The Lessons of Moses Part 6: The Hypocrite. The great boat race

On one occasion when Seth had been criticised by the gods, he demanded there be a show of strength between Horus and himself. The test being that they should both turn themselves into hippos and jump into the sea at the edge of the great green. And whoever emerged first within the space of 3 months should lose the crown of Egypt.

Horus nodded, what more could he do.

They both turned instantly into hippopotamuses and submerged themselves. Whereupon Isis who was hovering nearby, and heard the words of Seth decided to intervene. She hastily made a rope and a harpoon from copper, and threw it in at the very area she had seen them disappear beneath the waves. Unfortunately, it struck her son Horus who screamed out in agony for his mother to release him.

Isis called back her spear and cast it back once more; this time it hit home. The target Seth screamed out in pain,

'What have you done to me Isis,
call upon your weapon to release me;
am I not your maternal brother?'

Isis remembered her roots and released Seth from her blade.

Horus was furious, his mortal enemy was at his mother's mercy, and she had freed him.

Horus inflamed with every sense of horror, leapt from the water, and with his great axe cut off her head. As it fell he caught it, wrapped it in his cloak and ran off.

This angered the Sun god Re, and Seth volunteered to go after Horus and bring him before the gods for judgement.

Seth soon found Horus asleep on a distant hillside, he turned him onto his back and straddled him before plucking out his eyes and burying them. Then Seth returned to Re, saying he could not find him.

The goddess Hathor, a relative of Isis did not believe Seth, and she set out to search for Horus herself.

Meanwhile Re decided he could not leave his children unguarded at night any longer and restored Isis's head by magic ritual, which he ordered Thoth to perform, thus the radiant moon was seen again. But Thoth having restored his sister's head realised she was pregnant and would be in grave danger if Seth found out, so he took her place during her pregnancy.

Hathor knew the desert well, if not better than Seth, she knew every nook and cranny that a man might hide, in life or death, from her campaigns against the enemies of Re. Soon enough she found Horus staggering about the hillside in great pain from his injuries.

Hathor quickly caught the scent of a female gazelle, she tracked it and trapped it with ease, and then milked it; then she returned to Horus and poured the rejuvenating libation into his eye sockets and his sight was instantly restored. They then returned to Re, and Horus and Isis were instantly reconciled, her head having been previously returned to her by Re's magic. And Seth slipped away with all haste, knowing there would be

other opportunities,
other times,
other years,
Every year till the
End of time.

[ the reality of this story, is the Horus, like his predecessor Osiris was a green god, of all things green, but primarily symbolised as wheat. The test, trial, is the time of harvest, when the wheat seeds- his eyes are removed, later to be planted for the next seasons growth. Isis the Moon goddess of Spring and Summer also loses her head at harvest time, when she became her sister Nephthys. Of course, the wheat, therefore Horus's eyes are sown-restored the following spring: while the head of Isis is renewed on the 3rd day after her beheading. Seth who in reality is a winter god is obviously absent. Hathor, is a female form of the Sun gods great Eye, as we shall see soon enough.

Take care to understand the following incite. 'The great Green', often thought to mean the Med Sea, is nothing of the sort, we will find that Horus and Seth often meet at the edge of the 'great Green', it signifies the end of Summer, before the wheat etc. dies and turns golden, it has nothing to do with the Sea. Horus could not step into autumn no more than Seth could enter Summer.]

THE GREAT BOAT RACE.

One day when Horus was walking near the edge of the great green, Seth appeared out of the blue, and approached him

'Mighty King Horus, as radiant as the midday sun, the glory and image of your father Osiris, hear me.
Your father was the greatest Helmsman that ever lived guiding his great bark through many dangers; and never once had I beaten him in a race. Surely if you were truly his son you would have inherited his skills of seamanship.'

Horus nodded, as if to agree, [what else can wheat do when the wind blows on it.]

'So be it then, let us race, as your father and I did; let us build boats hewn from stone and let the winner wear the crown of kingship'.

Horus nodded, [as he was inclined to do when the wind speaks.]

All agreed Horus and Seth departed to construct their boats.

Horus constructed a boat from cedar wood, and coated it in gypsum, to give the appearance of stone and he placed it in the water before dawn, under the cover of darkness, so Seth would not see him.

When Seth arrived, he looked upon the boat and was fooled, hook, line and sinker; he immediately sliced off the top of a mountain and used it to make a boat for himself.

Under the watchful eyes of the gods they boarded their boats, and Seth's sank like brick, while Horus's boated floated with ease.

Immediately after Seth's boat sank taking him with it, Seth turned himself into a hippopotamus, and thrust upwards, overturning Horus's boat; but the gods were unhappy with Seth's actions.

Seth was called before a tribunal of the gods, where it was decided that these constant contentions over the throne had gone on long enough, and Horus's claim to the throne was upheld, and Seth was made a son of PTAH, and appointed to thunder in the sky and bring fear into men's hearts, and Seth was exiled to the house of Sagittarius. But Seth on hearing the decision, vowed they he would kill one god every day with his mighty hammer that weighed 4500 lbs, if they did not reconsider their verdict. [of course, his hammer represented the time span that Seth held power each year, being 45 degrees or one eighth of the year, or being month of Sagittarius, plus the 8 or 7 prior to, plus the 7 following, 45 days in all. And each day stars -the gods rise or are born, that is they begin to arise above the horizon, thus also, other stars-constellations, disappear below it, thus die. So before finally crowning Horus king of all Egypt, the gods sent a letter to Osiris, who since his death had ruled underworld, asking his opinion.

Osiris was incensed by the question, 'of course his son should receive the crown, it was he himself that had given the gods their power; without him men would have starved of bread, and the gods of praise, for it was he who had brought forth the wheat and barley to feed men and gods alike.

At this Re was astonished and replied that even if Osiris had not been born wheat and barley would have emerged. But the reply Osiris gave a Re's remark persuaded the gods to make Horus king of both upper and lower Egypt. [ Seth

But Re knew this was a sign of things to come.

Now we come to the contentions of Horus and Seth.

Seth realised there was no point in killing Horus as he had done his brother Osiris, for he would only be replaced by another. He had to trick him somehow into giving the crown to him.