Set's Beast

[Ci Celli Ddu]

The last time I checked, Egyptologists still hadn't identified Set's animal identity. Has anyone come across any theories?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/349796376_57a13cdfa2.jpg

[m1thr0s]

anteater? I've run into this somewhere...I'll have to track it down...

aardvark, jackal and ass are among the common guesses. looks a lot more like an anteater than an aardvark to me. Only problem is, anteaters are typically tropical forest critters...aardvarks are more desert...

Wiki Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mythology))

Here's a Mexican Ant-Eater by way of comparison...

http://abrahadabra.com/images/anteater01.jpg

And an aardvark (note the longer ears)...

http://abrahadabra.com/images/aardvark01.jpg

m1thr0s

[Copuldaemon]

do you remember pink panther with that anteater that couldn't get that ant, lol?

[Copuldaemon]

oh yeah, anteater, aardvark, actually, i didn't know there was a difference, it is true, you do learn something new everyday:)

[Naomi]

He looks like a giraffe to me.

[m1thr0s]

I don't quite get why his ears are clipped...assuming they are ears. Giraffes don't hang out in the desert much...nothing there for them to eat...

m1thr0s

[Ci Celli Ddu]

I cant accept the theory that it's a Mormyrid, mainly because the hieroglyph of the Set animal is quite clearly not a fish. I like the idea of the Salawa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salawa), and I love cryptids, but it seems too good a story to be true. Mind you here in Wales reliable witnesses including the police have spotted the ferile panthers (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/weird/pages/bigcats.shtml) we have here, so if big cats can hide out in a tiny country like Wales, then there's plenty of room to roam for the salawas in Egypt.

[m1thr0s]

a salawa is more like a jackal though, right? which doesn't really account for that downturned snout, not to mention those funky ears. Ears could probably be stylized although the Egyptians were usually pretty meticulous about animal characteristics. But there's just no way that snout belongs to a dog...

m1thr0s

[Ci Celli Ddu]

True. I'm kind of leaning towards the Aardvark. The forked tail's what throws me most

[Ci Celli Ddu]

This PDF link makes a convincing argument for the aardvark, though the print is annoyingly small

Seth: Egyptian Chimera (cohesion.rice.edu/CentersAndInst/SAFA/emplibrary/deMaret,P.Safa2006.pdf )

[m1thr0s]

yeah...they need to learn how to create pdf documents, but it was still a good presentation...I'm leaning to aardvark myself I think...

m1thr0s

[Kain]

Yeah, that was a very good presentation indeed...as for the animal, I am partial to aardavark myself.

Kain

[Naomi]

Well set has white skin and red hair...kind of colored like a giraffe to me, still...

and I found this little tidbit on this site:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/set.htm

"The sign for his name, from the Middle Kingdom (http://www.touregypt.net/ehistory.htm#Middle%20Kingdom) hieratic onwards, tended to replace the sign for 'donkey' and 'giraffe', so he was possibly linked to the giraffe, as well."

and besides, I'm a Toys R Us kid...

[m1thr0s]

cool...the egyptians would have regarded me as a son of Set since I had very red hair as a kid...
fortunately it darkened as I got older...I hated it red...

m1thr0s

[Naomi]

Most of the experts seem to be saying he's a composite deity, comprised of many differant animals, and indeed, he does change shape, becoming the boar who swallows the moon. As a side note, one of Vishnu's earliest avatars was a boar (Varaha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varaha)). In this form, Vishnu holds a mace, just like Set does in battle.

Chemosh was a Levantine deity who's name meant 'fish-god' and 'destroyer, and his name seems to be used interchangeably with Baal, another Levantine deity or possible the same one. See this Wikipedia article here for more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosh_%28Biblical%29

"There seems to be no good reason for denying that Chemosh was a "baal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal)," and that the names "Baal-maon" (Moabite Stone, line 30) and "Baal-peor" (Num. xxv. 3; Hosea ix. 10) apply to what was practically the same god as Chemosh. The way Mesha brings Baal-maon into his inscription identifies the latter with Chemosh; for when Baal-maon is pleased Chemosh speaks to Mesha (Moabite Stone, lines 30, 31). "

Set was associated with foreigners, he was deemed the ruler of the entirety of Asia (what was known) since people with red hair did not live in Egypt, generally.

It's curious you had red hair m1thr0s, I think that in most places in the world, that is definately a sign you are cursed or blessed by gods, but there isn't really a culture that doesn't notice red hair since it isn't that common. I had a good book on Madame Pele from hawaii last year it was really interesting because she has appeared there to people like doctors and lawyers and scientists, the stories were really freaky because they were so well documented and precise. Anyways she was always said to have red hair, and if you have red hair you are thought of as an incarnation (avatara) of Pele, but only for women.

[Naomi]

Oh I ate a head of romaine lettuce for dinner and just knowing the Egyptians thought it was filled with Set's semen made it an erotic experience, isn't mythology fun?

[Frater CaO]

One of my first thoughts when actually thinking about this, is what Set is actually representing. And what animal/s would fit that description. I think its a mix, and wasnt he a shapeshifter of some kind like Naomi mentions?
Didnt do my egyptology nor biology homeworks so I have no clues for what animal or animals he is supposed to depict at all. :D