Who Is This Ancient Egyptian God Horus That We Should Worship Him?

Horus is a God of Ancient Egypt, once known as Heru or Har, but later referred to by his popular Greek translation. Horus was a God of power, and the Eye of Horus came to symbolize that quality. Horus was often depicted as having a man’s body and the head of a falcon. Mythology states that Horus’ eyes became injured after he fought with Set, the brother of Osirus, who himself was the father of Horus. After Osiris' death, the two Gods fought for the throne of Egypt, but not before one of Horus’ eyes were injured. Thoth healed his eye and thus it became a symbol of renewed power. Victorious Horus then united Egypt and bestowed divinity upon the nation’s Pharaohs, presumably Menes, the first human ruler.

God of the Sky

Horus was known as a God of the Sky and was told by his

mother Isis to protect the Egyptian people from Set, the God of the underworld. Thus, Horus was known as the Son of God, and the “light of the world”, similar to Messianic prophesies that came thousands of years later. His affiliation with the sky explains why he was often represented by a falcon or even a man with the head of a falcon. His original Egyptian name means “the distant one.”

Egyptian myth says that after the world was created Horus landed on a djeba, or a perch, so that he could rest. The perch then became a sacred representation.

The Sun and the Moon

Because Horus was God of the sky, he had in subjection to him the sun and the moon. Thus it was believed that the sun was one of his eyes and the moon his other. The injury of Horus at the hands of Set explains why the moon is weaker than the sun in giving off light.

When Horus was victorious he became known as Harsiesis or Horus the Elder. Horus may have lost his eye, but Set got the far worse end of the deal, himself losing a testicle. This explains why the desert (which Set represented along with storms and chaos) became infertile.