The Tale of Horus and Seth is an ancient Egyptian myth about Horus and Seth’s rivalry for the Egyptian throne, held in the story by Osiris, Horus’ father and god of the underworld. There are several versions of the story worldwide, but this particular one, held at the Petrie Museum in London, allegedly contains the world’s first chat-up line – and it’s gay.
Tired with fighting Horus for the throne, Seth, god of storms, chaos and the desert, decides to invite his foe over for a ‘feast’. Yet when Horus, god of the king, sky and vengeance, arrives, Seth has an underhand plan with which to fool him.
Rather than bestow violence upon Horus, Seth decides to seduce him, so as to fall him foul of the conservative council who will pick Osiris’ successor. “How lovely are your buttocks,” Seth says, “and how muscular your thighs.” A Lichtheim translation follows the story thus:
“Now when evening had come, a bed was prepared for them, and they lay down together. At night Seth let his member become stiff and he inserted it between the thighs of Horus. And Horus placed his hands between his thighs and caught the semen of Seth.”
Yet Seth’s plan fails when Isis, seeing Seth’s semen in Horus’ hand, cuts it off and throws it in the Nile. He also throws his own semen into a lettuce patch which Seth subsequently eats. Thus when the council is called, and Seth calls for the semen to be taken from Horus’ mouth, it’s Horus’ semen which emerges from Seth’s stomach as a sun-disk, after which Horus is crowned king.
Learn more about love and sex in the ancient world with our special video for the Ancient World in London series. You can see many more videos from the series on their own AWiL video page.
