"Then they spat in the face of Horus": A critical look on the "homosexual episode" of the Contendings of Horus and Seth

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach to the so-called "homosexual episode" of the Contendings of Horus and Seth, a Late Egyptian tale from the Twentieth dynasty. There the two eponymous gods take part in a sexual encounter, Seth seemingly taking advantage of the younger Horus in order to gain leverage in his bid for the throne of Egypt.

The focus of the paper is the final part of this episode where Seth brags about his "manly deed" and the gods spit in Horus' face in response. The central argument is that the traditional Egyptological interpretation - that the spitting is a sign of contempt for the sexually subjugated male - is unsupported by Egyptian evidence and reflects modern attitudes towards homosexuality rather than ancient ones.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it will provide a new understanding of the mytheme by calling upon the testimony of magical and funerary texts to show that the act of spitting in the eye has connotations of healing and care, particularly in the context of sexual violence. The second avenue that will be taken is a critique of Egyptology itself with regard to issues of sex and gender.

The paper will attempt to outline the specific biases that seem to shape academic thought with regard to premodern sexuality and provide alternative avenues of approach to this still contested topic.