192b: Seth's Lore

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2024

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Warrior, protector, murderer. By 1300 BCE, the Egyptian god Seth had become a complex and multi-faceted deity. Chaotic and destructive, but not "evil," Seth played an important role in the gods' realm and our own. This legend developed and evolved over centuries, from the earliest religious literature to the imperial age. In this episode, we explore Seth's role, appearances, and descriptions in the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead, Amduat, and Book of Gates. And we try to get to grips with a god who was (quite literally) two-faced... Episode details: Date: c. 2400 - 1300 BCE (Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms up to the reign of Sety I). Music intro and outro by Michael Levy. Music interludes by Luke Chaos and Keith Zizza. Logo image: The hybrid deity Herfy ("Two-Face"), combining the powers of Horus and Seth. Hour 10 of the Book of Gates, from the tomb of Tausret in the Valley of the Kings (Line drawing by Dominic Perry, based on photo by Erik Hornung). General studies: Erik Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (1999) at Internet Archive. John Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell, The Ancient Egyptian Netherworld Books at JSTOR.org and the Society of Biblical Literature. Pyramid Texts in English translation and Egyptian hieroglyphs (Pyramid Texts Online by Vincent Brown). Coffin Texts in English translation by Raymond Faulkner (1973—1978): Volume I, Volume III. I have been unable to find a copy of Volume II online; if you are aware of one, please let me know. Egyptian Hieroglyphs available in Open Access via the University of Chicago. Book of the Dead in English translation by Raymond Faulkner (1982 edition) at Internet Archive. Edited volume of scholarly articles available at The University of Chicago (2017, edited by Foy Scalf). Additional English translation, transliteration, and commentary by Stephen Quirke (2013). The Amduat (Book of the Hidden Chamber) in English translation, transliteration, and Egyptian hieroglyphs by Erik Hornung (2007). The Book of Gates in English translation, transliteration, and Egyptian hieroglyphs by Erik Hornung (2013). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Introducing the M. Spicy and Frank's Red Hot burger featuring irresistible
0:03.4	Frank's Red Hot Mayo,
0:04.7	Halapinos, cheese, and our mouth-watering crispy spicy coated chicken.
0:09.2	You lot ain't ready for this one.
0:10.8	M. Spicy and Frank Red Red Heart the hottest drop of the year
0:15.0	until 12th of March from 11 a.m. subject to availability
0:18.0	Frank's Red Hot Bottle is available at McDonald's
0:20.0	Before we begin a quick. This episode deals with religious literature and storytelling,
0:26.7	and these stories involve a great deal of conflict and violence.
0:30.8	These include scenes of murder and attempted sexual assault. Please use discretion
0:36.2	when listening to this tale.
0:41.1	Hello folks and welcome to a bonus episode. A little bit of side
0:46.8	content to flash out the main story. In episode 192 we explored the mythology and role of the great God Seth, but we primarily
0:57.7	focused on his historical relationship with the King Seti the first. Of course that historical tale has a lot of background law,
1:06.8	especially from the religious texts. In this episode we explore that religious literature and try to come to grips with the personalities and roles of Seth as a cosmic and mythological being. Our first stop is the pyramid texts that corpus of religious literature inscribed on the walls of pyramid chambers
1:36.8	from the late 5th dynasty onwards around 2,400 BCE. The pyramid texts have a lot to say about the gods, especially the great god Osiris, Lord of the dead, with whom the deceased ruler was identified. Seth does show up in the pyramid texts, but not that often, and
1:57.6	most of the time he is not named explicitly, but rather referred to with euphemisms or described in vague terms.
2:06.0	This isn't really surprising.
2:08.2	Seth's original crime, the murder of Osiris
2:13.4	and the ancient did not want to immortalize in hieroglyphs and give any additional
2:18.4	power in the next world.
2:20.1	Obviously that event was pivotal both in the tale of Seth and the story of Osiris, so they had to reference it occasionally, but they did it as little as possible, and when they did, they tried to describe it in roundabout terms.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dominic Perry, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dominic Perry and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.