It was one of the first examples of a supernatural conflict between good and evil, between a demon and his diametric opposite (Horus later became identified with the pharaoh, who was worshiped as a god incarnate). Meanwhile, Horus and Seth struggled mightily. However, with the help of Isis and their son Horus, who was iconographically represented as a falcon-headed man, Osiris was resurrected and ascended to heaven to become the judge of the dead. Seth was jealous of his brother and, through trickery, caused his death. He was also a reflection of the arid desert that presses in on either side of Osiris's domain: the fertile Nile Valley. While Osiris -together with his sister/wife Isis -was the incarnation of fertility and, eventually, life everlasting, Seth was evil personified. Osiris and Sethĭating from Old Kingdom times (2700 –2200 b.c.e.), this pair of opposites was defined in the Pyramid Texts and other ancient Egyptian mythological texts as brothers. One of the earliest documented examples of such a pair can be found in ancient Egypt in Osiris and his demonic brother Seth. In the great majority of cases, demonic figures occur in conjunction with their opposites, that is, beneficent deities to whom worshipers turn for succor when misfortune strikes or when in need of assurance that crops will grow, illness will be avoided, and prosperity will continue. This essay explores some of the more salient manifestations, modern as well as ancient, of this well-nigh universal component of several belief systems.
Such beliefs can be documented in virtually every known human society for which adequate information exists. However, human beings do indeed appear to have a deep-seated penchant for explaining misfortune by attributing it to evil and malicious spirits and deities -that is, to demons. Whether, as Cavendish suggests, these beliefs are in fact instinctive is still very much an open question. Some years ago, Richard Cavendish, an eminent demonologist and student of the so-called blackĪrts, observed that "elief in the existence of evil supernatural beings" is so widespread that it "seems to be instinctive" (p.