But already in the mid-19th century, a Prussian mission to Egypt observed that on many walls of numerous temples, the images and names of Seth had been damaged (Lepsius 1851: 51). Seth’s particularity as a deity was picked up on by Egyptologists, who called him “god of confusion” (te Velde 1967), or a “complex god” (Turner 2013: 68–70). Seth was one of those supernatural powers for whom temples were built and ritual practices performed. The pharaoh was considered as intermediary between the gods and humankind, and expected to uphold “Maat,” the Egyptian concept of balance and order (Assmann 2006). The Egyptian temples were built as models of the world and places for the gods to dwell, being taken care of vicariously by the pharaoh and, in substitution, the priests (Eaton 2013). The religion of the Ancient Egyptians used many names, forms, and constellations to describe entities of supernatural power (Hornung 1996). It will be proposed that this phenomenon proves that Egyptian religion was still vibrantly alive at that time, not fading away and dying. It will be argued that “negating” the image of the “negative” god was not done with malicious intent, but to highlight this god’s role, which was important for the context of the image. This article discusses the problems, fallacies, and arguments of interpreting the intentions behind the destruction of monuments in general and the treatment of Seth in particular. However, Seth was from his earliest attestations conceived as a deity ready to perform acts of violence and disruption under specific circumstances he needed to be banished, but his character was also valued in circumstances requiring violence. In previous studies, this observation was explained as the result of intentional destruction performed during the first millennium BCE, and as such as indicative of the decay of Ancient Egyptian religion at this time. One of these is the start of the so-called “proscription” of the god Seth, whose names and images are found damaged in many of their occurrences. In the past, different points in time have been set as demarcating the beginning of the end of Ancient Egyptian religion.

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