Hymn to Seth of Avaris

This has been inspired by the book “The Making of the Middle Sea” by C. Broodbanks, then references have mainly been gathered from the papers of Manfred Bietak and his cohorts, who have been excavating Avaris/Pi-Ramesses for the last 20 years and put forward the hypothesis that it might have been the 18th Dynasty port/military base of Peru-Nefer. FYI, Bietak’s papers are freely available on Academia.edu

I know a place where My lord Seth reigns, a mighty city of water and sand which rises from the Nile in the East to meet the road and the Great Green: Hat-Waret, city of Foreign Kings, where once a hundred ships moored, meeting-place for strangers, safe port for sailors, with her feet in the River and her heart in the Sea.

Mighty were her towers, bustling were her streets, where a hundred tongues could be heard at once, and gardens grew lush around her stately temples, and over it all stood watch the Great God Seth, Great of Strength, Lord of Foreign Lands.

Upon her He looked and rejoiced, the Vanquisher of the greedy Sea Whose voice is Thunder, and His people plied the seas and their anchors they offered to Him upon their safe return home.

I know of a place that fell, but like her Lord rose again, to persist, great in might. I know of armies great going forth from her gate, I know of Keftiu from beyond the Sea, who called it home, and of bull-leapers’ graceful figures their walls adorned, and the Great Bull smiled upon it, on the din of battle and on the feasting songs, and “Good Travel” grew mighty once more, behind her ancient, stony walls.

I know a place where Kings were born, red-haired sons of His sons, great of glory and of immortal fame. I know of thousands of arrows of bronze, and a thousand bronze swords, of chariots unnumbered gathering in the shadow of the Great House of Seth. I know of victories in distant lands, of blood and strife in which the God rejoices of standards with His name, Mighty of Bow.

I know of a city great and famed, illustrious beyond its end, a city of light and shadow, city of enemies reviled and stalwart city of Kings, lost but never forgotten, and though her walls have crumbled and her harbours have dried out, foreign tongues still resound where once her towers stood, and Seth, Lord of the Wind, still reigns under Mediterranean skies, between the River and the Sea.