Horus is the name of a sky god in ancient Egyptian mythology which designates primarily two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), the last born of the first five original gods, and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis. According to the historian Jimmy Dunn, "Horus is the most important of the avian deities" who takes on so many forms and is depicted so differently in various inscriptions that "it is nearly impossible to distinguish the 'true' Horus. Horus is mostly a general term for a great number of falcon deities". While this is certainly true, the name 'Horus' will usually be found to designate either the older god of the first five or the son of Isis and Osiris who defeated his uncle Set and restored order to the land.
Horus the Younger was a powerful sky god associated with the sun, primarily, but also the moon. He was the protector of the royalty of Egypt, avenger of wrongs, defender of order, uniter of the two lands, and, based on his battles with Set, a god of war regularly invoked by Egyptian rulers before battle and praised afterward. In time, he became combined with the sun god Ra to form a new deity, Ra-Harahkhte, god of the sun who sailed across the sky during the day and was depicted as a falcon-headed man wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt with the sun disk on it. His symbols are the Eye of Horus (one of the most famous Egyptian symbols) and the falcon. Continue reading from World History Encyclopedia
