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Seth is “He before whom the sky shakes”, God of winds and storms, with lightning and thunder his heralds. Early in Egyptian history, Seth is spoken of in terms of reverence. He was known as the Lord of Upper Egypt. Horus being the Lord of Lower Egypt. It was Seth who stood in the bow of the solar barque of Ra and slays the enemies of Ra as the ship traverses the sky on its daily journey. It seems that in very early times the followers of Seth were conquered by the followers of Horus but they resisted the followers of Horus and the First Dynasty Pharaoh, Menes when he united Upper and Lower Egypt. At this point, Seth was discredited and literally demonized, and in later periods was identified with Apep as a symbol of complete destruction. Seth was already known as a deity of the night and darkness. As god of chaos and destruction, Seth represented a necessary force in the universe, that of strength and violent force which together with the force of creation maintains the balance of the universe and the cosmic order that was so important for the Egyptians to maintain and was personified by the Goddess Maat. Seth was represented as a man with the head of an unknown animal with square ears, often called the “Seth animal”.
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