In the Egyptian view, the order of the world was never secured once and for all. Every day the sun had to face an enemy that tried to stop it: Apophis, the gigantic serpent of chaos. Unlike many Egyptian gods, Apophis received no cult and no offerings. He was the personification of all that opposes existence itself. Against him the temples carried out specific rites, collected in texts such as the "Book of Overthrowing Apophis".
Who Apophis is
Apophis, in Egyptian Apep, is a serpent of boundless size living in the primordial waters and in the dark region crossed by the sun. He is not a fallen god or a rival with a story of his own: he is the non-existent pressing on the borders of the created world. His roar, the texts say, echoes in the Duat; his body coils around the sun's barque to block its course.
Eclipses, storms and dark days could be read as moments when Apophis had temporarily gained the upper hand. But each time he was driven back, and the sun rose again.
The Bremner-Rhind papyrus
The most important source on the rite is the Bremner-Rhind papyrus, kept in the British Museum. It was written at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period for a priest named Nesmin and gathers several religious texts:
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Songs of Isis and Nephthys | Ritual laments for Osiris |
| Ritual of Sokar | Texts for Osirian ceremonies |
| Book of Overthrowing Apophis | Spells and instructions against the serpent |
| Book of Knowing the Transformations of Ra | An account of creation and of Apophis's defeat |
The presence of a creation account beside the rite is no accident. Driving back Apophis meant, in a sense, repeating the creative act: re-establishing each day the distinction between the ordered world and undifferentiated chaos.
How the rite was performed
The "Book of Overthrowing Apophis" combines recited spells with actions carried out on images of the enemy. Its instructions include:
- drawing Apophis on a new papyrus or modelling a wax figure of him;
- writing the serpent's name on the image;
- spitting on the image and trampling it with the left foot;
- piercing it with a spear and cutting it with a knife;
- finally burning it in the fire.
Similar gestures were also performed against images of the enemies of the king and of the gods, especially Seth in later periods. The rite thus joined the protection of the cosmos to that of the pharaoh and the country.
The enemy's names
Part of the text lists the names of Apophis: epithets such as "the evil one", "the rebel", "he who is in his fire", and many more. Naming the enemy by all his names left him no escape. It is the same principle as the execration texts: what is named can be struck.
When it was celebrated
The papyrus indicates that the rite was to be performed regularly in the temple, and especially at times of danger: when the sky darkened, during storms, or when the country was under threat. Protecting the sun was a continuous service, not an exceptional event.
Apophis in imagery
In tombs and funerary papyri Apophis is shown as an immensely long serpent, his body often divided into segments by knives. A famous Book of the Dead vignette shows a cat, a form of Ra, cutting off the serpent's head beneath a persea tree. In the books of the afterlife, the serpent is bound and immobilised by deities armed with chains and blades.
Even when depicted, Apophis is usually already defeated: chained, pierced, dismembered. Showing him vanquished was a way of making him harmless even in the image.
A necessary enemy
It is striking that Apophis was never destroyed for good. Every night he returned, every night he was driven back. Egyptian thought did not imagine a final victory over chaos, but perpetual vigilance. Studio Esoterico Cornelio reads in this a lesson of great symbolic depth: order is not a state attained, but an act renewed every day, requiring attention, word and gesture.
In short
- Apophis is the serpent of chaos who threatens the sun's journey every day.
- He received no cult: he was the personification of non-being.
- The Bremner-Rhind papyrus, from the Ptolemaic period, contains the "Book of Overthrowing Apophis".
- The rite used images of the serpent to be spat on, trampled, pierced and burned.
- Victory over Apophis was never final, but an act to be renewed each day.
