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Was it a sad commentary on the history of warfare that the messi- anic Essenes envisioned the Final War of Men as one in which the Company of the Divine would join the Congregation of the Mor- tals, and the "war cries of gods and men" would mingle on the battlefield? Not at all. What The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness had envisioned was simply that human warfare shall end just as it had begun: with gods and men fighting side by side. Incredible as it may sound, a document does exist that describes the first war in which the gods involved mortal men. It is an in- scription on the walls of the great temple at Edfu, an ancient Egyp- tian holy city that was dedicated to the god Horus. It was there. Egyptian traditions held, that Horns established a foundry of "di- vine iron" and where, in a special enclosure, he maintained the great Winged Disk that could roam the skies. "When the doors of the foundry open," an Egyptian text declared, "the Disk riseth ineninine —] up": 0) al The inscription (Fig. 6), remarkable for its geographical ac- curacy, begins with an exact date—a date not in the affairs of men but of the gods. It deals with events when the gods them- selves, long before the Pharaohs, reigned over Egypt: In the year 363 His Majesty, Ra, the Holy One. the Falcon of the Horizon, the Immortal Who Forever Lives, was in the land of Khenn. He was accompanied by his warriors, for the enemies had conspired against their lord in the district which has been called Ua-Ua since that day. Ra went there in his boat, his companions with him. He landed in the district of the Throne Place of Horus, in the west- em part of this district, east of the House of Khennu, the one which has been called Royal Khennu from that time on. 25 THE CONTENDING OF HORUS AND SETH