BYU Studies Quarterly

Volume 61 Issue 4 Article 46

2022

The Four Sons of Horus

Stephen O. Smoot

John Gee

Kerry Muhlestein

John S. Thompson

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Recommended Citation
Smoot, Stephen O.; Gee, John; Muhlestein, Kerry; and Thompson, John S. (2022) "The Four Sons of Horus,"
BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 61: Iss. 4, Article 46.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol61/iss4/46

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 Smoot et al.: Facsimile 2, Figure 6

The Four Sons of Horus

(Facsimile 2, Figure 6)

F igure 6 of Facsimile 2 of the Book of Abraham was interpreted

straightforwardly by Joseph Smith as “represent[ing] this earth in
its four quarters.”1 Based on contemporary nineteenth-­century usage of
this biblical idiom (Rev. 20:8), Joseph Smith evidently meant the figures
represent the four cardinal points (north, east, south, and west).2 This
interpretation finds ready support from the ancient Egyptians.
The four entities in figure 6 represent the four sons of the god Horus:
Hapi, Imsety, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef.3 Over the span of millennia
of Egyptian religion, these gods took on various forms as well as mytho-
logical roles and aspects.4 One such role was, indeed, as representing the

1. “A Fac-­simile from the Book of Abraham, No. 2.,” Times and Seasons 3, no. 10
(March 15, 1842): insert between pages 720 and 721.
2. See George Stanley Faber, A General and Connected View of the Prophecies, Rela-
tive to the Conversion, Restoration, Union, and Future Glory of the Houses of Judah and
Israel (London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1808), 2:84; Robert Hodgson, The Works of the
Right Reverend Beilby Porteus, D.D., Late Bishop of London, 6 vols. (London: G. Sidney,
1811), 5:218; Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 6 vols. (Phila-
delphia: Towar, J. & D. M. Hogan, 1831), 6:931; Noah Webster, An American Dictionary
of the English Language (New York: S. Converse, 1828), s.v. “quarter”; William L. Roy,
A New and Original Exposition on the Book of Revelation (New York: D. Fanshaw, 1848),
97; William Henry Scott, The Interpretation of the Apocalypse and Chief Prophetical Scrip-
tures Connected with It (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853), 185–86;
and Peter Canvan, “The Earth, as We Find It,” Saints’ Herald 20, no. 5 (March 1, 1873): 139.
3. Michael D. Rhodes, “A Translation and Commentary of the Joseph Smith Hypo-
cephalus,” BYU Studies 17, no. 3 (1977): 272–73; Michael D. Rhodes, “The Joseph Smith
Hypocephalus . . . Twenty Years Later,” 11, unpublished manuscript, [1997], accessed
December 20, 2022, https://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/Joseph%20Smith%20Hypo​
cephalus.pdf; Tamás Mekis, The Hypocephalus: An Ancient Egyptian Funerary Amulet
(Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020), 49 n. 310, 53–54.
4. For an overview, see John Gee, “Notes on the Sons of Horus,” FARMS Report (1991).

BYU Studies Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2022)255

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 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 61, Iss. 4 [2022], Art. 46
256 BYU Studies Quarterly

four cardinal directions. “By virtue of its association with the cardinal
directions,” observes one Egyptologist, “four is the most common sym-
bol of ‘completeness’ in Egyptian numerological symbolism and ritual
repetition.”5 As another Egyptologist has summarized,
The earliest reference to these four gods is found in the Pyramid Texts
[ca. 2350–2100 BC] where they are said to be the children and also the
“souls” of [the god] Horus. They are also called the “friends of the king”
and assist the deceased monarch in ascending into the sky (PT 1278–79).
The same gods were also known as the sons of Osiris and were later said
to be members of the group called “the seven blessed ones” whose job
was to protect the netherworld god’s coffin. Their afterlife mythology led
to important roles in the funerary assemblage, particularly in associa-
tion with the containers now traditionally called canopic jars in which
the internal organs of the deceased were preserved. . . . The group may
have been based on the symbolic completeness of the number four alone,
but they are often given geographic associations and hence became a
kind of “regional” group. . . . The four gods were sometimes depicted
on the sides of the canopic chest and had specific symbolic orientations,
with Imsety usually being aligned with the south, Hapy with the north,
Duamutef with the east and Qebesenuef with the west.6
This understanding is shared widely among Egyptologists today. James P.
Allen, in his translation and commentary on the Pyramid Texts, sim-
ply identifies the four Sons of Horus as “representing the cardinal
directions.”7 Manfred Lurker explains that “each [of the sons of Horus]
had a characteristic head and was associated with one of the four car-
dinal points of the compass and one of the four ‘protective’ goddesses”
associated therewith.8 Geraldine Pinch concurs, writing, “[The four
Sons of Horus] were the traditional guardians of the four canopic jars
used to hold mummified organs. Imsety generally protected the liver,
Hapy the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, and Qebehsenuef the intestines.
The four sons were also associated with the four directions (south, north,
east, and west) and with four vital components for survival after death:

5. Robert Kriech Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Chi-
cago: Oriental Institute, 1993), 162 n. 750.
6. Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New
York: Thames and Hudson, 2003), 88.
7. James P. Allen, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, ed. Peter Der Manu-
elian (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 433.
8. Manfred Lurker, An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient
Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), 37–38.

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 Smoot et al.: Facsimile 2, Figure 6
The Four Sons of Horus (Facsimile 2, Figure 6) 257

the heart, the ba, the ka, and the mummy.”9 “They were the gods of the
four quarters of the earth,” remarks Michael D. Rhodes, “and later came
to be regarded as presiding over the four cardinal points. They also were
guardians of the viscera of the dead, and their images were carved on
the four canopic jars into which the internal organs were placed.”10 Yet
another Egyptologist, Maarten J. Raven, argues that the primary pur-
pose of the sons of Horus was to act as “the four corners of the universe
and the four supports of heaven, and only secondarily with the protec-
tion of the body’s integrity.”11
The association of the Sons of Horus with the earth’s cardinal direc-
tions is explicit in one scene where, represented “as birds flying out to the
four corners of the cosmos,” they herald the accession of king Ramses II
to the throne:12
Imsety, go south that you may declare to the southern gods that Horus,
[son of] Isis and Osiris, has assumed the crown and the King of Upper
and Lower Egypt, Usermaatre Setepenre [Ramses II], has assumed the
crown; Hapi, go north that you declare to the northern gods that Horus,
[son of] Isis and Osiris, has assumed the crown and the King of Upper
and Lower Egypt, Usermaatre Setepenre [Ramses II], has assumed the
crown; Duamutef, go east that you may declare to the eastern gods
that Horus, [son of] Isis and Osiris, has assumed the crown and the
King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usermaatre Setepenre [Ramses II],
has assumed the crown; Qebehsenuef, go west that you may declare to
the western gods that Horus, [son of] Isis and Horus, has assumed the

9. Geraldine Pinch, Handbook of Egyptian Mythology (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-­

CLIO, 2002), 204.
10. Rhodes, “Translation and Commentary,” 272–73.
11. Maarten J. Raven, “Egyptian Concepts on the Orientation of the Human Body,”
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 91 (2005): 52. As Raven elaborates, “Two conflicting
orientation systems can be observed. The Sons of Horus can either occupy corner posi-
tions on coffins or canopic chests (Amset in the north-­east, Hapy north-­west, Duamutef
south-­east, and Qebehsenuef south-­west; both pairs change places in the New Kingdom),
or they are represented on the four side walls (Amset south, Hapy north, Duamutef east,
and Qebehsenuef west). In the latter case, the corner positions are often taken by four
protective goddesses. Obviously, the notions of the corners of the universe and of the
four points of the compass were not clearly distinguished.”
12. Raven, “Egyptian Concepts on the Orientation of the Human Body,” 42. See also
Hans Bonnet, Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1952),
315; Matthieu Heerma van Voss, “Horuskinder,” in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, ed. Wolfgang
Helck and Eberhard Otto (Wiesbaden, Ger.: Harrassowitz, 1980), 3:53.

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 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 61, Iss. 4 [2022], Art. 46
258 BYU Studies Quarterly

crown and the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usermaatre Setepenre
[Ramses II], has assumed the crown.13

While Joseph Smith’s succinct interpretation of figure 6 in Facsimile 2

might have left out some additional details we know about the Sons of
Horus (whose roles evolved over the span of Egyptian religious history),
it nevertheless converges nicely with current Egyptological knowledge.14

Further Reading
Gee, John. “Notes on the Sons of Horus.” FARMS Report (1991).
Nibley, Hugh, and Michael D. Rhodes. One Eternal Round, 299–302. The
Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 19. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book;
Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies,
Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2010.

13. The Epigraphic Survey, Medinet Habu, Volume 4: Festival Scenes of Ramses III
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), plate 213, translation modified from Gee,
Notes on the Sons of Horus, 60.
14. Hugh Nibley and Michael D. Rhodes, One Eternal Round, The Collected Works
of Hugh Nibley 19 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient
Research and Mormon Studies, Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship,
2010), 299–302; Gee, “Hypocephali as Astronomical Documents,” 66–67.

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