I wrote that title in all caps, because no matter how many times that fact is repeated, no matter how much evidence is proffered, the mistake, inaccuracy or downright lie is constantly being put forth that Horus was NOT a sun god. This blatant error is made not by professional Egyptologists, of course, but by people who have apparently scanned a couple of encyclopedia articles, which they evidently feel makes them experts on this vast and deep subject.
If you encounter anyone making this BLUNDER - which shows a lack of even the basic knowledge of ancient Egyptian religion - please be sure to point out their mistake to them, although I don't have any great hope that they will correct themselves, as the "anti-ZEITGEISTers" are about as delusional and fundamentalist as typical religious fanatics. You can also be sure that if these "experts" are making THIS basic error, they are also making many others as well, as demonstrated quite thoroughly by my voluminous writings on this subject, which include a nearly 600-page book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. This book has been out for a year and a half, and is available for searching at Google Books, so there is no excuse for this abject ignorance. I likewise demonstrate this fact of Horus being a sun god in my book Suns of God, which came out in 2004, so this mistake is doubly inexcusable. (The reader is referred to these two books for citations of the quotes below.)
PROOF THAT HORUS WAS A SUN GOD, FROM PRIMARY SOURCES AND THE WORKS OF HIGHLY CREDENTIALED AUTHORITIES
As is the case with many gods in other parts of the world, several Egyptian gods (and goddesses) possess solar attributes, essentially making them sun gods. These Egyptian sun gods included not only the commonly known Ra or Re, but also Osiris and Horus, among others. This fact of Horus as a sun god was confirmed five centuries before the common era by the Greek historian Herodotus (2.144, 156), when he equated Osiris with the Greek god Dionysus and Horus with the Greek sun god Apollo: "In Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter is Isis, Artemis is Bubastis…."
In the first century BCE, the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus described Osiris as the sun, while his sister-wife, Isis, is the moon:
Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal: they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis....
The ancient writer Porphyry (c. 235-c. 305 AD/CE) related (according to early Catholic Church father/historian Eusebius):
But the fiery power of [the sun's] revolving and circling motion whereby he ripens the crops, is called Dionysus... And whereas he revolves round the cosmical seasons [Grk. horas] and is the maker of "times and tides," the sun is on this account called Horus.
In my book Suns of God (112), I discuss the equation of Horus with Apollo and the sun by ancient writer Macrobius (4th cent. AD/CE):
The newborn sun god about whom he writes is Horus, whom Macrobius equates with Dionysus. Both Dionysus and Apollo are identified with Horus, as is further evidence by the fact that Apollo and Horus were represented by the hawk. Macrobius too equates Apollo with Horus...
As concerns primary sources, in Christ in Egypt (47), I write (47):
In ancient Egyptian writings such as the Pyramid Texts, in which he is called the "Lord of the Sky," along with other solar epithets such as "He Whose Face is Seen," "He Whose Hair is Parted," and "He Whose Two Plumes are Long," Horus's function as a sun god or aspect of the sun is repeatedly emphasized, although this singularly pertinent fact is seldom found in encyclopedias and textbooks, leaving us to wonder why he would be thus diminished. In the Coffin Texts as well is Horus's role as (morning) sun god made clear, such as in the following elegantly rendered scripture from CT [Coffin Text] Sp. 255:
"…I will appear as Horus who ascends in gold from upon the lips of the horizon…"
In CT Sp. 326, Horus is even called "Lord of the sunlight."
Concerning the nature of certain Egyptian gods, Dr. James P. Allen, Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, remarks:
...Ruling over the universe by day, the Sun was identified with Horus, the god of kingship; at sunset he was seen as Atum, the oldest of all gods. The Sun's daily movement through the sky was viewed as a journey from birth to death, and his rebirth at dawn was made possible through Osiris, the force of new life... …In the middle of the night the Sun merged with Osiris’s body; through this union, the Sun received the power of new life while Osiris was reborn in the Sun.
As we can see, these various gods are often interchangeable, and their attributes and stories may overlap. As stated by Egyptologist Dr. Erik Hornung:
Many Egyptian gods can be the sun god, especially Re, Atum, Amun, and manifestations of Horus. Even Osiris appears as the night form of the sun god in the New Kingdom. It is often not defined which particular sun god is meant in a given instance.
In this regard, I also relate in CIE (45):
...Horus of the Horizon or Horakhty is a solar deity and the morning sun, part of the combined Re-Horakhty, whose name Egyptologist Dr. Rudolf Anthes renders, "Re, the heavenly Horus of the horizon in which he appears as the sun.." As Egyptologist Sir Dr. Gaston Maspero remarks:
Horus the Sun, and Ra, the Sun-God of Heliopolis, had so permeated each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended...
Once more, Maspero says:
When the celestial Horus was confounded with Ra, and became the sun...he naturally also became the sun of the two horizons, the sun by day, and the sun by night.
Egyptologist Dr. Allen further discusses Horus's solar attributes:
Horus was the power of kingship. To the Egyptians this was as much a force of nature as those embodied in the other gods. It was manifest in two natural phenomena: the sun, the most powerful force in nature; and the pharaoh, the most powerful force in human society. Horus's role as the king of nature is probably the origin of his name: hrw seems to mean "the one above" or "the one far off"... This is apparently a reference to the sun, which is "above" and "far off" in the sky, like the falcon with which Horus is regularly associated...
Illustrating certain motifs including the sun god’s movement through the night and day, Sir Dr. E.A. Wallis Budge (1857–1934), noted English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works, remarks:
The Sun has countless names, Ptah, Tmu, Ra, Horus, Khnemu, Sebek, Amen, etc.; and some of them, such as Osiris and Seker, are names of the Sun after he has set, or, in mythological language, has died and been buried.... All gods, as such, were absolutely equal in their might and in their divinity; but, mythologically, Osiris might be said to be slain by his brother Set, the personification of Night, who, in his turn, was overthrown by Horus (the rising sun), the heir of Osiris.
As can be seen, both Osiris and Horus are essentially sun gods, who both also battle with the "Prince of Darkness," the god Set or Seth. Summarizing, Egyptologist Dr. Edmund Meltzer states:
Horus the falcon was predominantly a sky god AND a sun god.
There is much, much more to this subject, including a 39-page chapter "Horus, Sun of God" in my book Christ in Egypt. You will not get this important information from all the critics out there who are clearly not experts on this subject, as this one issue so roundly demonstrates. If you see this basic error, you would not be remiss in clicking off the page since the rest will likely be just as erroneous.
Sources & Further Reading
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
The ZEITGEIST Sourcebook: Part 1--The Greatest Story Ever Told
ZEITGEIST, Part 1: The Evidence
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|2010-08-07 15:18:30 Samuel PelegriniBrilliant. Another thing the "anti-Zeitgeisters" use to claim is that the excerpt of the first movie about the Crux and the Sun, they say it's impossible, that if scientifically calculated it's proved impossible, they say that the 'death of the Sun' and the constellation cannot be observed at the same time as the movie claims. Interesting is the fact that such people who swallowed the whole religious sh*t even without pondering about it are paying so much attention to any detail of the movie that debunks that sh*t.
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|2010-08-08 10:36:32 tarish kaushik - common terms commonsense!Dear Acharya,
In sanskrit, the sun is known by following terms, to cite only a few:
Ravi,
Aditya,
Surya,
Suraj.
If one compares these sanskrit based terms with the words from egyptian terms for sun, the two seem to have common roots.
For example: Ravi and Ra. Surya if spelled backwards corresponds to Horus.
Evening is called Sandhya which corresponds to the egyptian word Set.
Many such commonalities would indicate shared roots amongst languages and cultures and a nature based belief system - stemming from a hard-wired human need to genuflect and pay homage to the best and the noblest and the wonderful and the awe-inspiring which we see around us in nature's manifestations.
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|2010-08-12 19:22:50 SamuelThe Sun is the "only one God" and religion is born out of acid-heads. Those 'sages' drinking soma juice in the wilderness, having psychedelic experiences and translating them as something spiritual, extraordinary, and passing all that from generation to generation. Nothing else.
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|2010-12-02 11:06:55 Ivar Nielsen - Distintion between Sun and Galactic White DeityDear All,
Firstly: Dear Acharya, I admire your great comparative mythological and other critical work that deals with all kind of national and international problems. Well Done!
Secondly: When interpreting different major deities and their qualities, one has to include other celestial objects than the Sun; Earth; Moon and Planets. Even how important the Solar System is, and especially the Solar importance for the life on the Earth, there is another story to tell that is likewise important, namely the Story of Creation.
The Story of Creation includes the major “beings of all kind” of humans; animals and even anthropomorphic “beings” who are symbolizing the major; giant; titanic celestial object of the Milky Way figure which is the largest observable celestial structure on both the northern and southern hemispheres, a structure that is closely connected to the Story of Creation.
All these giant “beings” are named as white/whitish “gods; goddesses and animal creators” and they are not to be confused with deities of the Sun; Earth; Moon or Planets because they belong to the Milky Way Mythology.
- It is NOT my purpose here to criticize or diminish the otherwise brilliant comparative mythological work of Acharya, but just to point out, that there is another very important dimension of Milky Way Mythology that very unfortunately have been long forgotten.
- For further studying of the supreme Milky Way Mythology, take a closer look at http://www.native-science.net
All the very Best from Ivar Nielsen, Denmark – Keep your Heart Soft and your Spirit Strong
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|2011-08-27 20:39:04 JHChrestos - Clarification for IvarHi Ivar, Your point is well made but it assumes that Acharya doesn't address the many moon, stellar, and nature gods of antiquity. I have read every book she has written and I assure you that she is well aware of these other connections. In fact, she may be the most well versed scholar on the broad array of ancient mythology and its connection to the cosmos at work today.
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|2013-04-06 13:23:51 A Polemic Theist - "I want to believe!!"I find it ironic that you criticise people of faith, while at the same time promoting the beliefs(Lies) of people of another faith. Namley Druidism & Freemasonary to name a couple!
It's as though you dint see the Zeitgeist Dubunked videos or if you did then choose what you WANT to believe!
You people are real dumb!
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|2013-04-06 13:01:48 ASI'm sorry, but it is obvious that you have not even read the post here before making erroneous and insulting remarks.
This very post debunks those ridiculous videos. But we have entire threads on my forum addressing each on these fallacious "Zeitgeist Dubunked [sic]" videos.
It is obvious you are ignorant of the subject matter; you didn't even read the post, which PROVES the point thoroughly; and you are barely literate, but you call other people "dumb."
And, no, we have nothing to do with Druidism and Freemasonry, so that's a nice pile of rubbish you're tossing that certainly won't stick. And we don't believe in anything. We follow the FACTS, rather than ethnically biased fairytales.
Next time, read the original post before commenting. Horus was a sun god, Isis was a virgin, and pretty much everything else in Zeitgeist is accurate.
Zeitgeist Sourcebook
Rebutting Chris Forbes on Zeitgeist
