Horus son of Isis

About Horus son of Isis

Horus son of Isis (Egyptian Harsiese, 'Horus son of Isis') is the falcon-god conceived by the goddess Isis from her murdered husband Osiris, raised in secret in the marshes of Khemmis, who grew to manhood to avenge his father by contesting and defeating his uncle Set and to become the legitimate ruler of Egypt and the prototype of the living pharaoh. He is to be distinguished from Horus the Elder (Haroeris), the ancient sky-god who is the brother rather than the son of Osiris and Set; Egyptian theology held many forms of Horus, and the son of Isis is the Horus of the Osirian myth, the child-avenger and king.

Horus son of Isis is known by a series of epithets that mark his different aspects and ages. As Harsiese (Hor-sa-Aset) he is the son of Isis; as Harpocrates (Hor-pa-khered, 'Horus the Child') he is the infant raised in secret in the marshes, often depicted as a naked child with a finger to his lips and the sidelock of youth; as Harendotes (Hor-nedj-itef, 'Horus the avenger of his father') he is the grown son who avenges Osiris and contends with Set. These epithets carry distinct iconography and should not be silently collapsed; the child Harpocrates, the avenger Harendotes, and the king Harsiese are aspects of the single Horus son of Isis at different stages of the myth.

The story of Horus son of Isis is bound up with the central myth of Egyptian religion, the Osirian cycle. After Set murdered Osiris, Isis used her magic to conceive Horus posthumously from the dead god, and she hid the infant in the floating papyrus-island of Khemmis in the Delta marshes, protecting him from Set's agents, from scorpions and serpents, and from the dangers of the wild. Grown to manhood, Horus claimed the throne of his father and contended with Set before the tribunal of the gods, in a long conflict — the Contendings of Horus and Set — settled at last in Horus's favor. Horus thus became the legitimate king, the avenger of his father, and the heir of Osiris, and the living pharaoh was identified with Horus son of Isis, the rightful ruler.

The figure is attested across the whole span of Egyptian religious literature: the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, where Horus avenges Osiris; the Coffin Texts, which narrate his childhood at Khemmis; the Metternich Stela (c. 380 BCE), which preserves the full cycle of the magical protection of Horus-the-Child; Papyrus Chester Beatty I (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, c. 1160 BCE), the only complete manuscript of the Contendings of Horus and Set; Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride (c. 100 CE), the fullest connected Hellenized narrative; and the Edfu temple's Drama of Horus (Ptolemaic). Horus son of Isis is among the most important figures of Egyptian religion, the divine child and avenger whose triumph established the legitimacy of kingship and whose protection in the marshes became the model for the magical healing of children. The myth of Horus, from his miraculous conception through his hidden childhood to his triumph over Set and his accession to the throne, provided the mythological charter for Egyptian kingship and the model for the protection and healing of the young, making the falcon-god both the prototype of the pharaoh and a focus of the practical religion of magic and cure.

The Story

The story of Horus son of Isis unfolds across the central myth of Egyptian religion, the Osirian cycle, from his miraculous conception through his hidden childhood and his contest with Set to his accession as the legitimate king of Egypt.

The story begins in the aftermath of the murder of Osiris. Set, the brother of Osiris, killed him and, in the fuller versions of the myth, dismembered the body and scattered the pieces across Egypt. Isis, the wife and sister of Osiris, searched for and gathered the pieces of her husband's body, and through her magic she revived him sufficiently to conceive a child. Horus was thus conceived posthumously from the dead Osiris, the son of a slain father, born to avenge him and to inherit his throne. The Coffin Texts preserve an annunciation of the birth of Horus, in which Isis declares the conception of the avenger.

Fearing the murderous Set, who would destroy the infant heir, Isis hid her child in the marshes of Khemmis (Egyptian Akh-bit), a floating papyrus-island in the Delta. There, in the dense reeds, she raised Horus in secret, protecting him from the dangers of the wild and from the agents of Set. This period of the hidden childhood is the subject of a rich body of myth concerning the protection of Horus-the-Child (Harpocrates) from scorpions, serpents, crocodiles, and the malice of Set. The Metternich Stela and the other 'cippi of Horus' preserve the cycle of magical protection: the infant Horus is stung by a scorpion or bitten by a serpent, Isis cries out in grief, and the gods — Thoth, Ra — intervene to heal the child. These episodes became the model for the magical healing of children stung or bitten, the suffering and healing of the divine child providing the precedent for the cure of mortal children.

Grown to manhood, Horus claimed the throne of his murdered father and contended with his uncle Set for the kingship of Egypt. This conflict, the Contendings of Horus and Set, was a long struggle settled before the tribunal of the gods, who judged the rival claims of the uncle and the nephew. The fullest narrative, preserved in Papyrus Chester Beatty I, recounts the eighty-year tribunal, the contests of strength and cunning between Horus and Set, the interventions of Isis on her son's behalf, and the eventual judgment in Horus's favor. The conflict included episodes of violence and trickery: Set tore out the eye of Horus, which was healed by Thoth and became the wedjat, the supreme protective amulet; Horus contended with Set in transformations and contests; and Isis used her magic to aid her son against his uncle.

The tribunal of the gods at last judged in favor of Horus, recognizing him as the legitimate heir of Osiris and the rightful king of Egypt. Set was defeated, and Horus succeeded to the throne of his father, becoming the king of the living while Osiris ruled the dead. The triumph of Horus established the legitimacy of kingship: the living pharaoh was identified with Horus son of Isis, the rightful heir who avenged his father and inherited the throne, while the dead pharaoh became an Osiris, succeeded by his Horus-son. The succession of king to king was thus modeled on the succession of Horus to Osiris, the living Horus inheriting from the dead Osiris.

The Edfu temple preserves a ritual drama, the Triumph of Horus, in which Horus harpoons Set in the form of a hippopotamus in a series of episodes, commemorating the final defeat of Set and the confirmation of Horus as king. Performed as ritual in the late period, the drama enacted the triumph of order over chaos and the legitimation of kingship through the victory of Horus.

The narrative of Horus son of Isis thus traces the arc from the murder of the father through the miraculous conception, the hidden and endangered childhood, the contest with the usurper, and the triumph and accession of the avenger. The story established the central pattern of Egyptian kingship — the legitimate heir avenging his father and inheriting the throne — and provided the model for the protection and healing of children. Horus, the divine child of the marshes and the avenger of his father, became the prototype of the king and one of the central figures of Egyptian religion, his triumph the foundation of the legitimacy of pharaonic rule. The myth continued to shape the religion of later periods. The cult of Horus-the-Child, the infant nursed by Isis and protected in the marshes, became enormously popular in the Late Period and the Greco-Roman age, and the cippi of Horus, the magical stelae depicting the child triumphing over scorpions and serpents, carried the healing power of the myth into everyday practice. The Edfu temple, the principal cult center of Horus, preserved the ritual drama of his triumph over Set, performed as cult in the late period, and the figure of Horus endured into the Roman age as the divine king and the avenger of his father, the falcon-god whose victory established the order of Egyptian kingship.

Symbolism

Horus son of Isis is among the most symbolically rich figures of Egyptian religion, embodying the meanings of legitimate kingship, the avenging heir, the endangered and protected child, and the triumph of order over chaos.

The falcon is the primary symbol of Horus, the sky-god whose eyes are the sun and moon and whose soaring flight expresses his celestial nature and his sovereignty over the sky. The falcon-headed god, or the falcon itself, represents Horus as the lord of the sky and the king, and the falcon hovering over the king in royal art expresses the identification of the pharaoh with Horus. The falcon symbolizes the height, power, and far sight of the sky-god and the king.

Horus as the avenging heir symbolizes the legitimacy of kingship and the succession of king to king. As the son who avenges his murdered father and inherits the throne, Horus embodies the principle of legitimate succession — the rightful heir who claims his father's place and defeats the usurper. The identification of the living pharaoh with Horus son of Isis, and of the dead pharaoh with Osiris, made the succession of king to king a re-enactment of the succession of Horus to Osiris, and Horus the symbol of the legitimate and rightful ruler. The triumph of Horus over Set symbolizes the triumph of legitimate kingship over usurpation, of order over chaos.

Horus-the-Child (Harpocrates) symbolizes the endangered and protected child, the vulnerable heir who must be hidden and guarded until he is strong enough to claim his inheritance. The infant Horus, hidden in the marshes of Khemmis and threatened by scorpions, serpents, and the malice of Set, embodies the precariousness of the heir and the need for protection. His depiction as a naked child with a finger to his lips and the sidelock of youth became a widespread image, and his suffering and healing in the magical cycle made him the model for the protection and cure of children. The child Horus symbolizes the vulnerable beginning of the legitimate ruler and the divine precedent for the healing of the young.

The eye of Horus, torn out by Set and healed by Thoth, is one of the central symbols of the myth. The wedjat, the restored eye, symbolizes wholeness recovered after injury, healing, and protection, and it became the supreme protective amulet. The injury and healing of the eye, an episode of the conflict between Horus and Set, encodes the theme of damage and restoration that runs through the Osirian myth, and the restored eye symbolizes the triumph of healing and wholeness over injury and dissolution.

The contest of Horus and Set symbolizes the perpetual struggle between order and chaos. Set, the god of the desert, storms, and disorder, represents the forces of chaos (isfet) that threaten the ordered world; Horus, the legitimate heir and the rightful king, represents the forces of order (Maat). The triumph of Horus over Set symbolizes the victory of order over chaos, of legitimacy over usurpation, of the rightful ruler over the violent pretender. The harpooning of Set in the Edfu drama enacts this triumph, the king as Horus defeating the chaos-god.

The magical healing of Horus-the-Child symbolizes the power of myth to heal. The episodes in which the infant Horus is stung or bitten and then healed by the intervention of the gods provided the precedent for the magical cure of mortal children, the suffering and healing of the divine child establishing the pattern for the healing of the young. The cippi of Horus, the magical stelae depicting Horus the Child standing on crocodiles and grasping serpents and scorpions, symbolize the protective power of the divine child over the dangers of the wild, and the water poured over them and drunk was believed to carry the healing power of the myth.

Cultural Context

Horus son of Isis belongs to the central myth of Egyptian religion, the Osirian cycle, and his figure was bound up with the theology of kingship, the practice of healing-magic, and the broad development of Egyptian religion across the whole span of pharaonic history.

The identification of the living pharaoh with Horus is among the oldest features of Egyptian kingship, attested from the very beginning of the dynastic period in the Horus-name of the king, written in the serekh and surmounted by the falcon. The king was the living Horus, the earthly embodiment of the falcon-god, and the dead king became an Osiris, succeeded by his Horus-son. The myth of Horus son of Isis — the avenging heir who inherits the throne of his murdered father — provided the mythological charter for this theology of kingship, modeling the succession of king to king on the succession of Horus to Osiris.

The figure of Horus son of Isis must be distinguished from the other forms of Horus in Egyptian theology, above all Horus the Elder (Haroeris), the ancient sky-god who is the brother rather than the son of Osiris and Set. Egyptian theology held many Horuses, and the careful distinction of the forms — the elder sky-god, the son of Isis, the various local Horuses — is necessary for an accurate understanding of the figure. The son of Isis is the Horus of the Osirian myth, the child-avenger and king, distinguished from the elder Horus and from the local cult-forms.

The childhood of Horus at Khemmis and the cycle of his magical protection developed into a major tradition of healing-magic. The episodes in which the infant Horus is stung by a scorpion or bitten by a serpent and healed by the intervention of the gods became the model for the magical cure of mortal children, the suffering and healing of the divine child providing the precedent for the healing of the young. The Metternich Stela and the other cippi of Horus, magical stelae depicting Horus the Child triumphing over dangerous creatures, were used in healing-magic: water poured over the stela and drunk was believed to carry the protective and healing power of the myth. The cult of Horus-the-Child thus integrated the Osirian myth into the practical religion of healing and protection.

The contest of Horus and Set, the Contendings, reflected the political and theological tension between the two gods and the regions and forces they represented. Set, the god of the desert, storms, and disorder, was the rival of Horus, the legitimate heir and the rightful king; their conflict, settled in Horus's favor, dramatized the triumph of order over chaos and the legitimation of kingship. The Contendings of Horus and Set, preserved in Papyrus Chester Beatty I, treats the conflict with both theological seriousness and ribald humor, and it reflects the complex Egyptian attitude toward Set, who was both the murderer of Osiris and, in other contexts, a defender of the sun-god.

The cult of Horus son of Isis spread widely and endured long. The figure of Horus-the-Child, depicted as the infant nursed by Isis, became enormously popular in the Late Period and the Greco-Roman age, and the image of Isis nursing the infant Horus (Isis lactans) has been compared to later depictions of the Madonna and Child. The Edfu temple, the principal cult center of Horus, preserves the Triumph of Horus, the ritual drama enacting the defeat of Set, and the cult of Horus continued into the Roman period.

The figure is attested across the whole span of Egyptian religious literature, from the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts through the Metternich Stela and Papyrus Chester Beatty I to Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride and the Edfu temple texts. The persistence and elaboration of the figure across nearly three millennia, and its central place in the theology of kingship and the practice of healing-magic, demonstrate the importance of Horus son of Isis in Egyptian religion, the divine child and avenger whose triumph established the legitimacy of pharaonic rule.

Cross-Tradition Parallels

Horus son of Isis belongs to one of mythology's most consistent structural patterns: the divine child hidden, protected through a period of mortal vulnerability, and raised in secret until strong enough to claim what is rightfully his. What protects the vulnerable divine? The Egyptian answer — the mother's magic, the gods' repeated interventions, and a legal tribunal — is more institutionally specific than almost any parallel in world mythology.

Hindu — Krishna Hidden from Kamsa (Bhagavata Purana, Book 10, c. 800–900 CE)

In the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna — the eighth avatar of Vishnu — is born in a prison cell in Mathura to parents imprisoned by the tyrant Kamsa, who has been warned by prophecy that Devaki's eighth child will destroy him. On the night of Krishna's birth, the prison guards fall into supernatural sleep; Vasudeva carries the infant across the flooded Yamuna River to the cowherd community of Gokula, where Krishna is raised by the foster parents Nanda and Yashoda. The structural parallel with Horus is precise: a divine child threatened by a tyrant, smuggled out of the danger zone, and raised among a pastoral community while the threat awaits. The divergence is in the hiding mechanism. Horus is concealed geographically in the reeds; Krishna is concealed by being moved across a cosmic boundary, a river that the divine child's father crosses under miraculous protection. Egyptian hiding is topographic; Hindu hiding is translocational. The reed-marshes are Horus's world throughout his childhood; Krishna simply lives in a different world from the one the tyrant watches.

Celtic — Pryderi Hidden at Birth (Mabinogi, First Branch, c. 11th–12th century CE)

In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, the infant Pryderi disappears from his mother Rhiannon's side on the night of his birth; Rhiannon is falsely accused of eating him. The child is found in a stable and returned, eventually acknowledged as the legitimate heir. The parallel with Horus is in the endangered divine child and the false accusation that shadows his birth — Rhiannon's suffering mirrors Isis's grief. But the divergence is instructive: Horus's danger is active and external (Set's agents, scorpions, serpents), and the divine child must repeatedly be healed; Pryderi's danger is passive — he is simply removed and the harm falls on his innocent mother. The Egyptian tradition makes the survival of the divine child a continuous active project; the Welsh tradition makes his disappearance a passive misfortune resolved by the return of an already-intact child.

Greek — Perseus Hidden by Danae (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.4, c. 2nd century CE)

Perseus is conceived when Zeus enters his mother Danae's prison as a shower of gold; when her father Acrisius — warned that Danae's son will kill him — discovers the child, Danae and the infant are shut in a chest and cast into the sea. They survive, and Perseus grows up on Seriphos. The parallel with Horus is in the tyrant-grandfather and the prophesied heir placed in danger from birth. The divergence is in the mother's role: Isis is an active, magically powerful protector who repeatedly summons divine assistance; Danae is a passive co-survivor with no agency in the survival. The Egyptian tradition makes maternal power the engine of the divine child's protection; the Greek tradition makes the child's survival an accident of geography and divine favor.

Biblical — Moses Hidden by Jochebed (Exodus 2:1–10, c. 7th–6th century BCE)

Moses is hidden at birth by his mother Jochebed when Pharaoh orders the killing of all Hebrew male infants. She places the infant in a basket of reeds on the Nile; Pharaoh's daughter finds and adopts him. The reed-basket on the Nile echoes the papyrus marshes of Khemmis where Isis hides Horus — both traditions conceal the endangered child in the reeds of the Nile Delta, using the same aquatic geography as the medium of protection. The structural inversion is striking: Moses is hidden among the reeds to escape the Egyptian Pharaoh, while Horus is hidden among the reeds to escape Set. In one story the Nile reeds shelter the future liberator from Egyptian power; in the other they shelter the future Egyptian king from the usurper. Same geography, opposite political valence.

Modern Influence

Horus son of Isis has influenced the modern world through the comparison of the Isis-Horus mother-and-child imagery to the Christian Madonna and Child, through the scholarly study of Egyptian kingship and healing-magic, and through the broad modern fascination with the Osirian myth and the figure of the divine child.

The most discussed line of modern reception concerns the comparison of the image of Isis nursing the infant Horus (Isis lactans) to the Christian image of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Christ. The enthroned mother nursing the divine child, a widespread image in Egyptian religion of the Late Period and Greco-Roman age, has been compared to the Christian Madonna and Child, and the relationship between the two images — whether one influenced the other, whether both draw on a common stock of imagery, or whether the parallel is coincidental — has been debated since the early study of comparative religion. The popularity of the Isis cult in the Roman world, and its persistence into the early Christian period, has made the comparison a recurring topic in the study of the relationship between Egyptian religion and early Christianity.

In the academic study of Egyptian religion, Horus son of Isis has been central to the analysis of Egyptian kingship and the Osirian myth. The identification of the living pharaoh with Horus, and of the dead pharaoh with Osiris, and the modeling of royal succession on the succession of Horus to Osiris, have been studied as fundamental features of Egyptian kingship. The figure of Horus figures in virtually every account of Egyptian religion, and the careful distinction of the forms of Horus — the son of Isis, the elder Horus, the local cult-forms — has been a topic of scholarly attention.

The cult of Horus-the-Child and the healing-magic associated with him have been studied as a major tradition of Egyptian magical and medical practice. The cippi of Horus, the magical stelae depicting Horus the Child triumphing over dangerous creatures, and the use of water poured over them in healing, have been analyzed as instances of the integration of myth and magic in Egyptian religion. The suffering and healing of the divine child, providing the model for the cure of mortal children, has featured in the study of Egyptian healing-magic and of the relationship between myth and medicine.

In popular culture, Horus is among the most recognized Egyptian gods, appearing in film, television, fiction, and games evoking ancient Egypt, often as the falcon-headed god or the avenging son. The Eye of Horus, derived from the myth, has become among the most widely recognized Egyptian symbols, appearing in jewelry, tattoos, and design as a symbol of protection and healing. The figure of Horus, the divine child and avenger, has entered the popular vocabulary of Egyptian mythology.

In modern esoteric and occult traditions, Horus has been adopted as a symbol of divine kingship, solar power, and spiritual triumph, often combined with other ancient and pseudo-ancient imagery. The figure of Horus, the avenging son and the rightful king, has featured in modern mythological and esoteric speculation, and the Eye of Horus has been incorporated into the broad modern vocabulary of esoteric symbolism.

The broad modern fascination with the Osirian myth — the murder of Osiris, the devotion of Isis, the avenging of the father by the son — has given Horus a place in the popular image of ancient Egypt. The story of the divine child, hidden and protected, who grows to avenge his father and claim his throne, resonates with perennial mythological patterns and has featured in popular accounts, fiction, and retellings of Egyptian mythology. Horus son of Isis, the divine child and avenger whose triumph established the legitimacy of kingship, endures as a central figure of Egyptian religion in the modern imagination.

Primary Sources

Horus son of Isis is attested across the full span of Egyptian religious literature, from the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom through the Ptolemaic temple inscriptions, and in Plutarch's connected Greek narrative of the Osirian cycle.

The Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BCE) provide the earliest sustained references to Horus as the avenger of Osiris and the legitimate heir. Utterance 357 asserts Horus's avenging mission; Utterances 477 and 544 describe his contest with Set and his vindication before the gods. Utterances 273–274 (the Cannibal Hymn) and the broader cluster of spells around Utterances 412–424 establish the identification of the living king with Horus and of the dead king with Osiris that is the foundation of Egyptian royal theology. R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford University Press, 1969), is the standard translation; James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (SBL Writings from the Ancient World 23, Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), provides commentary.

The Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BCE) contain the 'birth sequence' — Spells 148 and related texts — in which Isis conceives Horus posthumously from Osiris and announces the coming of the avenger. Spells 1–5 in the Coffin Texts corpus include material on the protection of Osiris by Horus and the four sons. R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 3 vols. (Aris & Phillips, 1973–78), is the standard translation.

The Contendings of Horus and Set, the fullest narrative of the eighty-year tribunal of the gods, is preserved on Papyrus Chester Beatty I (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, c. 1160 BCE), a Ramesside literary papyrus. This is the only complete manuscript of the Contendings and constitutes the principal source for the mythological conflict between Horus and Set. The standard translation and analysis is John Wilson's rendering in James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton University Press, 3rd ed., 1969), pp. 14–17; and Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. II: The New Kingdom (University of California Press, 1976), pp. 214–223, which includes both the Contendings and commentary.

The Metternich Stela (c. 380–342 BCE, reign of Nectanebo II; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. 50.85) is the largest and best-preserved of the cippi of Horus — the magical stelae depicting Horus the Child triumphing over dangerous creatures — and preserves the fullest cycle of the magical protection of Horus-the-Child in the marshes of Khemmis. The episodes of scorpion-sting and healing are the primary sources for the childhood protection mythology. The standard publication is Claudia Saporetti and Sergio Pernigotti's study of the cippi genre; and the stela's texts are translated in J.F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts (Brill, 1978), nos. 84–87.

Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 12–20 (Moralia V; Loeb Classical Library, trans. F.C. Babbitt, 1936; also J. Gwyn Griffiths ed., University of Wales Press, 1970) provides the most complete connected prose narrative of the Osirian cycle available from antiquity, including the birth, childhood, and avenging of Horus, drawn from Egyptian tradition but interpreted within a Greek philosophical framework. The Edfu temple's Triumph of Horus, inscribed in the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu (2nd–1st century BCE), preserves the ritual drama of Horus's defeat of Set; this text is discussed and partially translated in Lichtheim, vol. III: The Late Period (University of California Press, 1980), pp. 81–84.

Significance

Horus son of Isis is one of the central figures of Egyptian religion, the divine child and avenger whose triumph established the legitimacy of kingship and whose protection in the marshes became the model for the magical healing of children. His significance lies in his place at the heart of the Osirian myth, in his role as the prototype of the king, and in the broad influence of his cult and imagery.

The significance of Horus son of Isis lies first in his role as the prototype of the king and the foundation of the legitimacy of pharaonic rule. The identification of the living pharaoh with Horus, and of the dead pharaoh with Osiris, made the succession of king to king a re-enactment of the succession of Horus to Osiris, the living Horus inheriting from the dead father. The myth of Horus — the avenging heir who claims the throne of his murdered father and defeats the usurper — provided the mythological charter for Egyptian kingship, and the triumph of Horus over Set symbolized the triumph of legitimate rule over usurpation and of order over chaos.

Horus is central to the Osirian myth, the principal myth of Egyptian religion. The conception of Horus from the dead Osiris, his hidden childhood and protection by Isis, his contest with Set, and his accession to the throne are the central episodes of the Osirian cycle, and Horus is the avenger and heir whose triumph completes the myth. The avenging of Osiris by Horus, and the inheritance of the throne by the son, are the resolution of the drama of murder and resurrection that lies at the heart of Egyptian religion.

The cult of Horus-the-Child and the healing-magic associated with him represent a major tradition of Egyptian magical and medical practice. The suffering and healing of the divine child, stung or bitten in the marshes and healed by the intervention of the gods, provided the model for the magical cure of mortal children, and the cippi of Horus carried the protective and healing power of the myth into the practical religion of healing. The cult of Horus-the-Child integrated the Osirian myth into the everyday concerns of protection and cure.

The image of Isis nursing the infant Horus, and its comparison to the Christian Madonna and Child, has made Horus a key figure in the study of the relationship between Egyptian religion and early Christianity. The enthroned mother nursing the divine child, a widespread image in Egyptian religion of the Late Period and Greco-Roman age, has been compared to the Christian image of the Virgin and Child, and the relationship between the two has been a recurring topic in comparative religion.

For the comparative study of mythology, Horus son of Isis represents the widespread pattern of the divine child, hidden and protected, who grows to avenge his father and claim his inheritance. The story of the endangered heir, the avenging son, and the triumph of legitimacy resonates with mythological patterns across many traditions, and the figure of Horus has featured in the comparative study of the divine child and the avenging hero. Horus son of Isis, the falcon-god conceived from the dead Osiris and raised in secret to avenge his father, endures as a central and influential figure of Egyptian religion.

Connections

Isis in the deities section covers the mother of Horus, the goddess who conceived him from the dead Osiris, hid and raised him at Khemmis, and aided him in his contest for the throne. The devotion of Isis to her son drives the narrative of his survival and triumph.

Osiris in the deities section covers the father of Horus, the murdered god from whom Horus was conceived and whose throne Horus inherits. The succession of the living Horus to the dead Osiris is the model for the succession of king to king.

Set in the deities section covers the uncle and adversary of Horus, the murderer of Osiris and the rival for the throne whose defeat by Horus dramatizes the triumph of legitimate kingship over usurpation.

Horus the Elder in the deities section covers the ancient sky-god distinguished from Horus son of Isis — the brother rather than the son of Osiris and Set — whose distinction from the child-avenger is necessary for an accurate understanding of the forms of Horus.

Thoth in the deities section covers the god of wisdom who heals the injured eye of Horus and acts as the just judge in the tribunal of the gods. Nephthys in the deities section covers the sister of Isis who aids in the protection of Horus and the mourning of Osiris.

The Murder and Resurrection of Osiris in the mythology section covers the murder of Osiris by Set and his restoration by Isis, the events that precede and motivate the birth and avenging mission of Horus. The Contendings of Horus and Set in the mythology section covers the long tribunal of the gods in which Horus contests and defeats Set for the throne of Egypt.

The Khemmis entry covers the floating papyrus-island in the Delta marshes where Isis hid and raised the infant Horus, protecting him from the dangers of the wild and the malice of Set. The Eye of Horus in the mythology section covers the eye torn out by Set and healed by Thoth, the supreme protective amulet derived from the myth.

The Weighing of the Heart in the mythology section covers the judgment of the dead presided over by Osiris, the father whom Horus avenges and whose throne in the realm of the dead complements Horus's throne among the living.

The Isis and the Secret Name of Ra in the mythology section covers the myth in which Isis, the mother of Horus, gains power over the sun-god by learning his secret name, establishing her primacy as mistress of magic — the same magical power she uses to conceive, protect, and aid her son Horus.

The Sphinx of Giza in the mythology section, identified in the New Kingdom with the solar Horus of the horizon (Horemakhet), connects to Horus in his solar and royal aspect as the falcon-god of kingship.

Further Reading