Apophis (Apep) was the great serpent of chaos in ancient Egyptian myth — the colossal snake of darkness, dissolution and non-existence who attacked the sun-god Ra every night as he sailed through the underworld, seeking to swallow the sun and plunge the world into eternal darkness. The eternal enemy of the sun and of all order, he is chaos itself, fought and defeated anew every single night.
The Serpent of Chaos
Apophis (Egyptian Apep; Greek Apophis) was the embodiment of chaos, darkness, dissolution and non-existence — the great cosmic enemy, the force opposed to all order, light and creation (the opposite of Ma'at). He was depicted as a colossal serpent, a monstrous snake of immense size, the personification of the chaos that preceded creation and that forever threatened to swallow the ordered world back into the dark formless void. He was not a god to be worshipped but a force of pure destruction to be fought, feared and warded off — the eternal adversary of the sun and of existence itself.
The Nightly Attack on the Sun
Apophis's defining role was his eternal nightly battle against the sun-god Ra. Each night, as Ra sailed his solar barque through the twelve dark hours of the underworld (the Duat), Apophis lay in wait to attack the barque and devour the sun — for if the serpent of chaos could swallow the sun, the sun would not rise, and the world would be plunged into eternal darkness and dissolution, creation undone. Every night, Apophis assailed the solar barque, trying to stop the sun's journey; and every night, Ra and his defenders — including the protective serpent Mehen, the god Set (who stood at the prow and speared the serpent), and others — fought and defeated Apophis, cutting, binding and driving back the great snake so that the sun could complete its journey and rise again at dawn. This nightly battle was the central cosmic drama of the Egyptian universe: the eternal struggle of order against chaos, light against darkness, existence against non-existence, fought and won anew every single night.
The Eternal Enemy
Apophis could never be permanently destroyed — he was wounded, cut to pieces, burned and bound each night, but he always returned, for chaos is eternal and the struggle never ends. The Egyptians took the threat of Apophis seriously enough to perform rituals to aid Ra in the battle: priests recited spells and performed rites (the “Books of Overthrowing Apophis”) to curse, weaken and destroy the serpent, making wax or other images of Apophis and ritually destroying them to help defeat the chaos-snake and ensure the sun would rise. Solar eclipses, storms, and the darkness of a sunless day were attributed to Apophis temporarily gaining the upper hand. He was the ever-present threat at the heart of the cosmos, the chaos that must be fought without end.
The Chaos That Must Be Fought Forever
Apophis endures as one of the most powerful and important figures in all of Egyptian myth — the great serpent of chaos, the eternal enemy of the sun and of all order, who attacks the sun-god every night and is defeated and yet always returns. He embodies the Egyptian vision of the cosmos as an eternal struggle between order (Ma'at) and chaos (isfet), light and darkness, existence and non-existence; and he stands as chaos itself made into a monster — the colossal serpent that must be fought and defeated anew every single night so that the sun may rise, the world endure, and creation continue against the ever-present threat of dissolution into the dark.
The colossal serpent of chaos who attacks the sun every night, seeking to swallow it and plunge the world into eternal darkness — defeated each night, yet always returning, the eternal enemy that must be fought forever so the sun may rise.
