Set
Brother and murderer of Osiris, husband of Nephthys, enemy of Horus; the Greek writers call him Typhon and Plutarch records that "the Egyptians regularly call Typhon Seth". Born by bursting through his mother's side, red-haired, linked with the ass, crocodile and hippopotamus, he is drought and the sea to the interpreters and "the god of evil" to Budge.
Why this wins its question: Pages say "Set, also Seth, Greek Typhon" and move on. This object binds each name to the sentence that gives it, and shows that the two Egyptian legends in Budge and the Greek myth in Plutarch end his story in different ways.
Key takeaways
- Typhon is the Greek name in Herodotus and Plutarch; Plutarch alone adds that the Egyptians say Seth, and glosses it as 'overmastering'.
- In Plutarch Set is defeated but released and lives on as a weakened power; at Edfu he is beheaded and still returns as a serpent — no witness has him simply die.
- The physical readings (sea, drought) are Plutarch's interpreters; the identification with the sun is one he explicitly refuses.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Typhon was born on the third intercalated day, "not in due season or manner, but with a blow he broke through his mother's side and leapt forth"; some make him and Nephthys children of Cronus; "Nephthys became the wife of Typhon", and the kings held the third day inauspicious and did no business on it (Plut. Is. 12).
He shut Osiris in the measured chest with seventy-two conspirators (Plut. Is. 13), later found the body while "hunting by night in the light of the moon" and cut it into fourteen parts (Plut. Is. 18); after the war he was "delivered in chains" to Isis, who released him, accused Horus of illegitimacy and lost, and was "overcome in two other battles" (Plut. Is. 19); the Egyptians "relate that Typhon escaped Horus by turning into a crocodile" (Plut. Is. 50).
The Greek name is Typhon in both witnesses — Herodotus's Horus "deposed Typhon" (Hdt. 2.144.2), Typhon "came hunting through the world" for the son of Osiris (Hdt. 2.156.4) — but Plutarch gives the Egyptian one: "the Egyptians regularly call Typhon Seth, which, being interpreted, means overmastering and compelling" (Plut. Is. 41; 49), and "Typhon ... is named Seth and Bebon and Smu" (Plut. Is. 62). Budge writes Set and calls him Osiris's "twin-brother ... the god of evil" (Budge Lit. ch. I).
Typhon "had red hair and in colour resembled an ass"; at Kopto they throw an ass over a precipice, red-headed men are jeered, and red cattle are chosen for sacrifice (Plut. Is. 30–31); "they assign to him the most stupid of the domesticated animals, the ass, and of the wild animals, the most savage, the crocodile and the hippopotamus" (Plut. Is. 50); iron is "the bone of Typhon" (Plut. Is. 62).
Budge reports "a very ancient legend" of a trial in heaven "when Osiris was accused of certain crimes by his twin-brother Set", in which Thoth "proved to the gods that the charges made by Set were untrue, and that Osiris had spoken the truth and that Set was a liar" (Budge Lit. ch. I).
At Edfu Set, "the 'Stinking Face'", is speared, fettered, beheaded by Horus son of Isis and dragged with a spear through his head — yet "he reappeared in the form of a great hissing serpent" in a hole in the ground, and Horus as a hawk-headed staff is set at its mouth (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Horus of Behutet); Budge also calls the serpent Aapep "a form of Set, the god of evil of every kind" (Budge Lit. ch. VI).
The interpreters make Typhon "the sea" into which the Nile is lost (Plut. Is. 32), "all that is dry, fiery, and arid" (Plut. Is. 33), and "the power of drought" (Plut. Is. 39); some make him "the solar world" (Plut. Is. 41), which Plutarch rejects — nothing "bright or of a conserving nature" attaches to him (Plut. Is. 51). In the soul he is "that part ... which is impressionable, impulsive, irrational and truculent" (Plut. Is. 49).
Questions answered
- Why is Set called Typhon?
- The Greek name is Typhon in both witnesses — Herodotus's Horus "deposed Typhon" (Hdt. 2.144.2), Typhon "came hunting through the world" for the son of Osiris (Hdt. 2.156.4) — but Plutarch gives the Egyptian one: "the Egyptians regularly call Typhon Seth, which, being interpreted, means overmastering and compelling" (Plut. Is. 41; 49), and "Typhon ... is named Seth and Bebon and Smu" (Plut. Is. 62). Budge writes Set and calls him Osiris's "twin-brother ... the god of evil" (Budge Lit. ch. I). source
- How did Set kill Osiris?
- He shut Osiris in the measured chest with seventy-two conspirators (Plut. Is. 13), later found the body while "hunting by night in the light of the moon" and cut it into fourteen parts (Plut. Is. 18); after the war he was "delivered in chains" to Isis, who released him, accused Horus of illegitimacy and lost, and was "overcome in two other battles" (Plut. Is. 19); the Egyptians "relate that Typhon escaped Horus by turning into a crocodile" (Plut. Is. 50). source
- What animals are sacred to Set?
- Typhon "had red hair and in colour resembled an ass"; at Kopto they throw an ass over a precipice, red-headed men are jeered, and red cattle are chosen for sacrifice (Plut. Is. 30–31); "they assign to him the most stupid of the domesticated animals, the ass, and of the wild animals, the most savage, the crocodile and the hippopotamus" (Plut. Is. 50); iron is "the bone of Typhon" (Plut. Is. 62). source
- Was Set killed by Horus?
- At Edfu Set, "the 'Stinking Face'", is speared, fettered, beheaded by Horus son of Isis and dragged with a spear through his head — yet "he reappeared in the form of a great hissing serpent" in a hole in the ground, and Horus as a hawk-headed staff is set at its mouth (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Horus of Behutet); Budge also calls the serpent Aapep "a form of Set, the god of evil of every kind" (Budge Lit. ch. VI). source
- What does the name Seth mean according to Plutarch?
- The Greek name is Typhon in both witnesses — Herodotus's Horus "deposed Typhon" (Hdt. 2.144.2), Typhon "came hunting through the world" for the son of Osiris (Hdt. 2.156.4) — but Plutarch gives the Egyptian one: "the Egyptians regularly call Typhon Seth, which, being interpreted, means overmastering and compelling" (Plut. Is. 41; 49), and "Typhon ... is named Seth and Bebon and Smu" (Plut. Is. 62). Budge writes Set and calls him Osiris's "twin-brother ... the god of evil" (Budge Lit. ch. I). source
- Is Set the same as Apep?
- At Edfu Set, "the 'Stinking Face'", is speared, fettered, beheaded by Horus son of Isis and dragged with a spear through his head — yet "he reappeared in the form of a great hissing serpent" in a hole in the ground, and Horus as a hawk-headed staff is set at its mouth (Budge Lit. ch. VII, Legend of Horus of Behutet); Budge also calls the serpent Aapep "a form of Set, the god of evil of every kind" (Budge Lit. ch. VI). source