When Horus Met Setty

I recently discovered that the overspun claim that the story of Jesus was derived from the myth of Horus is about 80% bunk. Claims of alleged parallels between the stories of Horus, the falcon headed Egyptian god of the lower Nile, and Jesus, the hippy headed rabbi who started Christianity, are either exaggerated or entirely false.

The erroneous parallels include Horus's mother being the virgin Meri (his mom was Isis and she was a freaked out necrophiliac), both Horus & Jesus getting three visitors after being born (neither the Bible nor Egyptian mythology makes any claim to getting three visitors; the story of the wise men never gives a specific head count), Horus's baptism by Anup the Baptiser (no such being exists in Egyptian mythology), and several other complete fabrications. The full debunking is aqui.

But that's not what I'm writing about tonight. What I learned today, in looking up this little diversion just now is the full story of Horus's knock down drag out with his upriver archnemisis, Set.

I can do nothing to improve on the story of this North vs South beat down as told by the anonymous Wikipedia author who, regardless of his/her expertise or truthful reportong on the matter, sure can spin one hell of a yarn.

Here's how it goes:

After Set killed Osiris, Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. One scene stated how Horus was on the verge of killing Set; but his mother (and Set's sister), Isis, stopped him. Isis injured Horus, but eventually healed him.

By the Nineteenth dynasty, the enmity between Set and Horus, in which Horus had ripped off one of Set's testicles, was represented as a separate tale. According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen, then subsequently throws it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus then deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favorite food (the Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic). After Set has eaten the lettuce, they go to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listen to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answers from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listen to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answers from inside Set.

It's going to take me about a week to wrap my head around that one little factoid: Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic.

Lettuce.




Really.





Lettuce. Phallic.







I'm just not seeing this.






Lettuce.


No.

.