: Her and Set, who made peace and united
by pledging brotherhood so that they ceased thier conflict at any place to which they came-
united in the house of Ptah, the scale of the Two Lands,
in which the Upper Egyptian and the Lower Egyptian lands had been weighed.
Of primary importance with in the myth is that the conflict between Heru and Set takes the form of a legal dispute, which will be decided by Geb. The conflict between the brothers is resolved not by a test of strength but by law.
In assending the throne, every king repeats the unification fo the Two Lands. On the kings' throne, the unification of Heru and Set is depicted graphically. According to early roay theology, every king is an incarnation of both gods, Heru and Set; thus the king bears two titles mswt and bit refferring to the dual character of the Egyptain state, and the title of the queen is She who sees Heru and Set.
The antagonism between Heru and Set draws a dividing line that is not merely geographical. The essential meaning of this conflict is the opposition between civillization and barbarism (((or upper and lower chakra behavorior/over comming fixation'/attaining enlightenment)))
or between law and brute force. The symbol for Heru is the eye, for set the testicles. Aggrssive force is thus associated with procreative energy. Another typically Setian notion is 'strength', which like force, has positive connotation. Set is not Satan; rather, he embodies an indispensable feature of life -one that would be literally castrated in his absence, just as life would be blind with out the Heru power of the eye. The constrast between eye and testicles represents an opposition between light (reason) and sexuality ((( here I will beg to differ, .... its more than sexuality it has to do with the aggressive/primal energy -- fucking christians and their bashing of sex I swear!!))) a familiar contrast in the history of religion.
Text from the Reign of Hatshepsut:
I united the two lords, that is , thier parts
by ruling like the son of Auset
and being strong like the son of Nut
Here heru symbolizes rule and Set force.
moving on....
Heru and set also appear to symbolize the change from old disorder to new order.
...... skipping long paragraphs of boringness
by the way after the revocation of the initial judgement of Geb Set is then the Ruler of the Deasert.
orriginally he was a god indiginous to seqqara.
back to the book
Set has a much more important role. Ra takes him into the sun bark and entrusts him with the task of warding of the (edit crap) Apep, who menaces the course of the sun with standstill. A theory of force underlies this tradition: as force cannot be legalized, the law must be equipped with force --force must be placed int he service of the law.
