An Egyptian narrative, best preserved in a Twentieth Dynasty papyrus, of the eighty year tribunal before the Ennead deciding whether Horus or his uncle Set should inherit the throne of Egypt after Osiris's death, fought through trials of strength, trickery and an appeal to the goddess Neith and the god Thoth, ending in the confirmation of Horus as rightful king.
Facts
History
Historical NotePapyrus Chester Beatty I, the fullest surviving copy, dates to the reign of Ramesses V in the twelfth century BC, though the underlying succession dispute between Horus and Set is alluded to far earlier in the Pyramid Texts. 1 Historical NoteThe same papyrus roll that preserves the myth, Papyrus Chester Beatty I, also carries a separate group of seven ancient Egyptian love songs, unrelated to the succession dispute, evidence that the scribe who copied it treated divine myth and secular love poetry as material for the same personal collection rather than keeping them in separate manuscripts. 1 Meaning
Central MotifA divine tribunal resolving a succession contest between Horus and his rival uncle Set 1 Text
Source TextThe Contendings of Horus and Set, Papyrus Chester Beatty I 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteEgyptologists read the tale's comic, near burlesque tone, gods deceiving and humiliating one another, as distinct from the solemn register of the Osiris myth proper, evidence that Egyptian storytelling could hold more than one tonal register for the same divine family. 2 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars disagree how far the tale's episodes of sexual aggression between Horus and Set encode a real legal or ritual concept of dominance and inheritance rather than pure narrative invention. 1 Sources
Primary SourcePapyrus Chester Beatty I, held in the British Museum, is the principal witness, supplemented by earlier fragmentary allusions in the Pyramid Texts and Middle Kingdom sources. 2 Connections
Associated With
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)
Related To
Sources
1. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
2. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
The Contendings of Horus and Seth (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026In Group: Near Eastern, Iranian, Japanese and Mesoamerican Heroic Battles, Introduction, sentence 1Quote, In Group: Near Eastern, Iranian, Japanese and Mesoamerican Heroic Battles, Introduction, sentence 1
"The Contendings of Horus and Seth" is a mythological story from the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt found in the first sixteen pages of the Chester Beatty Papyri and deals with the battles between Horus and Seth to determine who will succeed Osiris as king.
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