In very early times, Seth was worshipped at his cult centre, Naqada, and because he was associated with the frightening desert sandstorms of the region, it was important to appease him. He ultimately became a lord of misrule and chaos, the god of storms, the enemy of Horus and the organized world that Horus stood for. Indeed, that enmity was part of the Egyptian order, a darkness against which the divine light could flourish.

Like most Egyptian gods, Seth was often pictured with the head of an animal-usually the strange "Seth best," an imaginary creature with a vague resemblance to an ant-eater. Sometimes he was depicted as one of the animals considered to be "unclean" by the Egyptians-such as the hippopotamus or the pig. For all his villainly, Seth's antecedents were impeccable: as son of the sky goddess Nut, he matched in divine status his brother Osiris and his sisters Isis ans Nephthys (the latter was also one of his wives). Indeed, his strength and rank among the gods gained him Re's support during much of his bitter struggle with Horus. After his defeat on earth, he journeyed with the sun god during the hours of the night, defending him against te serpent Apophis. Seth's immense strength and his forceful sexuality guaranteed him the veneration of at least a minority of mortals. Although never a popular god, he did have his good points: an appeal to Seth, the lord of chaos, might help keep bad weather away. Indeed, at one point in Egypt's history, he enjoyed a period of general worship and respect, during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties (1295-1069BC). But Seth was always a dangerous god to venerate. The following dynasties characterized him as the god of harm, and by late in Egyptian history he had generally come to be regarded as the personification of evil-doing.