The Winged Disc of Horus Behdety

Our research reveals a bit of confusion as to the usage of the names associated with Horus: Behedet (a city later called Edfu) and Behdety (as given to Horus by Thoth The Atlantean). However, it appears that the main role of Horus Behdety was to assist Re in combating his enemies … and Horus Behdety is symbolized by the winged disk.

“This winged disc—which was sometimes identified with the Morning and Evening Star (Fairman pp. 35-36 [12,4—12, 6]) — represents the assistance Horus offers to Re in combating his enemies during the Egyptian seasons of akhet and the first half of peret, roughly from our late summer to the winter solstice (Fairman pp. 32 [9, 8], 33 [10, 2], 34 [10, 14]).” (ref)

“[Winged sun disc]:  Behdety, the great god, the one of the many-coloured plumage, lord of the Heavens:  the perfect god, lord of the two lands Men-Maat-Re (Seti), who is given life like Re, every protection and all life be behind him.” (The Beit Shean stela of Seti, ref.)

The winged disk depicting a winged scarab with goddesses Isis and Nephthys with Tutankhamun (“The Lordly Manifestation of Re”) is clearly named via the two cartouches.

Kings with Wings

In the Pyramid Texts there are many descriptions of kings adorning the wings of a falcon.

“His (the King’s) two wings have grown into (those of) a falcon, his two plumes are (those of) a sacred falcon.” (PT 250 cWN)

“The King ascends to heaven to thy presence, O Re. The face of the King is (that of) falcons. The wings of the king are (those of ) birds, his talons are the claws of ‘Anty-wy.” (PT 461 a-d WPN) “He (the King) ascends to heaven. The top of his wings is (that of) a great bird.” (PT 1122 a PN) Ref.

Although it was the astral kings with their winged attributes who gave rise to Horus Behedet (and were so named, as shown above, as Horus Behdety), in later times the winged disk became a natural divine symbol of protection placed over temple doorways, the rounded top of stela, and the like.

In other words, if the winged disk is shown with the cartouche below it (as in the above image with Tutankhamun’s name), then it represents, as Sir Alan Gardiner correctly surmised, the ‘actual person’ of the king – a celestial king as he actually appeared at the time of construction of the said artifact.  If, on the other hand, a cartouche is not included, then we are dealing with more of a universal emblem of protection.