When
Ra assimilated Atum into Atum-Ra, Horus
became considered part of what had been
the Ennead. Since Atum had had no wife,
having produced his children by masturbating,
Hathor was easily inserted as the mother
of the previously motherless subsequent
generation of children. However, Horus
did not fit in so easily, since if he
was identified as the son of Hathor and
Atum-Ra, in the Ennead, he would then
be the brother of the primordial air and
moisture, and the uncle of the sky and
earth, between which there was initially
nothing, which was not very consistent
with him being the sun. Instead, he was
made the brother of Osiris, Isis, Set,
and Nephthys, as this was the only plausible
level at which he could meaningfully rule
over the sun, and over the Pharaoh's kingdom.
It was in this form that he was worshipped
at Behdet as Har-Behedti (also abbreviated
Bebti).
Since
Horus had become more and more identified
with the sun, since his identification
as Ra, his identification as also the
moon suffered, so it was possible for
the rise of other moon gods, without complicating
the system of belief too much. Consequently,
Chons became the moon god. Thoth, who
had also been the moon god, became much
more associated with secondary mythological
aspects of the moon, such as wisdom, healing,
and peace making. When the cult of Thoth
arose in power, Thoth was retroactively
inserted into the earlier myths, making
Thoth the one whose magic caused Set and
Horus' semen to respond, in the tale of
the contestings of Set and Horus, for
example. Thoth's priests went on to explain
how it was that there were 5 children
of Geb and Nuit. They said that Thoth
had prophecied the birth of a great king
of the gods, and so Ra, afraid of being
usurped, had cursed Nuit with not being
able to give birth at any point in the
year.
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