Apophis

Apophis, also known as Apep, dating back into the 1500s BCE, was the great water serpent god who slept in the mountains of Baku, rising with the morning star, daily attacks Ra on his journeys through the daytime sky and the underworld, and is subsequently destroyed each evening by Sobek, the god of the crocodiles.

As we have seen in most other religions and cultures thus far, the serpent seems to always hold some chthonic symbolism—that underworld characterization as the giver of life, possessing the creator aspect that seems ever present wherever the serpent is worshipped. Nowhere is this so evident and pervasive than in the mysticism of ancient Egyptian religion and worship. In the mythology and symbolism of Egypt exist some of the most glaring dualistic contrasts between reverent worship of the serpent and fear-based repudiation.

The Egyptians’ reverence for the serpent’s life-giving powers probably arose, in part, from—once again—observing them shedding their skins, continually exposing a new resurrected body in the process. The god Atum, the ancient Egyptian primeval creator deity, is represented in the form of the serpent who seasonally shed his outer skin, a symbol of the continual life, death, and new life cycle. At one point, Atum prophesies to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the netherworld and final judgment, that he is going to destroy the entire world he had created and revert back to his serpentine form.

Early-20th-century Dutch-born archaeologist Henri Frankfort, who spent his life reconstructing ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture and mythology, said of the Egyptian serpent gods, “The primeval snake survives when everything else is destroyed at the end of time. Thus the serpent was strongly and continually associated with creation and eternal existence in the ancient Egyptian ethos. The Egyptians portrayed life itself by the image of the rearing serpent, and a serpent biting its tail was a common Egyptian emblem for ‘eternity.’”

During the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (2030–1640 BCE), post-11th Dynasty, the god Amun came onto the scene as the patron god of the capitol city of Thebes. Amun in one of his manifestations was that of the serpent god named Kematef (“he who has completed his time”). At Karnak, during the beginning of the New Kingdom (1550–1090 BCE), Amun was merged with the sun god Ra, when Pharaoh Ahknaten uprooted the entire Egyptian system of religion and worship and decreed a new, monotheistic society. “Amun-Ra became the monotheistic, supreme state-enforced/endorsed god of Egypt during this period. Amun-Ra’s divine consort, the serpent goddess Mut (“the resplendent serpent”) gave birth to a son named Khonsu.” Together, this holy triad, in the Egyptian worldview, symbolized the perfect union both in the house of the gods as well as being representative of the supreme social structure of the royal family. And it was this family portrait that inextricably linked the house and family of the pharaoh to the mythological serpent of Egyptian mythology. But Ahkenaten’s monotheistic society lasted but one generation before it was overthrown and the implementation of a reversion back to the polytheism took place.

All periods of Egyptian history, from the earliest historical times all the way to the end of the New Kingdom, creation, fertility, birth, the goodness of the gods, rebirth, and resurrection were all embodied in the image of the serpent. Thermuthis was the serpent-headed goddess to whom were brought offerings at the time of harvest, thanking her for successful crops of both food and grape of the vine.

The Father of Serpents, Geb, was the god of earth and “the father of the gods.” The snake was linked to life after death and the recurring cycle of life due to Egyptian obsession with the quest for eternal life, and he became a symbol of survival after death and even resurrection among the ancient Egyptians. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, sometimes referred to by its more precise title, The Book of Going Forth by Day, in chapter 87, we are told that transformation into a serpent upon death gives new life to the deceased.

A serpent goddess in pre-dynastic Egypt set the stage for her veneration as an enduring symbol throughout the rest of dynastic Egyptian history. The most important serpent of Lower Egypt was Wadjet (“the green one”) who eventually became the symbol of a unified Egypt and its royal house. It was this serpent goddess whose name became synonymous with the general Egyptian term for cobra and the foundation for the creation of the symbol of the uraeus, the standing figure of the cobra found most often as the headpiece on the royal Egyptian crowns. The cobra/uraeus became such an important piece of Egyptian iconography that the life of the Pharaoh became known as the living years of the uraeus. Wadjet not only became physically represented on the Pharaoh’s crown as his guardian and protector, but eventually was bestowed the title of the Eye of Ra. Her green color, significantly, became the color that represented resurrection in ancient Egypt, and Wadjet, also referred to as “the green one,” embodied the forces of health and fertility. As with most gods out of antiquity, you can quickly see how numerous titles continued to be added on, as the powers and influence of the god evolved in worship (Wadjet: the green uraeus of the Pharaoh, the Eye of Ra, the protector and guardian of the life of the Pharaoh, the power of fertility and good health).

Representing the oppositional character of the Egyptian serpent was the Serpent God of Darkness, the winged, fire-spewing Apophis, What Wadjet was to all that was good in ancient Egypt, Apophis was her counterpart, representing the demonic forces, evil gods, and powers of the bleak underworld. Apophis was the serpent of darkness, in complete opposition to the sun god Ra, who was the light of the world. But Apophis, albeit the antithesis to Ra, was never more powerful. He simply counterbalanced the serpent Mehen (“the coiled one”) who was the protector of the sun god Ra, assisting him on his journey through the realm of night to be reborn every morning. And as you find in many cultures and religions, the powers of darkness are thwarted by the power of good. As Satan is to God, so Apophis is to Ra, with minor alterations to the functionality.

It has been said time and again that the ancient Egyptians were utterly preoccupied with death—at least the royal family’s, as far as can be seen. Their entire lives, especially when a seated Pharaoh, were consumed with the afterlife and the resurrection. There is an interesting entry in the Pyramid Texts, the funerary papyri of ancient Egypt. In these documents is listed something for which there is very little explanation: the “snake game,” presumably a test of sorts, played out in the afterlife when a Pharaoh died—a game he has to win. How interesting a tie to modern Christinaity would that be!? The notion of an Egyptian judgment, test, or fist-a-cuff in order to enter the beautiful wonders of the afterlife seem a colloquial version of a much greater religious prime.