Ancient Egyptian Mythology

The Gods of Ancient Egypt...

HORUS

Egyptian Sky God

Picture of the Egyptian Sky God Horus from our Egyptian mythology image library. Illustration by Chas Saunders.

The famous falcon-headed Egyptian Sky God

That’s more like it. A proper celebrity deity with impressive headgear and impeccable celestial connections. Unusually, his eyes are the sun and the moon. This made his original worshipers starry-eyed with wonder. You’ve heard of the Eye of Horus, haven’t you? Actually it was more of a squint.

The son of Isis and hapless murder victim Osiris, he fought the evil Set tooth and nail to avenge his father’s brutal death. (See Min’s entry if you want to read some of the nastier details.) What a fight! Horus was eventually declared the winner on points in Round 80.

During the battle his moon eye was poked out, but he managed to get it back afterwards. As it was a bit battered he generously donated it to his shadowy undead father, who was rather in need of some body parts, including some that he was very fond of.

Since then, Osiris, King of the Underworld, has worn the unearthly false eye, especially at night. We reckon this is why the moon always appears a little unreal and spooky.

Meanwhile Horus now has just one eye, although you never see him wearing an eyepatch.

What else do you need to know? He has a falcon on his head but we don’t know its name. He seems to have started out as an old god of light named Haroeris. He also has four sons called (imaginatively) the Sons of Horus. They assist with funeral duties and are dead helpful.

Horus Facts and Figures

Name: Horus
Pronunciation: Coming soon
Alternative names:

Gender: Male
Type: God
Celebration or Feast Day: Unknown at present

Role:
In charge of: the Sky
Area of expertise: Sky, Skies

Good/Evil Rating: Unknown at present
Popularity index: 17677

Copy this link to share with anyone:



Share this page on social media:


Link to this page:

HTML: To link to this page, just copy and paste the link below into your blog, web page or email.

BBCODE: To link to this page in a forum post or comment box, just copy and paste the link code below:

Cite this article

Here's the info you need to cite this page. Just copy the text in the box below.


Article last revised on November 21, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

Permissions page


Oh woe. Javascript is switched off in your browser.
Some bits of this website may not work unless you switch it on.