In Egyptian mythology, the hawk, or falcon, god.
Horus is a Latin form of a Greek word for the Egyptian name Heru, or Hor.
Originally, Horus was a local god who was worshiped along
the delta region of the Nile. Eventually, his cult spread
throughout Egypt and was carried into Roman times, when he was worshiped along with his mother, Isis.
Gold Eye
The falcon, or hawk, one of the first animals worshiped in Egypt
was said to be the personification of the god Horus, who made the sky.
In predynastic times there arose several hawk deities, among the most important being the falcon god at Hierakonpolis
in Upper Egypt, where Horus took on the form of a solar disk with wings.
When the kings of the south moved into Lower Egypt, uniting the two lands, Horus became known as the Uniter of the South and North, or Upper and Lower Egypt.
He was sometimes said to be the son of the cow goddess Hathor, whose name literally means "house of Horus." Each evening he would fly into the goddess's mouth, and each morning he would emerge reborn.
In the most famous myth associated with him, however, Horus is the son of the god Osiris and the goddess Isis, and he avenges his father's murder by defeating the demonic god Set in a series of battles.
Thus Osiris is identified with the dead king and Horus with the living king. Sometimes the living king was said to embody within himself both Horus, the spirit of light, and Set, the spirit of darkness, reflecting
the eternal strife that is always present in the universe. In his role as defeater of Set,
Horus is variously portrayed as a mounted warrior with the head of a falcon and as a falcon-headed man with a large pointed spear
driven into some foe. In one version of the myth, Horus had his left eye, which signified the moon, wounded in his battle with Set, thus giving rise to one explanation for the moon's various phases.
The eye was healed by the god Thoth, and the restored eye, known as the udjat, became a powerful amulet.
Various "Horus gods" also appear in Egyptian mythology. Originally, many of them were separate deities, but eventually
they were all blended into one and were considered various aspects of the same god. Among them are Harpokrates, Harsiesis (Horus the son of Isis), Harmachis (Horus who is on the horizon), Haroeris (Horus the elder), Horus-Behdety
(Horus of Behdet), Horus Khenty en Maathyu (Horus at the head of those who see not?
also called blind Horus), Horus Khenty Khat (Horus at the head of the belly?), and Horus Netcher Nedjeitef (Horus the god, he who avenges his father).
