The Concept of the Four Sons of Horus
The Four Sons of Horus are most well known for their association with the mummification of the internal organs but there is more to these gods than containers of the dead king’s body parts. By focusing on the earliest records of the ancient Egyptian use of these four gods we’ll be letting the pyramids speak for themselves.
But first let’s look at the aspect for which the Four Sons of Horus are most well known.
Four Canopic Jars
For the corpse to be properly dried and free of moisture the organs needed to be removed and treated individually. The liver, lungs, intestines and stomach were dried with natron to prevent them from decaying inside the body. The heart was left in place and the brain removed and discarded.
The removed organs were individually embalmed and placed inside jars, then placed inside a funerary chest which was entombed with the body. Niches in the walls of burial chambers held the chest containing the organs and in Old Kingdom pyramids from the 6th Dynasty the canopic chest was buried in the floor of the chamber at the foot of the sarcophagus.
Each of the four organs had a god associated with them and the lids of the jars were sometimes shaped in the head of that particular organ’s god. These are known as the Four Sons of Horus.
Each of the four jars were in turn protected by a goddess and they are often depicted on the four sides of the canopic chest.
Imsety, the human-headed jar held the liver and was protected by Isis.
Duamutef, the jackal-headed jar held the stomach and was protected by Neith.
Qebehsenuef, the hawk-headed jar held the intestines and was protected by the goddess Selkhet.
Hapy, the baboon-headed jar held the lungs and was protected by the goddess Nephthys.
The Four Sons of Horus also feature on the four sides of Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus together with their protective goddesses, Isis, Nephthys, Serqet, and Neith much like his canopic chest featured in the video below.
As mummification techniques developed over the course of Egypt’s history the approach to dealing with the internal organs changed.
The jars appear to have originally had flat lids but during the Middle Kingdom the lids developed human heads as we saw with Tutankamun’s jars in the video above. By the time of the Late Kingdom the lids of the jars took on the familiar animal heads of the Four Sons of Horus. Later still, mummification techniques changed and the organs were no longer placed inside jars and were instead individually wrapped and returned to the body cavity, sometimes with a small amulet of the corresponding son of Horus. Artificial jars have been found from this period that are solid objects having no cavity and were used as symbolic jars.
The oldest canopic chest belonged to Khufu’s mother, Hetepheres from the 4th Dynasty. It was carved of alabaster and divided into four compartments. Inside were found her organs her organs which appear to have been preserved in a solution of natron and water.
Autopsy – Dissecting The Names of the Four Sons
In addition to consulting some of the oldest recordings of the religion such as the Pyramid Texts from the 5th and 6th Dynasties, we can analyse the way their names are written to give us a better understanding of their meaning and significance.
Let’s break down their names one at a time. Grab yourself a free dictionary from the Pyramid Texts Online Tools page or from the Pyramid Texts Online Library and follow along if you like.
Duamutef
The name is built from the source word for ‘adoration’, ‘morning’, or ‘hyms’. The next word ‘mut’ in the form of the vulture means ‘mother’ and the ‘ef’ on the end signifies ownership, specifically male ownership and so can be translated as ‘his’.
Qebehsenuef
This word is formed by the combination of two words qebeh, meaning ‘libation’, ‘cool water’, or ‘refreshing liquid’ and the word senu, meaning ‘brothers’, ‘companions’, ‘flagstaffs’. Once again the additional ‘ef’ on the end of the word adds the word ‘his’.
Hapy
Hapy is the god of the Nile and some of the dictionary entires for words of the same ilk are ‘to ride in a boat’, ‘oarsman’, ‘oar’ and ‘hand’.
Imsety
Imsety stems from the same root as words like ‘bring’, ‘liver’, ‘goose’, ‘staff or rod (of Osiris)’, ‘present’, ‘offer’.
Very broadly speaking then, we can understand the meaning of the Four Sons of Horus as:
“Morning, mother, cool water, brothers, Nile, ride in a boat, bring the staff of Osiris.”
The Cool Brothers of the Staffs Bring the Boat in the Morning
The ancient texts, when referring to the Four Sons of Horus, do feature most of these aspects in their functions. The Pyramid Texts speak of them as ferrying the king over to the eastern horizon in a boat in the morning.
‘Let me fetch for the King this boat of yours in which your pure ones are ferried across in order to obtain for you the cold water at the (polar) quarter of the Imperishables Stars’…
…they go to these four youths who stand on the east side of the sky. They bind together for Re the two reed-floats on which Re goes to his horizon; they bind together for me the two reed-floats on which I go to the horizon of Re.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 519.
O Hapy, Imsety, Duamutef, Kebhsenuf, bring me this boat which Khnum built, which is in this waterway of the Htm-bird.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 522
Utterance 263 says:
They bring to me these four spirits, the Elders who are at the head of the wearers of the side-lock, who stand at the eastern side of the sky and who lean on their staffs, that they may tell my good name to Re….I am ferried over to the eastern side of the sky and my sister is Sothis, my offspring is the dawn light.”
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 263.
The expression ‘wearers of the side-lock’ is reference to their youthfullness, children are always represented wearing a side-lock of hair. This sentiment is repeated in utterances 264, 265, 266.
In utterance 505 the Four Sons of Horus are again referred to as helping ferry the king across the night sky to the eastern horizon:
Ferry me over and put me down at the Field of Rushes, these four spirits who are with me are Hapy, Duamutef, Imsety, and Kebhsenuf, two on one side and two on the other.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 505
The Four Sons of Horus are also responsible for providing food & water to the King:
Hapy, Duamutef, Kebhsenuf, and Imsety will expel this hunger which is in my belly and this thirst which is on my lips.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 338
In Utterance 506 the King claims he is himself the four sons of Horus:
I am a she-jackal, I am jackal-like; I am Hapy; I am Duamutef; I am Imsety, I am Khebhsenuf;…
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 506
Imsety Duamutef Qebehsenuef Hapy
Human-headed Jackal-headed Hawk-headed Baboon-headed
Liver Stomach Intestines Lungs
Isis Neith Selkhet Nepthys
South East West North
Four Supports & Stairway to Heaven
Heaven is described in the Pyramid Texts as resting on the staffs of these four gods (uttterance 556) who themselves are seen as personifications of these four points:
I have summond them, and these four gods who stand at the staffs of the sky bring them to me that they may tell my name to Re…
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 264.
Oh you four gods who stand at the supports of the sky…
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 556
Most often, however, the Four Sons of Horus are spoken of as appearing together in the east to help the King in his ascent into the sky:
These four gods, friends of the King,
attend on this King, (namely) Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Kebsenuf,
the children of Horus of Khem;
they tie the rope-ladder for this King,
the make firm the wooden ladder for this King,
they cause the King to mount up to Khoprer
when he comes into being in the eastern side of the sky
– Pyramid Texts Utterance 688.
Utterances 544, 545, speak of the Four Sons of Horus lifting up the king:
O Children of Horus, Hapy, Duamutef, Imsety, Kebhsenuf, lift up your father this Osiris the King and guide him. O Osiris the King, it is caused that you be restored and that your mouth be split open, so stand up!
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 545
Four Northern Stars
In the New Kingdom the Four Sons of Horus became members of the ‘seven blessed ones’ who are in the northern sky and guard the coffin of Osiris.
“Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef,
it is these who are behind the’ Constellation of the Thigh’ in the northern sky.”
- Papyrus of Ani, chapter 17, plate 9.
The Ancient Egyptian word for ‘Thigh’ is Khepesh and is the word used to denote the collection of stars commonly known today as the ‘Big Dipper’. They form the constellation of Ursa Major, which closely circles the north celestial pole, the region of the sky targeted by the descending passage of most Old Kingdom pyramids. These stars are also known as the “Imperishables”.
O King, Horus comes to you provided with his souls namely Hapy, Duamutef, Imsety, Kebhsenuf; they bring to you this name of yours of ‘Imperishable Star’, and you will never be perished nor be destroyed.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 690.
This connection of the Four Sons of Horus with the constellation Ursa Major has been discussed by Egyptologist John Gee. His entire masters thesis was on the Four Sons of Horus, in which he noted that they were originally equated with the four stars that form the ‘bowl’ of the Big Dipper.
Bernard Mathieu confirmed the same in his paper ‘Theology and Astronomy Investigations in the Pyramid Texts’.
The celestial Four Sons of Horus could, then, be viewed as cranking the wheel of the cosmos, which is centered on the north celestial pole, the focus of the pyramid’s entrance.
This clockwork-like mechanism would provide the Sun, and therefore the dead King, with the force that will lift him up to be reborn in the eastern horizon after having descended into the depths of the Duat.
In Utterance 215 the Four Sons of Horus are said to be the King’s hands and feet and that they help him to ascend and descend in the sky:
Your hands are Hapy and Duamutef – you demand that you ascend to the sky and you shall ascend -
Your feet are Imsety and Kebhsenuf – You demand that you descend to the Lower Sky and you shall descend.
- Pyramid Text Utterance 215
So we can see from this brief look at the Pyramid Texts and the hieroglyphic construction of thier names that the function of the Four Sons of Horus is much more complex than being mere containers of the King’s organs. They work as a team each bringing some unique aspect to the task of restoring life to the King.
Credits, references, and further reading:
Canopic jars of Horwedja by koopmanrob CC By SA 2.0
Eye of Ra & Four Sons of Horus by Octave used with permission.
A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Raymond Faulkner.
Egyptian Grammar, Alan Gardiner.
Four Sons of Horus Hieroglyph Chart
Pyramid Texts Online
Mark Vygus Dictionary
Bernard Mathieu’s Les Enfants d’Horus, theologies et astronomie (Enquetes dans les Textes des Pyramides, 1)
John Gee’s Notes on the Sons of Horus, Master’s Thesis Partial Requirement, FARMS, 1991: 35.
Papyrus of Ani
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Tags: horus, pyramid texts
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This was a fabulous entry. Thank you for taking the time to research and share this!
Thank you. Happy to know others are enjoying it.
Dear Vincent,
It is a great post which you have created here about the four sons of Horus, I really like the way that you write (much better than I’ll ever be). I am personally more into the last part of your post, as you have probably figured out. I adore the stars the most ancient of any religious belief. You could also call them the guardians of the constellation of Orion ‘the collected body of Osiris’ (my personal opinion). I find Duamutef/Tuamutef to be even more complex than they are together (the four sons).
Right now I am in Egypt (again again – doing my private studies) and I went to a death temple here the other day, and there I found Duamutef’s name placed by the constellation, and in each temple I find his name and his presence very clear, but the other tree sons, are not to be found in the same manner, which brings up a lot of questions, as to their ‘functions’ both together and separate.
Sincerely,
Karima L.
Hi Karima,
Thank you for your kind compliments. Your findings sound interesting, did you get any photos to share with us?
You seem to always be in Egypt, lucky you.
Like anything in Ancient Egypt, a thing’s function or meaning can be multi-faceted due to the long spans of history involved. I suspect that the original meaning is sometimes lost and even though it might still be practised in later times the original significance may no longer be known.
While looking for photos to use in this article, for example, on more than one occasion I found images where Duamutef’s name was written on the canopic jar with the Hawk’s head, which is of course, Qebehsenuef.
Like this one in the British Museum. It could be that the lids have been switched but I assume the BM wouldn’t make such an obvious mistake and must then be how they were found in the tomb. Perhaps a sign that the priests responsible for the funerary preparations were not aware of the meaning of Duamutef and Qebehsenuef.
Vincent.