reply to post by Ausar
The Egyptian area is one area I havn't dived into any depth yet.
One interesting fact I did learn though was Set, was originally the chief god of "Lower Egypt".
"Lower Egypt" as name is sometimes confusing, as "Lower Egypt" was the North. So Set, the storm god was orginally the chief deity of the Nile
Delta.
Horus, a sky god, from what I've read was a a god of "Upper" or Southern Egypt.
It wasn't until the two kingdoms united that the two pantheons were brought together.
My personal opinion is that Set is the same being as the storm gods Teshub, Baal Hadad, En'Lil, and Indra.
I have still quite abit of investigating to do. I need to find material showing the predynastic theogony of the two pantheons, North and South. I'm
pretty sure there is going to be overlap, but I also want a clear view of the myths prior to the later Ennead or Ogodoad.
The 8 gods, Ogdoad of Hermopolis (Naunet, Nu, Amaunet, Amun, Kauket, Kak, Hauhet, and Hau) represent Four forces of creation that gave birth to Ra.
This myth only goes back to the 3rd dynasty around 2700 BC.
The 9, Ennead gods of Heliopolis (Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephyths) They are an even later creation of the 6th dynasty
around 2100 BC.
These two myths are sort of combined by the time of the New Kingdom around 1600 BC, when Atum and Ra are combined into Atum-Ra.
Memphis and Thebes have their own cosmogonies, separate from Heliopolis and Hermopolis.
In Memphis, Ptah is the creator god instead of Heliopolis' Atum. In their version Atum is created by Ptah. They later identify Atum with the sky god,
Horus.
Realistically from what I have read Atum and Ptah should have been the same god, but civic pride by Memphis got in the way of that and they had to
make their god superior.
Thebes had a cosmogony with Amun and later Amun was combined with Ra, making Amun-Ra.
Ra was even combined with Horus as Re-Horakhty. The funny thing is Ra wasn't a big predynastic deity from what I have read.
Set and Horus were both predynastic deities with some associations with the sky
Nekhen was the capitol of the Southern Kingdom and Horus appears to be one of their most important gods and their pharoahs, appeared to be "Sons of
Horus" from what I have read.
Just based on this analysis, I wonder if they may have been the same god. They were both leading deities for their kingdoms and both associated with
the sky. The later conflict between Set and Horus was the story of conflict between the two peoples and not the "two" gods.
[edit on 3/7/10 by MikeboydUS]