#who knows ra by his own name (aset)

[sol-ulfr]

Merytmwtheryt -> Sölulfr

For reasons that I will be keeping personal for the most part, I will be leaving the Kemetic Pagan path and moving to a more Norse-centered one. This means I won't be posting Kemetic-related things anymore. I'm very sorry if that's what you primarily follow me for! But for me it's time to move on to something else.

I will be adding all of my Kemetic tags to this post so you can see things about specific Kemetic deities or topics if you would like to.

Thank you to everyone who has joined me on my journey so far! It's been a pleasure, and I hope you stick around 💕

[confusedgoldenflower]

An Aftermath Etched into Souls

Fandom: Ancient Egyptian Religion

Relationships: Ash/Set (Ancient Egyptian), Horus/Set, Seth/Heru, Setekh/Heru, Nebuty/Setekh, Aset/Wesir, Ash/Horus, Nebuty/Heru, Ash/Seth/Horus, Nebuty/Setekh/Heru

Characters: Ra (Ancient Egyptian), Horus (Ancient Egyptian), Set (Ancient Egyptian), Ash (Ancient Egyptian), Thoth (Ancient Egyptian), Nephthys (Ancient Egyptian), Isis (Ancient Egyptian), Osiris (Ancient Egyptian), Wesir | Osiris (Ancient Egyptian), Setekh | Seth (Ancient Egyptian), Heru | Horus (Ancient Egyptian), Nebuty | Ash (Ancient Egyptian), Aset | Isis (Ancient Egyptian), Nebet-Het | Nephthys (Ancient Egyptian), Djehuty | Thoth (Ancient Egyptian), Ap/o/phis (Ancient Egyptian), Shu (Ancient Egyptian), Tefnut (Ancient Egyptian), Nut (Ancient Egyptian), Geb (Ancient Egyptian), Anubis (Ancient Egyptian), Yinpu | Anubis (Ancient Egyptian), Ammit (Ancient Egyptian), Heru-Wer | Horus the Elder (Ancient Egyptian), Horus the Elder (Ancient Egyptian)

Other Tags: Soulmates, because why not, I'm spicing up the fandom, LMAO, Slow Burn, ? - Freeform, Idk I have no patience though, we'll see how it goes, Natural laws mean nothing, they're gods, I ain't gonna tell them no, Post Contendings: Ancient Egyptian Mythos, Ancient Egyptian Literature & Mythology, Ancient Egyptian Deities, Ancient Egypt, Wing fluff, Wing Grooming, Wings, Magic, Transfiguration

Summary: After the Contendings between them, Heru (Horus) and Setekh (Seth/Set) go their separate ways. Heru goes to his father's throne, and Setekh tries to consolidate everything that has happened in the last few centuries; what happened prior to the birth of the five siblings. There is much to reflect upon and the past decades left lasting damages of various kinds for everyone. Ra sees this and makes an executive decision on how he thinks they can heal--or heal one another... binding two souls or hearts together.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32563603

Chapter One: Reunion of Hearts

“You’ve returned....”

Setekh turned from the blood stained sunrise to look at the temple oasis he had found himself not able to approach any further. The voice was gentle. Oh, so gentle. It had been that way for so long even in his vague glimpses of memory.

“I thought you’d forgotten about me… us…?”

He smiled kindly, or as kindly as he could for as far as a deity of bloodshed and burning sand is capable of gentleness. His heart wavered.

“Nebuty, I… glimpses, only, but I remember. I only want to know how you are and then I will be off.”

The figure a couple dozen paces away stumbled forward as if pushed. He stepped closer, but his outstretched arms caught nothing in the air.

“No, stay! If you can… I would like that.”

The Great God of the Sahara never found himself at a loss for words but…, “after all that has happened and all I have done?”

There was a lapse in spoken words as their eyes bore into one another’s. The wind stirred the sand forward. Surely the Lord of Oases had overheard the gossiping of travelers by then.

“You don’t remember our last night together? I know that even reborn as you were, you would never do something like that--or anything else. It is the humans and their scribes and their allegiances to stories.” Setekh couldn’t bear to stare into those eyes and so he looked away. The figure moved, bare feet against the limestone and then gently crunched on the sand. A warmth took over his hand.

“At least stay today? Please?”

An exhale akin to a sigh and dying breath left him then and the corners of his lips turned up. Setekh was pulled into Nebuty’s temple without struggle.

Frankincense and sandalwood wafted beautifully strong through the limestone corridors. It made the dry heat tolerable, at least that’s what a human may say, but for the specific deities of the desert and the oasis, this was ideal. Nebuty, however pleasantly thriving in such a state well into the desert, did not look over the many humans that kept up the temple and devoted themselves to him. They were all so very dear to him; such special spirits that were free to take from his oasis what they would. They also shied away from the villainous red haired god of calamity, eyeing him warily as he walked with their lord.

It didn’t go unnoticed by either, how the humans reacted. Setekh pretended he didn’t see any humans at all and Nebuty’s heart was saddened as he recalled the desecration of Setekh’s own temples generations ago. No human would be old enough to remember it. Not now. But gods remembered and gods could be hurt by men.

He swallowed hard as his temple faded to heaps of burnt offerings, incense and objects alike aflame with broken chairs and tables, even effigies of Setekh. What wasn’t able to be burnt was looted and subsequently melted down or otherwise brutally disfigured. He’d knelt there and wept and lost all notion of time before a cousin came to rouse him. That had hurt even more for his dearly beloved’s name had been spat in hate already. So much so that he couldn't even recall the exact god that came to him. Shouldn’t they have known?

“Nebuty,” a chest thrummed deeply like the whirling thumps of a distant sand storm. He blinked and registered his home and his beloved who looked back at him with a face that had learned to color such emotions as concern. He merely nodded and offered a smile for them both as he shuffled a bit closer. Setekh didn’t protest or push him away.

As a singer’s ethereal voice reverberated off the painted plastered walls and ceilings, he led the other to the rooms where he liked to stay. The temple attendants were ushered out. Then they were alone.

Nebuty stared into Setekh’s blood red eyes, the color he painted the morning sky after slaying the truly evil serpent bent on utter destruction of creation. His skin prickled and he fought the urge to sway on his feet like an uncertain adolescent. Why was this silence so… wrong?

“We have much to talk about?”

Setekh sighed heavily and let his eyes close as he looked away, “I have grown so weary of talk; that is all they do!” He growled while stalking away then stopped abruptly. Nebuty stepped toward him.

“It isn’t my intention to bring this into your temple,” but those eyes still hadn’t come back to look into his. He missed that boring depth. That perfect but miniature reflection of the desert.

“I brought you into my temple and so I have brought your troubles here as well. Stay,” he added quickly, before Setekh could make argument and leave, “let yourself be rejuvenated here.”

Setekh nodded silently. Nebuty grabbed some wine as he led the other to the richly decorated, sha-headed couch.

“All this time, how have you been?”

He smiled quietly to himself, Setekh never was good at serious conversation.

“It’s lonely out here but it is home… you make it so.”

Setekh was silent, staring at nothing. Those swirling red eyes were shining with thought. Neither of them ever really needed much conversation anyway, and so Setekh vaguely felt himself pulled down to sit beside Nebuty.

“You want me to stay?” The words were certain, almost harsh but he had long ago hidden his heart away.

Nebuty leaned against him even in the sweltering heat, “of course I want for you to stay with me… again.” The silence stretched long. The singer had long since passed over the first song. Eventually, he allowed himself to relax against the other and, “breathe in such bliss after so long.” Nebuty didn’t risk injury to Setekh’s scattered emotions by telling him he had spoken allowed, only basked with him in one another’s company.

~~~@%*^*%@~~~

“Yes, yes, I am well aware we are all exhausted from recent events,” Ra began with a brief pointed look at Heru, “but I have decided something. And while it is my doing, I do not have dictation over it; no one does.”

“Well?” He questioned in the height of Ra’s summer heat grabbing them even in the shade of the stone ceiling.

“I have decided to tie souls together.” Ra paused without elaboration. He was no doubt where Setekh inherited his, albeit enhanced, air for dramatics. A hush of steely whispers passed over the assembled deities.

“So if one of the souls dies, the other does as well?” Setekh questioned, seemingly bored. He had his head rested on a hand and the elbow on the table. He hadn’t touched his wine. Heru had, it was the only thing that was borderline cool. Ra regarded his distant offspring with what could only be described as an air of some sort of affection.

“No. Merely, souls that have been aligned; I know not who neither can I transfer nor repeal it. But each of you will know. I see my grandchildren Nut and Geb have-.”

“And yet you separate us!” Came the son’s envenomed words, “but the space between earth and sky must remain.” Shu, their father, interrupted, unperturbed.

“As I was saying,” Ra regained the conversation and Heru imagined the feathers of the solar disk bearing falcon to be ruffled and hassled in annoyance. A sip of wine hid his small smile.

“You will know when you know. It is to be happy, children, all this strife and violence has greatly weighed upon me and I have little doubt, you all as well. So I made a solution. What say you of my ingenious idea, Setekh?”

“I’m not sure, allow me to ask Pharoah,” Setekh smirked pettily as he turned his head to Heru who took in a breath and set down his goblet, he could feel his mother’s dissatisfaction radiating off of her form, though he had no choice but to agree.

“I am not sure as of yet, this is new and quite impulsive,” he jabbed at Ra.

The elder creator deity chuckled, “More so than you questioning the wisdom of those older than you? I have been thinking on this for a very long time.” Djehuty nodded his approval from nearby. Setekh’s eyes shone with a certain sort of amusement.

Heru’s eyes narrowed, “and the point of this? How could forcibly tying us together possibly see an end to violence.”

“Mated souls,” was the only reply.

His mother raved audibly when they left and returned to their new home, the royal palace. He listened silently, taking note of everything she said. He spoke when her acceptance of a ripe fig gave pause to her ranting.

“Can you feel who you are attached to?”

Her brief pause in chewing gave indication of her thinking, “...your father.” He smiled.

“We did not need Ra’s bizzare intervention to tell us that we love each other,” she remarked quietly.

“Does he know?”

“Oh, yes, I told the winds to tell him what happened earlier.”

Had he been too caught up in thought to have missed that? He had been sure he had been listening attentively but….

“This is just a ploy for Ra to stay relevant, there is nothing to worry for.” She sighed out, fire gone.

“Come now, you still have meetings to attend, my son, the day is not yet over.”

He obeyed and saw to his duties, but he did feel as if there was something to worry for. The air was hot and his body was sweating, yet he felt oddly cold. Like being alone without anyone around to offer even so much as just their presence. It chilled his bones.

“Mother,” he asked when they were finally left alone, “how can you tell it is father that your heart is tied to?” Her head tilted slightly, a tick that his father once told him endeared her to him beyond reason.

“It is a softness… a lingering… somehow so difficult to describe. But… I feel almost wrong here and know that I would be perfectly content with his company.”

“I see.... I think I will go for a walk.”

She revered him for a few seconds, “alright. Be safe, my son.”

“I always am. I love you.”

Her smile stretched almost triumphantly like it had when they’d won over Setekh, “I love you more.”

He transformed into a falcon and departed her company. Aimlessly soaring through Shu’s separation almost stripped away the day’s trials and tribulations. How many days had it been anyway? Since he’d been fully blessed with his father’s inheritance…. No matter, he was doing well under Aset’s careful tutelage and the country’s people were satisfied with their new monarch. He watched them, his people, moving around on the ground. Adults were working still as there was some light yet left and small children ran about, doing away with their last energy stores to be put to sleep easily. It made his heart happy in a way that filled him so much that he couldn’t breath almost.

Temples and Faiyums passed below him. Rich and poor alike were blessing the incoming night and burnt offerings of resin were already being lit. An air currant brought him down to zip between the mud brick houses. Although he was not recognized in such a form without great procession, the children shrieked with delight. Some dogs gave chase, and the cats could hardly care about him in favor of the vermin that were ruining food stores. He rode the current down to where he no longer had any lift, then transformed back into his humanoid form.

“Here,” he whispered as he touched a column in the shade of the stone structure. So many memories… so many-.... just, so much. He hadn’t cared to hide himself from the view of mortals for they knew better than to enter even the radius of the place.

“Are you looking for Setekh?” Heru jumped at the sudden and unfamiliar voice, “he is not here, and it may be best to leave him be, at least for quite some time.”

He stared at the other deity, sure he had had some sort of knowledge about their entire and sprawling family by then, but he could not identify the other.

“Oh, pardon me, Pharaoh.” The other added with his kind face and soothing voice.

Heru finally came out of his shock, “and you are?”

“Nebuty.”

“Beloved of Setekh,” Heru thought aloud.

“Yes,” Nebuty smiled. Silence lapsed between them as the shadows stretched further and further on the limestone floor.

“You do have eyes like the Great Green Sea beneath a bright sky,” Nebuty finally said, seemingly impervious to the awkwardness of their transaction. It was then that Heru realized that the sun must have been shining off of one of his eyes as it sank below the Western sands.

“Thank you…. Ah, I am not familiar with you…?”

A brief look of panic, realization and shock passed over the other’s face, “I stay in my temple within the sands of the desert. I came out for… the first time in a long time to see everything even if it hurt….” Nebuty’s voice trailed sorrowfully off as he turned to stare in the western direction despite the still blinding solar disk.

“Within his desert? It pains you?” Something akin to a mounting dread weighed Heru’s stomach down and bound his feet to the floor.

“Yes, well, it is good to see Kemet in good order. The people are happy and the harvests seem bountiful. I am glad.” Before he could think, he found his hand closed around the other’s arm as Nebuty had turned West to return to where he claimed he came from.

“Wait… how can you be in Setekh’s desert?!” He motioned towards said landscape to give emphasis to his words but nearly stopped short when his keen eyes noticed a roiling tension.

“His anger has been peaked by today’s meeting, you cannot go now!” He continued.

“It may also be because you grabbed me,” Nebuty returned calmly. Heru blinked a few times. This was so beyond anything he had experienced up to that point.

“You need not fear for my well being,” Nebuty pulled Heru’s hand off of him, “I am actually safer within those fiery parameters he lords over.” Heru watched Nebuty, the one that was the beloved of Setekh, walk away and disappear into the darkness both of night and the sandstorm.

He shook himself from his shock and resolved to focus on promising punishment if the storm came into the Black Lands and harmed people or farms.

Yes, that would have to be sufficient… but then why was there such a deeply set chill that night?

~~~@%*^*%@~~~

“Anything of note?” Setekh asked immediately in the shelter he made for them in his sand storm.

“The people are happy and the country is protected,” Nebuty returned. Setekh gave a curt nod before beginning their way home. Only then did it occur to him that what he had said had offended the other. I know you are a fine king. But he knew better than to press that particular matter.

“Any trouble?”

“No, I hid myself from the humans’ gaze. However, I recognized Heru.” Setekh stopped and whirled around. The storm around them spiked in veracity.

“He came back to the meeting place. I know not why but assumed it had to do with you, considering the place’s utter emptiness and all but certain locations for everyone else but you.”

“What did he say,” Setekh demanded and if it wasn’t for those decades they had spent together and the longing in his heart, he might have flinched.

“He was confused and did not know me, then was worried for me when I had to depart. Perhaps he went back to try and make sense of Ra’s declaration? Humans often say it helps to be in the location where something happened.”

Those fiery eyes that somehow reflected light well into the darkness of night looked beyond him then, squinted. He took a clenched fist into his hands.

“Come, I am sure we are both tired from today’s happenings.”

The other bodily folded around him then, “you spent too long away.”

“Hmmm,” he responded and closed his eyes into the embrace. This was where he belonged, and where his heart was whole.

[smarmykemetic]

in another life, nephthys is sitting in a morgue. her fingers go over a body in little searching rivers. she will bring the hearse around and help the body in. in this life, she feels sometimes her real job is protector of the living, not of the dead. who else needs it, after all? the dead are the dead. she arranges them like flower petals. her funeral home comes smelling of coffins, but softly, welcoming. she is known for taking “hard cases,” makes a mangled body look beautiful, the same way she did once, a long time ago, for osiris, who calls her sometimes, when he remembers. anubis and neph get together and shit-talk. she likes dark wine a lot. he likes taxes. osiris is busy. sticks his hands in the dirt and shifts it around. when monsanto comes, osiris floods. catch him out with the bees. catch him telling them the right way to go, but gently. a good leader who is tired, right. had the pride dragged out of him. he likes superman a lot. feels a certain je ne se quoi connection to someone who can’t see through lead. osiris, half-there, half-gone. scattered to the ends of the earth like seeds. anubis - when he’s not folding a fitted sheet - lives in the world of forensic science and judging. dual degree, because he like being busy. meticulous. gets the details right. walks in the world of law and feels a little thrill (just quietly) whenever sentencing someone he knows is guilty. listens well, and always decorates tastefully. eats in tiny bites. likes to cook by weighing things. actually just likes to weigh things. he has a long love-hate relationship of digital scales - so accurate but so unbeautiful. a digital scale takes the uncertainty out. it knows how much a feather heart would be. it is unlike the scales of his hands, the sensation of good/guilty. the word “fair but harsh” follows at his feet. he likes wreaths, the arrangement of something dying. his guilty pleasure is crime tv, although neph won’t watch it with him any more because he can’t help but say things like “in reality, that wouldn’t be sufficient evidence” or “98% of murders go unsolved” or “i can tell by his eyes that he’s guilty”. hathor - twin to destruction - runs a couple’s spa. loves weddings and planning weddings and being at weddings and dancing at weddings. has an elaborate ballroom for elaborate parties where elaborate people go. of course situated on 500 acres of farmland with free-range cows. if you’re really nice to her and she’s really drunk, she’ll let you ride one. always knows what kind of bottle to bring to a party, loves long dresses that flow around her. knows instinctively if you need a hug and is always good for one. once dressed up as sekmet for halloween, to which everyone said “too soon.” has long hair and really bad at palm reading but loves giving advice about your love line. known for massages that are brutal but effective: a little hint of harshness, her twin’s reflection. cries at proposal videos and has a girl’s night every month where they all get together to watch chick flicks. most of them love it, sekmet pretends to hate it just because she likes to complain loudly. sekmet. poor lady. the problem with identical twins is that everyone thinks they’re one and the same person. hathor sprang from a mirror on the day that sekmet looked into her own destruction and split the love she has in her heart with the evil she had wrought. it was lonely, at the end of the world, and her sister came from that loneliness. wears a different pair of glasses every day of the week, always has a biting reply that is unfairly funny. loves glasses that have absurd rims, mostly because she likes watching people squirm when they want to mention them - “do you like them?” she grins, knowing they do not, knowing they will not tell her that, her eyes the unblinking sun glare she’s so good at. she hides in the shadows, doesn’t smile unless you’re uncomfortable, still agrees to get her nails done with hathor every week (coffin-shaped acrylics, obviously). absolutely knows your deepest insecurity instinctively. best friends (and maybe more than friends) with bast. they go motorcycling. bast, made kitten-woman from lion-heart, often gets underestimated, and she’s okay with that. a cat knows when to sheathe claws. how to purr in the right way only to save the fangs for a later day. loves winged eyeliner. buys low, sells high. also runs an all-inclusive women’s shelter and very good at group therapy. the group homes for “lost girls” sprawl across the country. she seems like she’s always there, ready. the minute things get tense and a girl starts acting up: suddenly, her green eyes, watching. that unnerving promise that the protection she offers does not include protection from the growl at the back of her throat. loves stock markets mostly because it’s watching a string, but with data. will also never admit that out loud for any reason ever even if it meant her life was forfeit. kind of has a thing for sekmet, kind of, because, like, who couldn’t. maybe it’s kind of happened a few times oops. often pranks ra, because, like, who wouldn’t. ra works on weekends in animal rehabilitation because where else can you get a hawk in this economy. tired, but good with a smile. teacher at a very fancy art school where he likes to see how many times the words “be creative” can be used in a day. really into that one “miley what’s good” moment from nicki minaj, which he still references even though it’s been a year. tagged it @aset. actually has learned how to get along with osiris, because being in charge honestly got to be too much stress. has convinced hathor his real name is greg. every year he changes it up to something more absurd. last year it was bob. when she gets drunk at the end of the year with sekmet, she always begs him to tell her the truth. he says “okay, okay, okay.” then convinces her it’s Microsoft Word. also owns a large collection of “#1 Dad” mugs. regularly challenges horus to arcade games. horus works in the department of defense. tries to actually defend things, works with the “eye in the sky” and media intake. really likes how cool his eyepatch makes him look. time in this world is so specific, and there’s so much to take in while his eye is wandering. it used to be a lot harder to watch over things. he secretly cries at the movies where the son says “no mom, i’m living your dreams!” but still gets coffee with aset. aset keeps her hair in a bun and her chin up. nobody tries her. on trains, there’s a big circle of space around her, even at rush hour. she bleeds authority. mogul at large, although her interests vary. whatever will bring her upwards, quickly. marriage counselling is quite fun, but she’s thinking about being a divorce lawyer soon. and yet, despite all this fire in her: sweet. knows when to make cookies. she did what she had to do to survive. if you’re loved by her, you’re safe. she doesn’t love often, but when she does, it expands to swell the entirety of space. has a collection of sand dollars and lipsticks. excellent at making someone feel a little less alone. she won’t comfort you with a hug. she’ll show up and be there and somehow, in that knifeblade power she wields, you feel better. whole. set is at the edges. turns out the problem with immortality is that everyone remembers that one time you cain-and-abel’ed your brother. “it’s like,” horus said once while drunk, “can i even trust you anymore?” it hurt worse than set expected. family didn’t matter that much until he was left without it. works in dentistry where he can put people in pain for a fee. secretly covets the color pink; that softer blush than the reds people paint him in. protector of the wild ones, the ones no one else will look after. the darker souls who are still asking for saving. he understands sibling jealousy a lot. sometimes calms people down, sometimes revs them up. cries in bathtubs. feels himself, full of rot. why is it that the gods were made so human, and he, so cruel, so twisted, so evil. to spit at him is good, after all. he breaks like a branch in a storm. goes to pride parades in a mask, wishing for a courage he doesn’t know the name of. he calls toth just to hear him breathe, and then immediately hangs up. and toth? in the land where words are so permanent and impermanent, where wisdom is both a click away and away from those who doesn’t want to see it - doesn’t he suffer the greatest. it was one thing when libraries weren’t a thing. it was another when the world is now a constant updating stream. he feels the echo chambers like bracelets on him. now there’s information everywhere - but nobody willing to actually read. how terrible, how frustrating. and yet: for every person who doesn’t understand “don’t believe everything you read”, there’s another book being quietly self-published that strikes his interest, his longing. in this life, when he can, he turns the computer off and goes for a walk. when he writes come, the gods come. and they talk.

modern (kemetic) gods.

this piece was written for me by the lovely @inkskinned. Thank you so much Raquel!!

[romanticrobot]

You can let this ask sit for as long as you want if you don't feel like telling fish dick story now but I'd love to hear it sometime

you’re hearing it now because it’s like… my fav Egyptian mythology story to tell because it is just so Dramatique. And what I’m about to retell to you here isn’t even the fucking half of it.

I’m gonna simplify it a little and cut it short but its basically all the stuff leading up to what is known as the “Contendings of Horus & Seth” (or Heru and Set. The Heru involved in this story is Heru-sa-Aset, the one I worship, and his father Wesir(Osiris) whom I also worship alongside Heru. Set is the uncle of Heru-sa-Aset and brother of Osiris). I’ll use their Greek-ified names so that it makes more sense bc that’s what most ppl know Them by. Story below the cut: 

So, it all started in a time when the Egyptian gods lived among men; the Age of the Gods, so to speak. All sorts of wild stuff was happening in this era (like Ra getting too old to be Pharaoh of the gods and retreating to the Great Sunboat in the Sky, and then getting mad about people not worshiping him and sending his daughter out to punish them for being bad, but she almost ends up killing everyone in Egypt and Ra’s like “oh FUCK, my constituents! gotta get my lioness daughter drunk and turn her into a sleepy cow goddess so she’ll stop murdering!” that’s another story for another day, tho). 

So, there are these two deities, Geb & Nut (the Earth god and Sky goddess, respectively), who are the grandchildren of Ra, and their union brings five powerful deities into Being: Osiris, Set, Horus (the Elder), Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris marries Isis, Set marries Nephthys, and Horus the Elder is believed to have married Hathor, iirc. 

Since Ra was no longer spending his time in Egypt, his great-grandson Osiris was chosen to be Pharaoh because he was the oldest & so was obviously the most qualified for the job. Well, Osiris’s little brother Set was a bit of the jealous type, and this was the first nail in the proverbial coffin (pun intended and you’ll understand why later). Later on, and I’m not 100% exactly sure why/how this happened, but Osiris’s OTHER sister (Nephthys, the one married to Set) somehow managed to disguise herself and seduced Osiris and so basically Set finds out that his sister-wife slept with his cooler older brother and, as you can imagine, Set wasn’t very happy about that. So he takes this betrayal as an opportunity to do be Nefarious and Scheme-y, as chaos gods do (Set isn’t evil though, so get that out of ur head. However, about to do some really impulsive shit here in a moment).

So, if I remember correctly, it is the day that Osiris is to be crowned Pharaoh before his divine court and they’re all having a little party, like everyone in the history of ever tends to do after big events. All of a sudden, Set strolls in with some of his lackeys, and proposes a party game! Fun, right? Well, it isn’t, because the events that follow the party game are gonna suck some Big Toes for everyone later on in a part of the story that I will not be getting to in this ask.

So, Set’s buddies haul in this big, elaborate, golden sarcophagus.

“I’ve got a game for you guys!” Set shouts at the crowd of eager gods, “I want you all to try and cram yourselves one at a time into this Death Box and whoever fits perfectly gets a zesty surprise!”

Imagine Set’s face curling into the Grinch Grin as he watches the gods get in line single-file to lay in a big, gold coffin. Imagine his grin getting wider and more bloodthirsty when Osiris sits himself inside of it. 

WHAM!

The sarcophagus closes on top Osiris, locking him in from the outside. I’m pretty sure everyone was a little fucking confused at first about the “zesty surprise” Set had mentioned before, but they soon found out because Set & his henchmen hauled ass to the Nile, thew the sarcophagus into the water, and watched as Osiris went floating down the river in a glorified shoebox to wherever-the-fuck. Pleased with his Party Game, Set crowns himself rightful Pharaoh, conveniently forgetting that Osiris has an extremely faithful and powerful wife (Isis) that will stop at NOTHING.

Isis sets off on her own mission and she retrieves Osiris from his vacation in Phoenicia, but Set is already expecting that and when they come back he LITERALLY MURDERS OSIRIS and cuts his body into FOURTEEN DISTINCT CHOICE CUTS OF GODMEAT. Then the throws said fourteen pieces of Osiris into the river. Set really likes throwing things into the Nile, if you haven’t caught on to that.

Isis just goes, “fuck, not again. time to find my husband.” luckily, all of Osiris’s body parts decided to stay inside the Nile along different areas of the bank, and each temple to Osiris is built where it is believed his body parts where retrieved by Isis. 

Isis finally gathers up all of Osiris’s pieces, and gets Anubis(who, in some cases is the product of Osiris’s one-night-stand with Nephthys, while others state he is Set’s son) to help put him back together again thru embalming his body like a mummy (this is where i think the tradition of mummifying the dead came from). Osiris’s body is almost fully completed when Isis realizes that Osiris is missing something…. something crucial:

HIS DICK

and so once again, Isis goes out into Egypt and searches for her man’s ween. turns out a certain species of fish mistook it for a snack and swallowed it whole, so imagine isis punching a fish in the gut and it hacks up a dick (in other variations of this myth isis skips finding the penis and just makes one herself out of gold and imbues it with some sort of magic). btw, this certain species of fish was like…. pretty much forbidden to be consumed in AE because of this exact legend. either way, she ends up getting Osiris’s penis back and gets pregnant with their son: Heru-sa-Aset, the first Egyptian deity I decided to reach out to. Osiris is reborn (this is why he is a god of rebirth. When he was alive he was a war/agricultural deity) but he’s become something different: he’s not really alive, but he’s not really dead either. Either way, the other gods decide that he cannot be King of Egypt in this state, so they work it out and make Osiris the Lord of the Dead, and from then on out he resides in the Duat (the Egyptian afterlife) as ruler of the deceased Egyptians he was supposed to rule in the Land of the Living (Egypt). This is why Pharaohs were believed to be an aspect of Horus when they were alive and then as Osiris after they died. He’s also the one that oversees the Judgement of ppl when they die. 

Then the story then starts delving into the Contendings and you get a whole different tale about Set and Horus fighting each other for the Throne of Egypt, as they’re being judged by a council of gods known as the Ennead (which consist of Geb and Nut, Set’s parents and Horus’s grandparents.) That, in and of itself, is another fantastic and ABSOLUTELY BONKERS thrill ride that will make you think about severed testicles, extreme boat racing, and…….. you might not be able to look at an ordinary bowl of salad the same way ever again if you read the Contendings.

[theartofwingingit]

Can you break down all of the herus? I cant seem to keep them straight/am having hard time finding info on all of them

The short answer to that is…..well, no, not really. And not because I don’t want to, but because the Herus are a tangle of fuck.

I don’t know that anyone, Egyptologists included, can account for all of the Herus. That said, though, I will do my best to account for all the ones I know anything about!!

First of all, the two ‘biggest’/most well-known Herus would be Heru-sa-Aset and Heru-wer. Personally, I consider most of the other Herus to be facets of one of these guys, but that’s my own UPG/speculation, and I’ll leave that bit up to you.

Otherwise, this is mostly me flying by the seat of my pants–full disclosure, I don’t currently feel up to cracking open all my scholarly materials right now, so I’m trusting my memory on this one. If anything is wrong, please give me a nudge. And definitely give me a nudge if I’ve forgotten someone.

So, the Herus, an abridged list:

Heru-sa-Aset is the one you probably read most about. He’s the son of Aset and Wesir, starred in the Contendings, and is associated with war, justice, and especially kingship. He is most closely-connected to the pharaohs of old, as symbol of divine power and authority. Also, heka.

Heru-wer is the second son of Nut, brother to Wesir, Set, Aset, and Nebthet. Which makes him Heru-sa-Aset’s uncle. He overlaps with his more-famous nephew in many areas, being also a god of war and justice, but he lacks HSA’s strong connection to kingship. Instead, he’s more closely linked to the sky.

Heru-pa-khered is Heru-sa-Aset as a child hidden and protected by his mother, representing both the rising sun and the royal heir.

Heru-sema-tawy (Heru, Uniter of the Two Lands) represents the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt. It’s…really that simple, as far as I can tell. Like the above, more of an aspect or a title than an actual Heru.

Heru-Behdety (Heru of [the city of] Behdet) is symbolized in the form of the winged solar disk (this thing right here). He is, to my memory, the subject of one of the only intact narrative myths I can attribute to a Heru, besides the Contendings. Basically, when Heru-behdety faced seemingly insurmountable odds, he entreated Ra for assistance and was granted the form of the sun disk. He then flew into the sky and blinded the enemies of Ra with his light, defeating them. In this way, Heru-behdety symbolizes victory and triumph over the forces of evil/isfet.

Heruakhety (Heru of the Two Horizons) is the Heru-god of the rising and setting of the sun. Linked, I think, to rebirth and cosmic order. Most commonly seen in his syncretic form with Ra, as Ra-horakhty.

honorable mentions to the Khenty-khem crowd, including Khenty-irty (Foremost of Eyesight) and Khenty-n-irty (Foremost Without Sight). I know relatively little about this, although I do have a spot of private UPG on the matter, but I know Khenty-n-irty is the subject of a myth in which he (generally identified as a Heru in spite of the name, hence why he’s here) loses his sight and begins attacking everyone around him indiscriminately, unable to tell friend from foe.

I could probably pull out more if I went digging, but those are the ones who come to mind. The problem is working out how they relate to each other, and which ones are actually individuals versus just aspects or even titles. That, I think, is probably best left to your individual discretion. YMMV. Note, though, that in general the Heru gods are more alike than different.

I hope that was, uh, at all helpful.

If you want a more succinct summary, here it is:

That’s all I got, man.