Seth

Seth is the primary antagonist in The Last Revelation. He is the Ancient Egyptian god of the desert, storms and pestilence, who was imprisoned inside a tomb in the Valley of the Kings by his nephew Horus, son of Osiris, with the help of the High Priest, Semerkhet.

Mythological Background

Seth was one of the Great Ennead, the most powerful gods of the Egyptian Pantheon. They included the sun and creator god Ra, his children Shu and Tefnut, his grandchildren Geb and Nut, and his great-grandchildren Isis, Nepthys, Osiris and Seth.

Seth and Osiris married their sisters Nepthys and Isis, and Osiris and Isis became the first king and queen of Egypt, bringing civilisation and new technologies to their people. Seth was envious of his brother, and trapped him in a large box (setting the precedent for mummification). He then killed and dismembered Osiris, scattering pieces of his body all over Egypt. Soon after, he assumed the throne in his brother's place.

Isis went into hiding, and soon bore Osiris's child Horus. She kept him safe until he grew to adulthood, when he challenged Seth for his father's murder and demanded he be brought to trial. The rest of the Ennead and other gods debated this for some time, but eventually Horus was seen as his father's rightful successor. Seth was to give up the throne of Egypt.

Here is where the game's story deviates from accepted mythology. Seth was allowed to retain his status as a god, and was not imprisoned or cast out of the Ennead. He was not originally the devil-like figure that the game portrays, although he has had something of a changeable following throughout Ancient Egyptian history, as various regimes have chosen to demonise or worship him.

Certainly Seth's anger was proverbial, and his wrath (seen as desert storms and plagues) was greatly feared. However he was not altogether evil, and was capable of kindly acts - several instances have been seen in Egyptian mythology.

Appearance

Although the game suggests a certain afinity with jackals and Seth, his appearance is difficult to place. The Greeks who conquered Egypt in the fourth century BCE ascribed the name Typhonic (after the Greek titan and similarly wrathful entity Typhon) animal to his head, but it has also been advanced that it is in fact the appearance of the Oxyrynchus fish, which ate parts of Osiris's body when Seth threw them in the Nile. This animal was considered unclean by Egyptians. Set was also represented as creatures that the Egyptians most feared, crocodiles and hippopotami, and unclean animals like pigs.

The game depicts Seth as having wings, perhaps to reference the swarms of locusts which he appears to be able to inhabit. However, not many Egyptian deities have been portrayed as having wings, as being all-powerful deities it is assumed that they would not need them.

The game also shows Seth as being decorated in a golden and lapis style similar to that of Tutankhamun's death mask, currently in the British Museum. From the image above, he also appears to have cloven feet, perhaps to indicate a similarity with the Western European idea of Satan.