Set+Animal

Set Animal


 * Other Names:**

Typhonic Beast

The Set Animal, a form of the god Set, has long been a source of confusion and debate among scholars. The animal appears to be canine, with red or black fur, slanted eyes, upright, square-cut ears, a forked arrow-like tail, and a curving muzzle. The Set Animal is very ancient, and is found on the Ames Scepter of the Predynastic Scorpion King, and on early Serekhs. The head of //Was// scepters represent the Set Animal, and were used to control the forces of chaos (Set).

Some experts believe that the Set Animal was a variety of now-extinct hunting dog related to the Saluki. Others think that it was meant to be a jackal, aardvark, hare, fox, jerboa, oryx, camel, giraffe, boar, mouse, elephant, hyena, or even an okapi, an animal not native to Egypt.

A new theory says that the head of the Set Animal is a representation the Nile Mormyrid, also called Elephant Fish, which resides in the waters near Kom Ombo , one of the sites of a temple of Set. The fish has a long snout and two square fins which could be interpreted as ears. This would make sense, as it was a Nile Mormyrid (thought to be Set) that ate the phallus of Osiris in an attempt to prevent the god’s resurrection.

Other authorities think that the Set Animal was a composite or symbolic animal with no natural counterpart. Ancient Egyptian artists excelled in animal art; it seems likely that the Set Animal was a sort of anti-animal, a creature deliberately constructed to express the violation of naturalness that Set represented. On rare occasions sphinxes and griffins bore the head of the Set Animal.

Mythological Animals