The appearance of the ancient Egyptian gods at first glance seems quite simple and unsophisticated: they are humanoid creatures with the heads of famous local animals: a crocodile, a cat, a jackal, a falcon, and so on. But scientists still do not understand which animal depicts the god Set.
The Head Of The Egyptian God Set
Set’s head is a bit like that of a dog or a jackal, however, his ears are very long and stand upright, and his jaw is not only strongly elongated but also curved, like an anteater’s snout. And anteaters are not found in Egypt, they live only in Central and South America and even the anteaters do not have such ears.
No other native animal has a similar head, so it’s no surprise that the debate over which animal’s head the god Set wears on his shoulders has been raging for hundreds of years.
According to ancient Egyptian mythology, Set is known as the god of storms, disorder, desert sands, violence, destruction, war, and overall chaos. In ancient times, Set was also called the Greek Typhon, the Typhonian Beast, or the Typhonian Animal.
There is an image of this Typhonic beast in the form of a real animal, but even then it cannot be correctly identified.
Because of this, many historians believe that Set has the head of a fictional animal that never existed in reality. However, this looks very strange against the background of the fact that other Egyptian gods have the heads of completely real animals.
Some researchers have suggested that it is possible that Set’s animal is too stylized for true recognition, or that the animal is now extinct.
There are theories that the head of Set is a stylized image of a jackal, a fox, or even a hyena, but, again, in all images of Set that have come down to us, he has a strongly curved muzzle, while these animals have a straight muzzle. And if the Egyptians did not bend the face of a crocodile or a cat for their other gods, then why on earth would they do this specifically for Set?
Also, Seth has a very remarkable tail, which is often depicted standing upright and having a tassel at the end, like a lion, or with a forked end.
By the way, the Egyptian god Anubis has the head of a jackal and his head with a muzzle and ears is a fairly accurate image of the head of a real jackal. So when the Egyptians drew Set with just such a head, different from the jackal head of Anubis, they definitely did not just stylize the head of a jackal but portrayed exactly what they wanted.
Some researchers have even suggested that Set has a giraffe’s head, although in colored frescoes the Set’s head is always very dark, often generally black or dark red, but not yellowish-orange, like a giraffe.
Many agree that the head of Seth is very similar to the dog of the greyhound breed, which are very ancient, but the ears of the greyhounds are completely different, and this breed is not at all suitable for the god of rage and war.
Other theories suggest that Set has the head of a donkey, some unknown wild dog, a pig, or even an okapi (a relative of the giraffe).
One of the most controversial theories was expressed by a certain ufologist, who believes that Set is depicted in his true form as an alien, which all the ancient Egyptian gods were originally, before they became heroes of myths.
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