Horus: Father of Fathers

An ancient doxology

There’s a little prayer among a larger set of rituals on the western side of the exterior face of the outer wall of the Temple of Edfu that I particularly like, and tend to include it in my daily recitation. (For the curious, its the second register, from Chassinat’s Edfu volume VII, page 92, lines 4-9):

“Praise to you, Ra who is Horus on the Horizon, chief of the Gods, the great winged sun disk who illuminates all faces, the light of which drives away the darkness. Father of the fathers, who creates all things, after whose becoming everything will become, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Horus, the Great God, Lord of Heaven.”

This prayer provides a decent doxology of Horus’ cosmic attributes: he is the head of all the other Gods and king of heaven; he manifests (among other things) through the light and life given by the rays of the sun disk and banishes darkness (ignorance, evil, despair).

It also calls him the “Father of Fathers”, a hyperbolic literary device emphasizing Horus as creator from a human perspective. “After whose becoming everything will become” is especially poetic and poignant, the verb being “xpr” (to come into being, to manifest, to create). So it gives him aesity in acknowledging him being the first manifestation as he emerges from his latent being, and all the rest of creation only then coming into being through him.

Of note is that the hymn addresses him both as Horus AND Ra-Horakhty (Ra Who Is Horus of The Two Horizons), a hybrid of Horus and Ra of ancient pedigree. Outside of Edfu, Ra-Horakhty is usually considered the supreme creator and solar deity in most cults, either under than moniker, or as Ra or Amun-Ra. So this further cements the attribution of Horus in Edfu with the attributes of the sole creator and head of all of said creation.

This prayer is a useful keystone to any regimen. I usually prefer it at the end as a final bookend summarizing and reminding us of Horus’ glory and might. Its format, at least to me, also has a certain finality to it that makes it appropriate to end a section of ritual if not the entire ritual itself.