THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

disruptive act which has major theogonic consequences. As we shall detail more
closely in Chapter 10, all of the main components of the high-profile Valentinian
Gnostic myth are established here: pairs of syzygies emanate forth from the Primal
Parent until a disjunction occurs in the theogonic process, this centred about an
hypostasis who exists apart from the established order without a partner, and who
causes an abortion to occur following an illicit sexual act.
The murder of Osiris by Seth is of course the theogonic act of disjunction par
excellence. Osirianism was based upon the worldly passions of fidelity and treason,
love and enmity, attainment and emulousness; this core myth, undoubtedly the most
powerful one in almost any phase of Egypt’s history, especially on a popular level,
enacted a soteriology of nothing less than the eventual triumph of Good over Evil.
A further key conflict is anticipated here in the struggle between Horus and
Seth following Seth’s murder of Osiris. Horus himself is brought forth in solitude by
Isis without a consort, and mother and child exist in close proximity to the Abyss as
symbolised by the Khemmis marshes. We need not go into the details of this battle.
Seth is driven out of Egypt and castrated, symbolising the setting up of a boundary
between chaos and the cosmos. This critical cosmogonic event establishes the
essential polarity in the Egyptian worldview, for the spirit of Horus and Seth permeate
all reality and are forever in contention. Again, this anticipates a central Valentinian
mythological event in the “fall” of Sophia after her “formless abortion” and
subsequent demiurgic creation of the world. The Pleroma, greatly disturbed, sets
about separating itself from this dysteliological locus, and the aeon Horus is
dispatched in order to establish the boundary. The fact that the Greek horus means
boundary rather fortuitously facilitated this textual fusion with obvious expedience. A
Late-Period magical papyrus depicts a petitioner asking the assistance of Horus to
unbar the door to allow his escape from Typhon:
Be opened, be opened, O bar, for I am Horus the great one, Archephrenepsou
Phirinx, the son of Osiris and Isis. And I wish to escape from the godless
Typhon quickly, quickly, at once, at once. 58
While Horus and Seth are eventually reconciled, we note the transition to a
more Gnostic view in the later periods of Egyptian history, when the tendency was to
assign Seth as the permanent abode of evil. 59
However, the necessity for Seth in the
daily functioning of the Egyptian cosmos is clearly demonstrated in Seth’s rendering
decisive assistance to Re in his solar barque against the incessant attacks from the
serpent Apophis, quintessential being of chaos. Apophis is always thwarted but never
killed; he and chaos are indestructible. 60
It has been postulated that Seth, as the
“chosen of Re” in this context, is to be seen as a violent aspect of Re. Even so, he
remains a nbd, an evil being, and it is in his fight against Apophis that he is known as
an “instigator of confusion” (sd hnnw). 61
58
Griffiths, Conflict of Horus & Seth, 118From Papyri Osloenses (Oslo, 1925), I, 316ff.
59
te Velde, Seth, the God of Confusion, 67.
60
Erik Hornung, “Chaotische Bereiche in der geordneten Welt,” ZÄS 81 (1956): 28.
61
Medinet Habu I, pl.32,5; 46,31. I am indebted to te Velde for this reference: Seth, God of
Confusion, 101.