Thoth and the Eye of Horus – Mythology of Ancient Egypt

Thoth and the Eye of Horus

The conflict between the gods Horus and Seth raged for many decades. On one level it was a struggle in which a son sought just revenge on his father’s killer. On another, a cosmic struggle to restore universal order.

Born to the knowledge that his father Osiris had been killed by Seth, Horace was fated to be an agent of divine vengeance. From the time of his early manhood he devoted all his efforts to bringing his wicked uncle to justice and thereby restoring order to the world.

The contest between the two Gods, one in the prime of his Youth and the other still mighty both in strength and cunning, was an epic one that lasted for many decades. At one time Horus, with his mother Isis’s help, was on the point of killing Seth when Isis had a sudden change of heart, intervening in her mercy to save Seth’s life. In his battle frenzy, Horace turned his wrath on his mother, attacking her savagely and so rousing the anger of the other gods. Swinging wildly with his copper knife, he even managed to sever her head, although as mistress of magic Isis was quickly able to repair the damage.

Ashamed of his act, Horus fled Into the wilderness while the gods scoured the Earth in search of the miscreant. It was Seth who found him, resting beside an oasis. His old enemy took the form of a black bear to launch his attack. Before Horus knew what was happening, Seth had gouged out his left eye and tossed it beyond the edge of the world. Horus retaliated by ripping off one of Seth’s testicles. Given that the two opponents were gods, the injuries had cosmic connotations. Horus’s left eye was the Moon, whose light was thereby lost to the world. While Seth’s partial emasculation was subsequently used to explain the infertility of the desert, with which he had been associated from early times.

Meanwhile, with the Moon gone, the Earth was plunged each night fall into the deepest Darkness. With disaster threatening, the wise, Ibis headed Thoth came to the rescue. Ever the peacemaker during the conflict between the two rivals, he now scoured the chaos beyond the world’s confines until he discovered the missing eye.

It had been shattered by its fall, but Thoth pieced it together and restored it to its owner, thereby bringing light back to the night sky. The Eye of Horus was subsequently represented by the wedjat amulet a protective symbol against all forms of evil.