192: The Trouble With Seth

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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). 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). Additional information, resources, and perks available on my Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you ever hear the tragedy of Osiris who died?
0:07.0	No, I thought not.
0:10.0	It's not a story the monothesis would tell you. It's a Seth legend. Hello and welcome back to the History of Egypt podcast, episode 192, the Trouble with Seth.
0:40.0	Around 1300 BCE, the King of Egypt was officially named Men Maat Ra.
0:47.6	This name translates as the Maat or Order, Justice, Truth, of the Sun God Ra is established or enduring.
0:57.0	Men Maat Ra is a classic pharaonic name.
1:01.0	It conveys the supremacy of the sun god Ra, the essential order of the world, Maat,
1:07.0	and the obedience or devotion of the particular ruler to that cosmic concept. but every king of Egypt had multiple names, and this
1:17.2	ruler is no different. Men Maadra is more commonly known to history by his personal name. That is Setehi or Seti, a name that roughly
1:28.5	translates as belonging to Seth or Seth's man. This is an unusual name. Across the long annals of Egyptian history,
1:39.2	there are many kings who use the names of deities within their royal teter galleries and identities.
1:46.0	If you go through the king lists you'll find plenty of rulers who invoke the gods
1:50.0	Amun, Thoth or Jehuti, Montu and Osiris.
1:55.0	And there are many, many references to the Sun God Ra or Ray.
2:01.0	And yet, across the 2,000 years of our story so far, we have not
2:06.7	encountered a ruler who used the name Seth as part of their personal identity.
2:11.8	We have encountered Seth in the political and iconographic realm.
2:16.8	A very early ruler named Peribsen
2:19.8	made explicit references to this deity
2:22.4	as part of their political identity.
2:25.0	But King Seti I, around 1300 BC is the first ruler explicitly named after this god.
2:34.6	Why did it take so long?
	...

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