Seth animal
Encyclopedia
The sha is assumed to be some canid
, or wild dog, inhabiting the deserts of North Africa, particularly the region adjacent to the Nile Valley
in Egypt
. It is the totemic
animal of the god Set
, for which reason it is commonly known as the Set animal, Typhonian animal, or Typhonic beast. It may also be identical with the mysterious wild dog known to modern Egyptians as the salawa.
is as the determinative
, for words portraying items with chaos, example words related to suffering, violence, perturbation. Also for the 'violent storms' of the atmosphere, a tempest
.
Often referred to as a jackal
, or jackal-like with additional stylizations, it is an earlier equivalent to the later Greek mythology chimera
, or also a griffin
.
The first known use of the Seth-animal is upon the Scorpion Macehead
of King Scorpion
, Dynasty 0. It is then found upon the serekh
s of Seth-Peribsen
and Khasekhemwy
.
or a jackal
, with three distinguishing features: a stiff tail, often forked at the end, which stands straight up or at an angle, whether the animal is sitting, standing, or walking; its ears, also held erect, are usually depicted as squarish or triangular, narrowest at the base and widest at the squarish tops; and a long nose, often with a slight downward curve. It is normally depicted as black, but may also have been reddish.
artwork from predynastic
times until at least the period of the New Kingdom
, a period of some two thousand years. Although sometimes described as a fantastic or composite animal, it was depicted in a realistic manner more typical of actual creatures. The sha is found on a ceremonial mace-head
dating to the predynastic period; on the serekh
s of the Second Dynasty
kings Peribsen
and Khasekhemwy
; in Twelfth Dynasty
tombs at Beni-hasan; and, in the form of Set, in the royal cartouche
s of the Nineteenth Dynasty
kings Seti I
and Seti II
, and the Twentieth Dynasty
king Setnakhte
and his descendants.
was usually depicted as a man with a head resembling that of the sha, usually with a long, slightly curved nose, and erect ears, squared at the tops. Occasionally he was represented in animal form as the sha itself, although he was also depicted in the form of an ass
or as a black pig
. Other animals sacred to Set included the antelope
, hippopotamus
, wild boar, crocodile
, and scorpion
, all of which represented strength, power, protection, or wildness. The sha was also used as a determinative
in the names of Set and the goddess Nubt, who may be identified with Nephthys
, the wife of Set.
In art
, Set was mostly depicted as a mysterious and unknown creature, referred to by Egyptologists as the Set animal or Typhonic beast, with a curved snout
, square ears, forked tail, and canine
body, or sometimes as a human with only the head of the Set animal. It has no complete resemblance to any known creature, although it does resemble a composite of an aardvark
, a donkey
, and a jackal
. The main species of aardvark present in ancient Egypt additionally had a reddish appearance (due to thin fur, which shows the skin beneath it). In some descriptions he has the head of a greyhound
. The earliest known representation of Set comes from a tomb dating to the Naqada I
phase of the Predynastic Period (circa 4000 BC–3500 BC), and the Set-animal is even found on a mace
-head of the Scorpion King, a Protodynastic ruler.
Was
("power") scepters represent the Set-animal. Was scepters were carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests, as a symbol of power, and in later use, control over the force of chaos (Set). The head and forked tail of the Set-animal are clearly present. Was scepters are often depicted in paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and remnants of real Was
scepters have been found constructed of faience
or wood.
Both the Second Dynasty kings Peribsen and Khasekhemwy, whose serekhs depict the sha, identified themselves as divine manifestations of Set on earth, as previous kings had identified themselves with Horus
. During the Old Kingdom
, Horus and Set were generally viewed as twin supporters and defenders of the god Ra
, head of the Egyptian pantheon; and they were often depicted anointing the king, as the divine source of his authority. The association of Horus and Set probably reflected the reconciliation of a struggle between two royal cults. Following the unification of Egypt, Narmer
and the kings of the First Dynasty
embraced the worship of Horus, by adopting the Horus name as part of their official nomenclature. This name identified the king as the god's representative on earth. Peribsen, however, chose a Set name in place of a Horus name, while Khasekhemwy's royal title invoked both of the great gods, presumably in an attempt to reconcile the followers of each cult.
. Originally a vegetation god, Osiris became one of the pre-eminent gods of the Egyptian pantheon. His worship stressed the role of Set as violence personified; the murderer of his brother and usurper of his throne, who instead of standing alongside Horus, became his eternal enemy. This view of Set was encouraged during the Second Intermediate Period
, when Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos
, a Semitic people from the east, whose god 'Sutekh' became identified with Set.
Set continued to be revered during the New Kingdom
. Several kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties had royal names indicating their devotion to Set, and these names were written with a hieroglyphic representation of the god as a determinative. Here Set is depicted as a seated deity with the head of a sha. However, during the Third Intermediate Period, Set was deeply unpopular, his worship abandoned, and many depictions of him were destroyed or defaced. References to and depictions of the sha, which was closely linked with Set, must have suffered a similar fate.
. In connection with Anubis, the jackal is never depicted with the distinguishing features of the sha: the stiff, often forked tail; the squared ears; and the long, slightly curved nose. It is conceivable that these features were added to representations of the jackal, solely in order to distinguish Set from Anubis. Early representations of the sha frequently omit the fork at the end of the tail, or show it with something resembling a tuft instead, so the idea of the forked tail may have been symbolic.
However, some scholars believe the sha to be a stylized representation of some other animal, such as an African hunting dog
, a pig, an antelope, an okapi
, a giraffe
, or even an aardvark
; or that it might represent a species that was rare in Egyptian times, and has since become extinct. Others have speculated that it is a purely fantastic or composite animal, which never existed in nature; this was the opinion of Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge
. Because the name sha is not as familiar as that of Set, and has no independent mythology associated with it, the animal is commonly referred to as the Set or Seth Animal, or the Typhonian Animal, so called because the Greeks equated Set or Sutekh with the monster Typhon
.
channel program, Destination Truth
, an animal suspected of being the salawa was filmed and determined to be a Fennec Fox.
This variety of fox is another possible identification for the sha. Its large, squarish ears and slender legs, its solitary habits and reddish fur are all consistent with representations of the sha, although the animal's other features must have become highly stylized. If the salawa is a Fennec Fox, accounts of it as a powerful, bloodthirsty killer have been greatly exaggerated, or perhaps confused with accounts of other creatures, such as the African hunting dog, or escaped dogs that have become feral
. Whether any of these is the historical basis for the sha remains uncertain.
Canidae
Canidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid . The Canidae family is divided into two tribes: Canini and Vulpini...
, or wild dog, inhabiting the deserts of North Africa, particularly the region adjacent to the Nile Valley
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. It is the totemic
Totem
A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
animal of the god Set
Set (mythology)
Set was in Ancient Egyptian religion, a god of the desert, storms, and foreigners. In later myths he was also the god of darkness, and chaos...
, for which reason it is commonly known as the Set animal, Typhonian animal, or Typhonic beast. It may also be identical with the mysterious wild dog known to modern Egyptians as the salawa.
Hieroglyphic representation
The c use in the Egyptian languageEgyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
is as the determinative
Determinative
A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and...
, for words portraying items with chaos, example words related to suffering, violence, perturbation. Also for the 'violent storms' of the atmosphere, a tempest
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...
.
Often referred to as a jackal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
, or jackal-like with additional stylizations, it is an earlier equivalent to the later Greek mythology chimera
Chimera (mythology)
The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
, or also a griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
.
The first known use of the Seth-animal is upon the Scorpion Macehead
Scorpion Macehead
The Scorpion macehead refers to a decorated ancient Egyptian macehead found by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis during the dig season of 1897/1898...
of King Scorpion
King Scorpion
Scorpion, or Selk, also King Scorpion or Scorpion II refers to the second of two kings so-named of Upper Egypt during the Protodynastic Period. Their names may refer to the scorpion goddess Serket...
, Dynasty 0. It is then found upon the serekh
Serekh
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name...
s of Seth-Peribsen
Seth-Peribsen
Peribsen is the serekh name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 2nd dynasty. Unlike many other pharaohs of this dynasty, Peribsen is well-attested in the archaeological records...
and Khasekhemwy
Khasekhemwy
Khasekhemwy was the fifth and final king of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Little is known of Khasekhemwy, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built several monuments, still extant, mentioning war against the Northerners...
.
Physical characteristics
The sha is usually depicted as a slender dog, resembling a greyhoundGreyhound
The Greyhound is a breed of sighthound that has been primarily bred for coursing game and racing, and the breed has also recently seen a resurgence in its popularity as a pedigree show dog and family pet. It is a gentle and intelligent breed...
or a jackal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
, with three distinguishing features: a stiff tail, often forked at the end, which stands straight up or at an angle, whether the animal is sitting, standing, or walking; its ears, also held erect, are usually depicted as squarish or triangular, narrowest at the base and widest at the squarish tops; and a long nose, often with a slight downward curve. It is normally depicted as black, but may also have been reddish.
Ancient Egypt
Drawings of the sha appear in EgyptianAncient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
artwork from predynastic
Predynastic Egypt
The Prehistory of Egypt spans the period of earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt in ca. 3100 BC, starting with King Menes/Narmer....
times until at least the period of the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
, a period of some two thousand years. Although sometimes described as a fantastic or composite animal, it was depicted in a realistic manner more typical of actual creatures. The sha is found on a ceremonial mace-head
Scorpion Macehead
The Scorpion macehead refers to a decorated ancient Egyptian macehead found by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis during the dig season of 1897/1898...
dating to the predynastic period; on the serekh
Serekh
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name...
s of the Second Dynasty
Second dynasty of Egypt
The second dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasty I under the group title Early Dynastic Period. It dates approximately from 2890 to 2686 BC. The capital at that time was Thinis.-Rulers:...
kings Peribsen
Seth-Peribsen
Peribsen is the serekh name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 2nd dynasty. Unlike many other pharaohs of this dynasty, Peribsen is well-attested in the archaeological records...
and Khasekhemwy
Khasekhemwy
Khasekhemwy was the fifth and final king of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Little is known of Khasekhemwy, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built several monuments, still extant, mentioning war against the Northerners...
; in Twelfth Dynasty
Twelfth dynasty of Egypt
The twelfth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties XI, XIII and XIV under the group title Middle Kingdom.-Rulers:Known rulers of the twelfth dynasty are as follows :...
tombs at Beni-hasan; and, in the form of Set, in the royal cartouche
Cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an ellipse with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh...
s of the Nineteenth Dynasty
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
kings Seti I
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
and Seti II
Seti II
Seti II , was the fifth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, meant "Powerful are the Manifestations of Re, Chosen by Re.' He was the son of Merneptah and wife Isisnofret and sat on the throne during a...
, and the Twentieth Dynasty
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom. This dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period....
king Setnakhte
Setnakhte
Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte was the first Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and the father of Ramesses III....
and his descendants.
Association with Set
The god SetSet (mythology)
Set was in Ancient Egyptian religion, a god of the desert, storms, and foreigners. In later myths he was also the god of darkness, and chaos...
was usually depicted as a man with a head resembling that of the sha, usually with a long, slightly curved nose, and erect ears, squared at the tops. Occasionally he was represented in animal form as the sha itself, although he was also depicted in the form of an ass
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
or as a black pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
. Other animals sacred to Set included the antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
, hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
, wild boar, crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
, and scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
, all of which represented strength, power, protection, or wildness. The sha was also used as a determinative
Determinative
A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they may derive historically from glyphs for real words, and...
in the names of Set and the goddess Nubt, who may be identified with Nephthys
Nephthys
In Egyptian mythology, Nephthys is a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Seth.Nephthys is regarded as...
, the wife of Set.
In art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, Set was mostly depicted as a mysterious and unknown creature, referred to by Egyptologists as the Set animal or Typhonic beast, with a curved snout
Snout
The snout, or muzzle, is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw.-Terminology:The term "muzzle", used as a noun, can be ambiguous...
, square ears, forked tail, and canine
Canidae
Canidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid . The Canidae family is divided into two tribes: Canini and Vulpini...
body, or sometimes as a human with only the head of the Set animal. It has no complete resemblance to any known creature, although it does resemble a composite of an aardvark
Aardvark
The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa...
, a donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
, and a jackal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
. The main species of aardvark present in ancient Egypt additionally had a reddish appearance (due to thin fur, which shows the skin beneath it). In some descriptions he has the head of a greyhound
Greyhound
The Greyhound is a breed of sighthound that has been primarily bred for coursing game and racing, and the breed has also recently seen a resurgence in its popularity as a pedigree show dog and family pet. It is a gentle and intelligent breed...
. The earliest known representation of Set comes from a tomb dating to the Naqada I
Naqada
Naqada is a town on the west bank of the Nile in the Egyptian governorate of Qena. It was known in Ancient Egypt as Nubt and in classical antiquity as Ombos. Its name derives from ancient Egyptian nub, meaning gold, on account of the proximity of gold mines in the Eastern Desert.Naqada comprises...
phase of the Predynastic Period (circa 4000 BC–3500 BC), and the Set-animal is even found on a mace
Ceremonial mace
The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon...
-head of the Scorpion King, a Protodynastic ruler.
Was
Was
The was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
("power") scepters represent the Set-animal. Was scepters were carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests, as a symbol of power, and in later use, control over the force of chaos (Set). The head and forked tail of the Set-animal are clearly present. Was scepters are often depicted in paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and remnants of real Was
Was
The was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
scepters have been found constructed of faience
Faience
Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
or wood.
Both the Second Dynasty kings Peribsen and Khasekhemwy, whose serekhs depict the sha, identified themselves as divine manifestations of Set on earth, as previous kings had identified themselves with Horus
Horus
Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
. During the Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...
, Horus and Set were generally viewed as twin supporters and defenders of the god Ra
Ra
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
, head of the Egyptian pantheon; and they were often depicted anointing the king, as the divine source of his authority. The association of Horus and Set probably reflected the reconciliation of a struggle between two royal cults. Following the unification of Egypt, Narmer
Narmer
Narmer was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period . He is thought to be the successor to the Protodynastic pharaohs Scorpion and/or Ka, and he is considered by some to be the unifier of Egypt and founder of the First Dynasty, and therefore the first pharaoh of unified Egypt.The...
and the kings of the First Dynasty
First dynasty of Egypt
The first dynasty of Ancient Egypt is often combined with the Dynasty II under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt...
embraced the worship of Horus, by adopting the Horus name as part of their official nomenclature. This name identified the king as the god's representative on earth. Peribsen, however, chose a Set name in place of a Horus name, while Khasekhemwy's royal title invoked both of the great gods, presumably in an attempt to reconcile the followers of each cult.
Disappearance of the Sha
Although Set was originally viewed as the son and defender of Ra and the Egyptian kings, his reputation amongst the people declined along with the rise of the cult of OsirisOsiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
. Originally a vegetation god, Osiris became one of the pre-eminent gods of the Egyptian pantheon. His worship stressed the role of Set as violence personified; the murderer of his brother and usurper of his throne, who instead of standing alongside Horus, became his eternal enemy. This view of Set was encouraged during the Second Intermediate Period
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom...
, when Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos
Hyksos
The Hyksos were an Asiatic people who took over the eastern Nile Delta during the twelfth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt....
, a Semitic people from the east, whose god 'Sutekh' became identified with Set.
Set continued to be revered during the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
. Several kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties had royal names indicating their devotion to Set, and these names were written with a hieroglyphic representation of the god as a determinative. Here Set is depicted as a seated deity with the head of a sha. However, during the Third Intermediate Period, Set was deeply unpopular, his worship abandoned, and many depictions of him were destroyed or defaced. References to and depictions of the sha, which was closely linked with Set, must have suffered a similar fate.
Identification
Depictions of the sha as an animal appear distinctly canine, but the precise identity of the animal has never been firmly established. It is sometimes described as a jackal or some other wild dog, although the jackal is usually identified with the god AnubisAnubis
Anubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. In the ancient Egyptian language, Anubis is known as Inpu . According to the Akkadian transcription in the Amarna letters, Anubis' name was vocalized as Anapa...
. In connection with Anubis, the jackal is never depicted with the distinguishing features of the sha: the stiff, often forked tail; the squared ears; and the long, slightly curved nose. It is conceivable that these features were added to representations of the jackal, solely in order to distinguish Set from Anubis. Early representations of the sha frequently omit the fork at the end of the tail, or show it with something resembling a tuft instead, so the idea of the forked tail may have been symbolic.
However, some scholars believe the sha to be a stylized representation of some other animal, such as an African hunting dog
African Wild Dog
Lycaon pictus is a large canid found only in Africa, especially in savannas and lightly wooded areas. It is variously called the African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, painted dog, painted wolf, painted hunting dog, spotted dog, or ornate wolf...
, a pig, an antelope, an okapi
Okapi
The okapi , Okapia johnstoni, is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Central Africa...
, a giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
, or even an aardvark
Aardvark
The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa...
; or that it might represent a species that was rare in Egyptian times, and has since become extinct. Others have speculated that it is a purely fantastic or composite animal, which never existed in nature; this was the opinion of Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge
E. A. Wallis Budge
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.-Earlier life:...
. Because the name sha is not as familiar as that of Set, and has no independent mythology associated with it, the animal is commonly referred to as the Set or Seth Animal, or the Typhonian Animal, so called because the Greeks equated Set or Sutekh with the monster Typhon
Typhon
Typhon , also Typhoeus , Typhaon or Typhos was the last son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus, and the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. He was known as the "Father of all monsters"; his wife Echidna was likewise the "Mother of All Monsters."Typhon was described in pseudo-Apollodorus,...
.
The Salawa
In the 1960s, and again in the late 1990s and early 2000s, stories began to circulate about a mysterious canid, dubbed the salawa or sal'awa (scary wolf). The creature allegedly attacked several small villages in remote parts of southern Egypt, resulting in several injuries and even deaths. Eyewitness accounts and grainy photographs of a specimen allegedly killed by villagers resulted in speculation that the creature was the same as the "Typhonian animal"; a slender, black canine, rarely seen, but typically found on the edge of the desert. Early investigations found nothing conclusive. However, during filming of a 2009 episode of the SyFySyfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
channel program, Destination Truth
Destination Truth
Destination Truth is a weekly American paranormal reality television series that premiered on June 6, 2007 on Syfy. Produced by Mandt Bros. Productions and Ping Pong Productions, the program follows paranormal researcher Josh Gates around the world to investigate claims of the supernatural, mainly...
, an animal suspected of being the salawa was filmed and determined to be a Fennec Fox.
This variety of fox is another possible identification for the sha. Its large, squarish ears and slender legs, its solitary habits and reddish fur are all consistent with representations of the sha, although the animal's other features must have become highly stylized. If the salawa is a Fennec Fox, accounts of it as a powerful, bloodthirsty killer have been greatly exaggerated, or perhaps confused with accounts of other creatures, such as the African hunting dog, or escaped dogs that have become feral
Feral
A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...
. Whether any of these is the historical basis for the sha remains uncertain.
See also
- Ancient EgyptAncient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
- Ancient Egyptian religion
- CanidaeCanidaeCanidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid . The Canidae family is divided into two tribes: Canini and Vulpini...
- CryptozoologyCryptozoologyCryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...
- List of hieroglyphs/E
- Peribsen and Khasekhemwy — (history of Seth animal mounted upon Serekh)
- Set (mythology)Set (mythology)Set was in Ancient Egyptian religion, a god of the desert, storms, and foreigners. In later myths he was also the god of darkness, and chaos...