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).

• Website: egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

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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 (flickr.com/photos/24729615@N00/5638400924/in/a…)).

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, <collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010004210>; accessed 2.2.2024.

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