discovery of fresh texts are bringing into notice the primeval 
dogmas of the world, of which the Horus Myth is one of the 
most prominent ; since the origin of many of the Egyptian rites 
and beliefs must soon become the cause of a steady controversy, 
which, if not taken up by a friend, would perchance be disin- 
genuously misrepresented by an enemy; since these things are so, 
it seemed pardonable to me, despite all defects, to bring forward 
the subject, even as the key-note in an orchestral piece is not 
generally given by the leading instrument ; and also that I 
should delay no longer in compiling this paper, lest the pressure 
of increasing engagements, and still more seriously, a feeble 
frame of body, should unexpectedly prevent me from reading 
it at all. Now, therefore, let me approach the task which 
I have almost too rashly undertaken. 
Among all the Egyptian deities there is not one which fills a 
more important place in the whole Pantheon, no, not even 
Osiris or Amen 11a himself, than the benevolent deity Horus. 
He was almost the sum and substance of all the theology of the 
older Pharaonic faith. He was considered as holding many of the 
most contradictory offices ; as having a most mysterious origin ; 
as uniting himself most intimately with mankind ; as having a 
triple nature and a double personality; as being capable of 
veneration under a variety of names and attributes ; and, alone 
of all the divinities, retaining his pre-eminent position, even 
in the times of the Set cultus of the Ilykshos invasion, and the 
disk-worship of the heretic Khu-en-aten, or, as he is better 
known, Amenhotep IV. 
The three chief characters of Horus, under which he was most 
frequently represented in the monuments, and by which he was 
referred to in the hieroglyphic texts, were, I., Horus Ha, or the 
Sun, as the vivific soul of the world, and of all things wherein 
there is life; II., Horus Teti, the conqueror, and the avenger of 
Osiris, in which he was the eternal antagonist of spiritual 
and physical evil ; and, III., Horus Nets, the Deliverer,* in 
which he was the vicarious deliverer from evil of the Egyptian 
deceased, and the justifier of the righteous. Besides these three 
chief deifications, there were two other forms of godhead 
assumed by him also; viz., Hor-Hut, or the Good Spirit, and 
Horus Khcm, the god of generation. In all these forms he 
had a different series of honorific titles and distinctive epithets, 
which were continually blending into one another, and which, 
especially in the later texts, were often used indiscriminately. 
Horus It a, the Sun. According to the Egyptian philosophical 
belief, all life, animal, human, vegetable, and even divine, was 
* “ Horus nets your soul,” is a usual phrase on the papyri (Birch). 
