By the Gods!

Seth

Also called Set or Sutekh, this guy was the Egyptian god of the desert, darkness, storms & chaos. You may remember him from such posts as The Tale of Osiris and Isisand Horus. He’s the son of Geb and Nut, and brother to Osiris and Isis, and is the brother-husband of Nepthys.

Typically depicted with the body of a human and the head of a… well, what is that, exactly? It’s called a sha, and it’s an unidentifed species of wild dog that may or may not be extinct; it looks like cross between a  donkey, an aardvark, and jackal (cannot be unseen). Egyptologists refer to it as the Set or Typhonian animal.

We’ve heard about Seth’s silly plan to murder his brother to claim the throne, and the loss of his testicle to his nephew, Horus. But after Horus became ruler of Egypt, what was a bored god to do? The answer: fight a giant snake. Every night as the sun god Ra made his way through the underworld by boat, Apop, a great dirty snake, waited for him in a mountain called Bakhu. Apop must be defeated every night so that a new day may begin and Seth, the helpful fellow that he is, would sit at the helm of Ra’s boat and help him combat Apop. Thanks, Seth!