The Headless God

The execution of the Rostowitz-gem is considerably inferior in quality and refinement to that of the Athens Coin Cabinet. Both belong to different types and certainly lie far apart in time as well. For the second, I would like to doubt the interpretation of the donkey head. The ears are too small. The objects in the hands cannot be clearly recognized in the reproduction; a (sovereign's) staff, vessel, or purse could be determined: the animal head does not differ essentially from that of the Anubis on the gem in C. W. King, The Gnostics (1887), F 5 (Delatte, Fig. 2 p. 193). I do not consider the figure to be that of a Seth-Typhon.

A. Delatte is probably the first who has correctly interpreted this "Gnostic" gem of King; its two figures have now become clear: Anubis with a jackal or dog head stands before the headless mummy of Osiris; Ablanathan-alba and Semeseilam ("eternal sun"), demon names well known in magic, characterize the solar nature of the later god of the Egyptian underworld. Anubis, the embalmer and protector of the reassembled limbs, stands guard before the mummy—so, too, is he supposed to defend the dead or living owner and wearer of the amulet against hostile attacks.

Fig. 1. Anubis-Osiris gem in the British Museum.

Seth in the Magical Papyri

If A. Delatte perceives Seth on the Athenian gem in his essence as a sun god, he takes the pre-

suppositions of a far-reaching syncretism as his basis; for him, Osiris, Horus, Apollo, Seth-Typhon, and Bes are equally solar deities—one as much as the other can be depicted as headless as soon as Osiris is proven to be akephalos headless. And the inscription of the gem, the word Bachych, points according to Delatte always to a sun deity, certainly not an incorrect observation. But Seth as a solar demon still requires the necessary proof. It diminishes significantly upon closer examination: G. Roeder has determined in his monograph on "Set" (Roscher's Lex. 4, 755: Set in the solar myth) that the Egyptian material on this question "by no means forces the interpretation of Set as an original sun god." Only a single relation of Typhon to the sun is found: according to an apparently ancient myth, he eliminated the Apophis serpent, sun-hostile clouds and thunderstorms, from Ra's bark. Hence his fame, that the god loves him. Seth's deed for Ra does not justify addressing him himself as a sun god or even equating him with one. He only plays the role of a fighter in the service of Ra here. Roeder himself suspects that this whole peculiar trait in the Seth myth belongs to the Upper Egyptian local god, and that Seth touches upon Onuris, the god of the nome of Abydos, who also occasionally fights for Ra. In historical time, Seth increasingly fell into the disrepute of an evil god who finally signifies the Apophis serpent himself.