Heru'Ur and Horus
Okay, I kept my promise to look up some more information on Heru'Ur and Horus. I found some and I think that this will explain some unanswered questions.
So, here it comes....
Horus
The name "Horus" is a general catchall for multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus-son-of-Isis (sometimes called Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, Osiris, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur. As the earthly king always took on the role of the living God, there were as many Horus gods as there were rulers of Egypt.
The oldest of the Horus gods is appropriately named Horus the Elder (Heru-ur), and was especially venerated in pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt along with Hathor. In this very ancient form, Horus is also a creator god, the falcon who flew up at the beginning of time. The pre-Pharaohnic rulers of Upper Egypt were considered "shemsu-Heru" or "followers of Horus", and the original Horus is himself considered in some myths to be the brother of Seth and Osiris, second-born of the five children of Geb and Nut (Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, Nephthys). Horus the Elder's city was Letopolis, and his eyes were thought to be the sun and moon. When these two heavenly bodies are invisible (as on the night of the new moon) he goes blind and takes the name Mekhenty-er-irty, "He who has no eyes". When he recovers them, he becomes Khenty-irty, "He who has eyes". A warrior-god armed with a sword, Horus could be especially dangerous to those around him in his vision-deprived state, and during one battle in particular he managed to not only knock off the heads of his enemies but of the other deities fighting alongside him, thus plunging the world into immediate confusion that was only relieved when his eyes returned.
Other notable Horus gods are the previously mentioned Harseisis, as well as Horus of Behdet (sometimes called simply Behdety) who was represented as a winged sun disk, Anhur (a form of Horus the Elder and Shu), Horakhety (Ra-Heru-akhety) who was a syncretism of Ra and Horus, and Harpokrates (Heru-pa-khered) or Horus the Child. In the form of Harpokrates, Horus is the danger-beset son of Isis with one finger to his lips, signifying his childish nature (also evident in his princely sidelock and naked status). Harpokrates represented not only the royal heir, but also the newborn sun.
Horus deities are frequently depicted as hawks or hawk-headed men, though some are represented as fully human. The pharaoh was considered to be the Living Horus, the temporal stand-in for Horus in the earthly domain. As the opponent of Seth (who, though initially an Upper Egyptian deity himself, later came to represent not only Lower Egypt but the desert surrounding Egypt), Horus is alternately a brother vying for the throne and unification of Egypt (Horus the Elder), or a royal heir come to reclaim his inheritance (Horus the Younger).
Horus can be seen at the top of the serekh of early kings, though in very rare cases his place was usurped by Set (Peribsen, Dynasty 2) or even shared with him (Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2). Horus is also depicted on the famous Narmer palette along with Bat, an earlier form of Hathor.
A passage from the Coffin Texts (passage 148) sums up Horus in his own words:
"I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'."
The Legend
When the story begins Heru has left the Delta where he grew up and in appealing for his rights before the Council of the gods, which has assembled at Heliopolis under the leadership of Re. A youth sat down before the Lord of All, claiming his father's office... Thoth brought out the "Holy Eye" and laid it before the Great Prince of Heliopolis. Then Shu, the son of Ra, said: "Justice should prevail over sheer strength. Deliver judgment saying ' give the office to Heru'." And Thoth said to the Company: "That is right, a million-fold".
Then Auset gave out a cry of sheer joy, as she stood before the Lord of All, calling: "Hence, North Wind! to the west and tell the good news to the 'still vigorous one'." Then Shu, the son of Ra, said: "Let the 'Eye' be presented to Heru for that is the justice of the Company." but the Lord of All exclaimed: "Stop! What do you mean by acting by yourselves?..." And he was silent for a while, for he was angry with the Company.
Then Set, the son of Nut, spoke: "Let him be sent out from here, together with me, so that I may show how to prevail against him, for no one seems to know how to strip him of his pretensions!" But Thoth interposed: "Should we not rather seek to find who is in the wrong? Is the office of Ausar to be given to Set, while his son is standing by him?" Then Ra of the Horizon became exceedingly angry, for he wanted to give the office to Set--as the stronger one and as the son of Nut.
Then Onuris said to the Company: "What are we to do?" So the gods told Thoth: "Write a letter to Neith, the Oldest One, the Mother of the Gods, in the name of the Lord of All." "I will do that, very willingly," said Thoth, and he sat down and wrote: "The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra, beloved of Thoth, the god in Heliopolis, the Disk of the Sun . . . to Neith, the eldest, the Mother of the gods, who shone in the primeval time . . . . Your servant passes the night worrying about Ausar, and the day concerned with the business of the Two Lands, while Sobek endures eternally. What are we to do about the Two Fellows who have now been before the Court for eighty years without being able to decide finally between them? Please, write and tell us what to do."
Then Neith . . . sent a letter to the Company as follows: "Give the office of Ausar to his son Heru! Do not go on committing these great wrongs, which are not in place, or I will get angry and the sky will topple to the ground. But also tell the Lord of All, the Bull who lives in Heliopolis, to double Set's property. Give him Anath and Astarte, your two daughters, and put Heru in the place of his father."
When Neith's letter reached the Company they were sitting in the great hall known as "Heru, whose horns are in front of him" and the letter was put in Thoth's hands. He read it out before the Lord of All and the entire Company. Whereupon they cried out with one voice: "This goddess is right!" But the Lord of All was still angry with Heru and said to him: "You are still weak in your limbs so this office is too much for you, O Stripling whose mouth is yet bad!" At this Onuris became very angry indeed, and so did the whole Company--the whole thirty of them. Baba arose and shouted at Ra of the Horizon: "Your shrine is empty!" Ra was so hurt by this retort that he lay down on his back and was very miserable.
Then the Company went outside and turned on Baba, saying: "Away! You have committed a very serious offence!" And they all went back to their tents. The Great God spent the day lying on his back in his house, alone, with very unhappy heart.
After a while Hathor-lady of the Southern Sycamore-- came and entered in before her father, the Lord of All. She bared her private parts before him, so that he was forced to laugh thereat. He arose and went and sat down once more with the Company, saying to Heru: "Have your say!"
Then Set, the strong one, the son of Nut, said: "As for me, I am Set, the strongest of the Divine Company. Every day I slay the enemy of Ra when I stand at the helm of the Barque of Millions of Years, which no other god dare do. I am therefore worthy to receive the office of Ausar."
Then they said: "Set, the son of Nut, is right." But Onuris and Thoth raised their voices, calling: "Should one give the office to the mother's brother, while the direct son of Ausar's body is at hand?" Then the Ram of Mendes cried out: "On the contrary, should the office be given to a mere lad while Set, his elder relative, is at hand?"
Then the Company turned loudly against Heru, saying: "Those words which you have to say are not worth listening to!" But Heru, son of Auset, declared: "It is not fair that I should be put down before the Company and cheated of my father's office!"
Then Auset grew angry with the Company. She swore an oath before them, saying: "As true as my mother Neith lives, as true as Ptah-tanen lives . . . these words shall be laid before Ra, the prince in Heliopolis, and Khopri in his barque." But the Company said to her: "Be calm! He who is in the right shall have his due and all shall be done as you say."
Whereupon Set's wrath broke out against the Company when he heard what they said to Auset . . . and he said: "I will take my spear, four thousand five hundred cubits long, and kill one of you with it every day!" And Set swore an oath to the Lord of All, saying: "I will have nothing to do with the Court as long as Auset is a member of it!"
Then Ra of the Horizon spoke to them: "Go hence to Middle Island and there decide between them. And on the way tell Anty, the ferryman: 'Do not transport anyone who looks like Auset.' " And the Company crossed over to the Middle Island and there sat down to eat.
Then Auset came and accosted Anty as he sat by his boat. She had transformed herself into an old woman walking with bent back. There was a little gold ring on her hand. She addressed him: "I have come to you to ferry me over to Middle Island. I am taking a jar of barley to the little boy who is tending the cattle on Middle Island. He has been there five days and will be getting hungry." He answered her: "I have been told to ferry no woman across." She replied: "But was it not about Auset that you were warned?" He said: "What will you give me if I ferry you over to Middle Island?" Auset Replied to him: "I will give you this barley bread." He said: "What have I to do with your bread! Should I take you across to Middle Island when I have been told to ferry no woman across--just for your bread?" She said to him: "I will give you the golden ring in my hand." Then he said: "Give me the golden ring." She gave it to him and he took her across to Middle Island.
Then, as she was walking about underneath the trees, she looked out and saw the Company as they were sitting dining with the Lord of All in his pavilion. Set looked up and saw her afar off. Now she had cast a spell with her powerful magic and had tranformed herself into a maiden of lovely form, one whose like was not to be found in the whole land--and he fell wildly in love with her.
Then Set arose from where he was sitting eating with the rest of the Company and went across to meet her--for no one else had noticed her. He hid behind a bush and called out to her: "I would like to tarry here with you, Fair Child!" She said to him: "Ah, my great lord! I am one who was married to a shepherd and I bore him a son, but my husband died and the boy had to look after his father's cattle. Then a stranger came and hid in my byre. He spoke in this manner to my son: 'I will beat you, I will take away your father's cattle and I will chase you away.' That is how he spoke to him. It is now my wish to persuade you to help my son." And Set said: "Indeed, should one give cattle to strangers while a man's son is at hand?" Immediately Auset transformed herself into a kite. She flew up and perched on the top of a tree and called down to Set: "Bewail yourself! Your own mouth has said it! Your own judgment had judged you. Do you wish for anything more?" So he arose and wept.
He returned to Ra of the Horizon, weeping all the while. Ra said: "What is wrong with you this time?" Set replied: "That wretched woman (Auset) met me again and played me a scurvy trick. She transformed herself into a beautiful maiden . . ." And Set recounts the whole tale word for word. Ra asked him: "What did you reply to her?" Set said: "I told her--should one give cattle to strangers while a man's son is at hand? Rather one should throw him out and put the son in his father's place. That is what I told her." Then Ra of the Horizon declared: "But see! You have judged yourself. Do you wish for anything more?"
Then Anty the ferryman was brought before the Company and they cut off the lower part of his legs. And so Anty has forsworn the use of gold until the present day . . . .
The Company then crossed over to the western bank of the river and sat down upon the mountain. When evening came Ra . . . sent them a message: "What are you doing sitting there? You will make the Two Fellows spend their whole lives before the Court. When my letter reaches you, you are to put he White Crown on the head of Heru, the son of Auset, and install him on the throne of his father Auset."
At this Set became enraged, so that the Company said to him: "Why are you so angry? Should it not be done according to what Ra of the Horizon has said?"
Then, when the White Crown was put on the head of Heru, the son of Auset, Set gave out a great shout of fury before the Company, saying: "Should one give the office to my younger brother while I, the elder brother, am at hand?" He swore an oath and said: "One should tear the White Crown from Heru the son of Auset and throw him into the water, so that I can fight him there for the princely office?" And Ra agreed with him, so Set spoke to Heru: "Come! Let us assume the forms of hippopotamuses and dive into the water in the middle of the lake. Whichever of us emerges before three months are up, he shall lose the office." So they both submerged.
But Auset sat down and wept, saying: "Surely Set will kill my son Heru!" And she fetched a length of rope which she made into a cable. Then she took an ingot of metal and beat it into a harpoon-head. She tied the cable to it and threw it into the water where Set and Heru had submerged. The the bronze pierced the sacred body of her son Heru. Then Heru cried out loud: "Help, Mother Auset, my mother! Order your weapon to free itself from me!" Then she called loudly: "Free him! See, that is my son, Heru!" and the weapon freed itself straightway.
She cast it again into the water and it pierced the body of Set, who called out: "What have I done to you, O Auset my sister? Order your harpoon to release me. I am your brother, I come from the same mother as you, Auset! Do you love a stranger more than your own brother?" Her heart was deeply touched . . . and she said: "Release him. See! It is my brother . . . whom you have bitten." And the harpoon-head released him.
Then Heru became very angry against his mother Auset. He emerged and his face was fierce as that of a leopard. His knife of sixteen bars weight was in his hand. He cut off the head of his mother Auset, took it up in his arms and climbed up into the mountains. . . .
Then Ra of the Horizon called out loud to the Company: "Let us hurry to give him severe punishment!"
The Company then climbed the mountains, looking for Heru, son of Auset. But he spent the night under a shen-usha tree out in the oasis country. There Set found him. He threw him on his back on the ground and tore his two eyes from their sockets and buried them on the mountain-side. And there the two eyeballs became two flower buds which grew into lotus flowers which light up the earth. Meanwhile Set went and spoke deceitfully to Ra of the Horizon: "I cannot find Heru," he said, although he had indeed found him.
Then Hathor, the Lady of the Southern Sycamore, went and found Heru lying weeping on the mountain-side. She took a gazelle, milked it, and addressed Heru. "Open your eyes that I may rub in these drops of milk." She did this in the right and in the left eye. "Open your eyes," she said to him. He did so. She looked upon him and found that all was well again.
Then she went to speak to Ra of the Horizon, saying: "Heru is found! Set had brought him to a sorry state in the loss of his eye, but I have restored him. Behold! there he comes!"
A truce seems to be called and the two contestants go off and rest together. In the night Set violates Heru. Apparently Heru is an innocent still, for he runs to his mother with Set's seed in his hand. Auset cuts off her son's contaminated hand and throws it into the water. In revenge, Auset obtains some of her son's semen and sprinkles it on a lettuce in Set's garden. We are told that Set eats nothing but lettuces. Set eats the plant and becomes pregnant with the seed of Heru.
Then the two go before the Court and Set claims that Heru is unworthy of the royal office because he allowed Set to treat him homosexually.
The Company called out loud and spat in the face of Heru, but Heru laughed at them. He swore an oath and said: "It is all false what Set says. Let the seed of Set be called and we shall see from where it answers. And then let my seed be called and we shall see from where it answers."
Then Thoth, the Master of Divine Words, the Scribe of the Truth of the Company, put his hand on Heru's arm and called: "Come forth, Seed of Set!" and it answered from the water in the ditch. Then Thoth laid his hand on Set's arm and said: "Come forth, Seed of Heru!" and the seed said: "Where shall I come forth?" Then Thoth said to it: "Come out of his ear!" But it answered: "How should I come out of his ear, seeing that I am a divine liquid?" Thoth then said: "Come out of his shoulder, then!" And there emerged a golden disk on Set's head. He became very angry at this and extended his arm to take it away. But Thoth snatched it from him and put it on his own head as a decoration. Then the Company called out: "Heru is right, Set is wrong."
But Set swore a great oath and said: "Let not the office be given him until he has been sent away with me that we may build a pair of boats of 'stone', and let us have a race, the two of us. Whichever beats his opponent, let him be given the kingly title."
Then Heru built himself a boat of cedar and caulked it with gypsum and launched it into the water at evening, without anyone seeing him. Then, when Set saw Heru's boat, he thought it was made of stone, so he went off to the mountains, cut off a peak and built himself a stone ship, one hundred and thirty-eight cubits long.
They got into their boats before the Company, but Set's boat immediately sank, so he changed himself into a hippopotamus and assailed the boat of Heru. At this he seized his harpoon and was about to cast it into the sacred body of Set when the Company said to him: "Do not transfix him with it!"
Heru took his equipment, put it aboard his boat and sailed north to Sais to say to Neith, the oldest goddess, the Mother of the gods: "Let a final decision be made between Set and me. We have been eighty years before the Court but no one can pass final judgment on us. He has not been judged in the right against me, but a thousand times, right up to now, have I been right over him--all the time--but he pays no attention to anything the Company says."
(Neith's reply has been lost, for the next scene shows Thoth suggesting that a letter be sent to Ausar.)
Now after some days the letter reached the King, the Son of Ra, Great of Flood, Master of Food. When the letter was read out to him he gave a loud cry and sent an answer back double quick to the place where the Lord of All was sitting witht he Company, saying: "Why should my son be thus ill-treated? Was it not I who made you strong, for I was the one who created barley and spelt to nourish the gods, and cattle after the gods. No other god or goddess ever did anything like it."
And the lett of Ausar reached the place where Ra of the Horizon was, sitting with the Company in the "White Field" in Xois. When the letter was read out to him and the Company, Ra of the Horizon said: "Be quick and answer Ausar's letter, writing to him in reply--'If you had never existed, if you had never been born, barley and spelt would have existed nevertheless.' "
the letter of the Lord of All was taken down to Ausar and read out to him. Then he sent again to Ra of the Horizon, saying: "All that you did was very, very fine, O Creator of the Company of Gods! Indeed! when the divine justice was let down into the Underworld. Look again at your own condition. The land in which I reside is full of grim-looking messengers who fear neither god nor goddess. If I let them out they will fetch me the heart of anyone who does wrong, and they are here with me. What does it mean, that I am here in the west while you are all in the upper world. Who among you is stronger than I? You have imagined fasehood as a great deed. When Ptah . . . created the sky, did he not speak to the stars in it, saying: 'You shall go to rest every night in the west where King Ausar is.' And to me he said: 'After the gods shall all men and all mankind go to rest where you are.' "
But this does not decide the case. Set calls for another trial by ordeal or combat. Auset is told to bring Set, bound in handcuffs, before the court . . .
. . . as though he were a criminal, and Ra said to him: "Why will you not allow the case to be decided between you legally instead of trying to take the office from Heru by force?"
Then Set said unto him: "Not at all! My good Lord! Let Heru, son of Auset, be called and let him be given the office of his father Ausar." So Heru was fetched and the White Crown was put on his head and he was placed on the seat of his father Ausar. And he was addressed: "You are now the fair King of Egypt. You are the goodly master of every land for all eternity!" But Ptah asked:
"What shall be done with Set? . . . " Ra of the Horizon said: "Let Set the son of Nut be given to me so that he can abide with me as a son. He shall raise his voice in the sky and men will be afraid of him." Thus Set is made God of Storm.
This version from the book "Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt" by R.T. Rundle Clark, from a manuscript which dates from about 1150B.C., but they think this is characteristic of the early Middle Kingdom.
http://templeofhorus.virtualave.net/thestory.htm
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I hope it explains some things!
Falcon Horus
