The Contendings of Horus and Seth is a mythological story from the Twentieth dynasty of Ancient Egypt found in the first sixteen pages of the Papyrus Chester Beatty I and deals with the battles between Horus and Seth to determine who will succeed Osiris as king.
Contents
Chester Beatty Papyrus I
The Papyrus Chester Beatty I dates to the twentieth dynasty during the reign of Ramesses V and likely came from a scribe’s collection that was recorded for personal entertainment (Chester Beatty Pap I, Oxford). The papyrus contains the story of The Contendings of Horus and Seth and also various other poetic love songs. The original provenance of the papyrus was Thebes and, when found, the papyrus measured 55 cm. and had been torn and crushed. The papyrus was published by the Oxford University Press in 1931 and currently is located in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.
The story
Arguably the most important part of the Chester Beatty Papyrus I is the mythological story of The Contendings of Horus and Seth which deals with the battles between Horus and Seth to see who will be the successor to the throne of Osiris. The specific time of the Contendings is a period during which the fighting has temporarily stopped and Seth and Horus have brought their case before the Ennead. Throughout the story, Horus and Seth have various competitions to see who will be king. Horus beats Seth each time. The beginning of the story is a sort of a trial when both Seth and Horus plead their cases and the deities of the Ennead state their opinions. Later in the story, the combat starts up again between Horus and Seth and finally, the situation is resolved when Horus is determined to be rightful king of Egypt.
Consequences of the story
The story of The Contendings of Horus and Seth is important to Egyptian society because of its significance to kingship. The story sets the pattern of inheritance for kingship in Ancient Egypt: father to son. The story is also significant to the idea of divine kingship because it sets up the idea of the triad of Osiris as the dead king, Horus as the living king on earth, and Isis as the king’s mother. This triad not only determines the heir to the throne, but it also suggests that the king must be male, which causes trouble for women who became kings, such as Hatshepsut of the eighteenth dynasty.