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| The Land Divided |
I’ve been reading H. Te Velde’s Seth, God of Confusion. It’s excellent, and is probably the major study of Set at this point.
There’s a point in the Contendings in which Geb tries to make peace by giving them different parts of the world. Here’s a quote from p. 63:
A limit is posed to Seth, “the enemy of boundaries”: sometimes his share is the sky and sometimes the sedge country or the papyrus country, and sometimes the red land. He has to be separated from Horus to prevent further disasters. The inflamed passions can now quieten (sic) down. It is the moment when Geb says to Horus and Seth: “Forget!” This separation involves the acknowledgement of the contrasts existing in the world and means they are taken seriously. Neither of the two gods can be eliminated.
Yet this rest after the conflict also means stagnation. Totality has been split into two without the possibility of fruitful interaction and co-operation. The boundary between the two countries proves that the peace is of a limited nature. It is not all-comprehensive, not an open, but a closed peace. Seth is the … god apart. Using a modern name for an ancient condition, one might call this peace a cold war. And indeed, this separation of Horus and Seth is not a final state, but only a necessary preliminary to what follows: the reconciliation and union of Horus and Seth.
There’s that “stagnation” and imbalance again.
