HOMUS, an Egyptian deity, whose name, Har, means " the day," or " the sun's path," and is generally written in hieroglyphics by the sparrow-hawk, which was sacred to him. The old derivation from the Hebrew aur, light, is now recognized asincorrect. Under the name of Horns were included several deities, as Haroeris (q.v.), the elder Horns, and Harpocrates (q.v.), or the younger Horns; liar-sam-ta, Horns, the unites of the upper and lower world, who was the second son of Athor, resided in Annu, or Heliopolis, and emanated from the eye of the sun (Rosellini, M. d. c., 1. 47); and Ear net-la, another form of the same god, represented as a boy wearing a tripe crown, who existed from the commencement of things, a self-created being, and emanated from the Nu, or firmament; besides several others. But the principal Horns was Horns the son of Isis (Har-si-hest), represented as a naked child standing, wearing a skullcap, or the crown of upper and lower Egypt. IIorus is first mentioned by Herodotus (ii. 144, n. IA as the son of Isis and Osiris, and brother of Bubastis, the Egyptain Diana. Various accounts are given of his birth; he having been, according to one version, engendered of his father Osiris before the birth of Osiris and Isis; or, according to another account, begotten of Osiris after that god's destruction by Typhon. His birth was said to be premature, and,he was consequently weak in his lower limbs. In order to avoid the persecution of Typhon, he was brought up by Leto on the floating island of Chemmis, or Buto, in secret. Having grown up, he became Har-net-atf (Horns the avenger of his father), and, along with Isis, avenged his father's death (see Osuus), according to the best. received tradition, vanquishing Typhon and his associates in a great battle at a village near the city of Anticus, on the 20th of the month Thoth, on which occasion Osiris came from the nether world to his assistance in the shape of a wolf (Diodor. i. 21). According to the Egyptian, ritual, he cut off their heads for the fowls of heaven, and their thighs for the wild beasts and fishes. Typhon is said to have been delivered bound in fetters to Isis, who released him, upon which Horns tore the diadem off his mother's head, but Thoth replaced it by the head of a cow. Horns was often confounded with
the elder Horns by the Greeks, but the monuments represent him as the type of roy alty, the antagonist of Set or Typhon, the avenger of his father Osiris, for whom he obtained the corn of Elysium and the waters of Elephantine, conquered the north and south and shared Egypt with Set or Typhon, having held the government of the northern portion as Typhon of the south. After the death (!tf Typhon he became sole monarch, and, as last king of the dynasty of gods, reigned, according to different versions, 100 or 25 years. Numerous esoteric explanations have been given of this god, as that he represents the Nile, as Typhon the desert, the fruitful air or dew which revives the earth, the moon, the sun in relation to the changes of the year, or the god who presided over the course of the sun. He also represented three planets, Jupiter (Harapshta), Saturn (Harica), and Mars (Harteshr). The sparrow-hawk was sacred to him; so were lions, which were placed at the side of his throne. There was a festival to celebrate his eyes on the 30th Epiphi, when the sun and moon, which they represented, were on the same right line with the earth. A. movable feast, that of his coronation, issupposed to have been selected for the coronations of the kings of Egypt, who are described as sitting upon his throne. When adult, he is generally represented hawk-headed; as a child, he is seen carried in his mother's arms, wearing the pschent or atf, and seated on a lotus-flower with his finger on his lips. He had an especial local worship at Edfou or Hut, the ancient Apollinopolis Magna, where he was identified with Ra, or the sun. There were also books of Horns and Isis, probably referring to his legend (Lucian, Dc Soma. sive Gall. s. 183). The magnet was called his bone; lie was of fair complexion.— Birch, Gall. of Antiq. p. 35; Wilkinson, Mann. and Cust. vol. iv. p. 395; Tablonski. Puna. ii. 4, p. 222; Champollion, Panth. Ey.; Hincks, Dabl. Uiti. Mag. xxviii. p. 187; Boeckh, Manetho, p. 61.