Every night, when the sun sank below the western horizon, the ancient Egyptians believed that the sun god Ra entered the underworld in his boat and sailed through the twelve hours of darkness toward the dawn. And every night, somewhere in the darkness, a monstrous serpent lay waiting to swallow him. This was Apophis (Egyptian Apep or Aapep), the great snake of chaos — the enemy of the sun, of light, of order, and of all creation.
If Apophis ever succeeded, the sun would not rise, and the world would fall back into the dark, formless waters from which it had been created. The gods fought him every night, and every night they won. But he was never destroyed forever. He was always there, in the dark, waiting.
The Serpent of Non-Existence
Apophis is unlike most other Egyptian gods. He was never worshipped. He had no temples, no priests, and no offerings. He was the embodiment of isfet — chaos, disorder, falsehood, and violence — the opposite of ma’at, the principle of cosmic order and truth that the gods and the pharaoh upheld.
In some traditions, Apophis existed from before creation, a force of the primordial waters of Nun from which the world emerged. In one late account from the temple of Esna, he was born from the spittle of the creator goddess Neith when she spat into the primeval waters. He is not so much a being as a principle: the ever-present threat of un-creation.
Unlike the other gods, Apophis was not imagined as part human. He was always a colossal serpent — in some texts, 120 cubits (about 60 metres) long, with a body made of flint. His roar echoed through the underworld.
The Nightly Battle
The Books of the Underworld — texts painted on the walls of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, such as the Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Book of Caverns — describe the sun’s journey through the twelve hours of the night in vivid detail.
In the seventh hour of the Amduat, Ra’s boat reaches the lair of Apophis, where the serpent lies coiled on a vast sandbank, having swallowed the waters of the underworld river so that the boat will run aground. The gods must fight him.
Several gods played a role in defending the sun:
- Set, the violent god of the desert, stood at the prow of the sun boat and speared Apophis. Only Set’s brute strength could match the serpent. This was one of Set’s most important and positive roles (see Set: The Egyptian God of Chaos and the Desert).
- Isis used her magic spells to bewitch the serpent.
- Serqet, the scorpion goddess, bound him.
- The Great Cat of Heliopolis — a form of Ra himself, or of Bastet — cut off the serpent’s head with a knife beneath the sacred persea tree (see Bastet: The Cat Goddess of Ancient Egypt).
- Mehen, a protective serpent, coiled around Ra in his shrine on the boat.
The serpent was bound, stabbed, and cut to pieces. Yet the next night he would be back.
Signs of Apophis in the World
The Egyptians saw the struggle with Apophis reflected in the world around them.
- Sunset and sunrise. The red colour of the sky at sunset and dawn was sometimes explained as the blood of Apophis, wounded in battle.
- Eclipses. A solar eclipse was feared as a moment when Apophis had succeeded in swallowing the sun, if only briefly.
- Storms and earthquakes. Thunderstorms, earthquakes, and unexplained darkness could be signs of the serpent’s movements.
The Book of Overthrowing Apophis
The Egyptians did not leave the fight to the gods alone. Priests performed rituals to help Ra defeat his enemy. The most important collection of these rituals is the Book of Overthrowing Apophis, preserved in the Bremner-Rhind Papyrus (c. 310 BCE), now in the British Museum.
The rituals were performed daily in the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak and elsewhere. They included:
- Making images of Apophis in wax or clay, or drawing him on papyrus in green ink, and writing his name.
- Spitting on the image, stamping on it with the left foot, stabbing it with a knife, and burning it.
- Reciting spells cursing the serpent and all his followers: “Fall down, Apophis, enemy of Ra! Your head shall be cut off. You shall not raise your face.”
- Destroying the name of the serpent, since in Egyptian belief a name was part of the being.
The ritual included chapters of curses listing all the names of Apophis, so that none could escape.
Similar rituals were used against the enemies of the pharaoh. Execration texts — lists of hostile foreign rulers and rebels written on clay figurines that were then smashed — show that the Egyptians saw political enemies as agents of Apophis. The pharaoh’s wars were the earthly equivalent of the sun god’s nightly battle.
Apophis in the Book of the Dead
Individuals also had to face the serpent. Several spells in the Book of the Dead protect the deceased against Apophis and other snakes in the underworld. Chapter 7 is titled “Spell for passing by the dangerous coils of Apophis.” Chapter 17 includes the famous image of the cat killing the serpent.
Apophis and Set
In later periods, especially after the New Kingdom, the god Set — once Apophis’s greatest opponent — came to be identified with the serpent himself. As Set’s reputation declined and he became associated with foreign invaders and pure evil, he and Apophis merged in the Egyptian imagination as enemies of the gods. This is a striking example of how Egyptian theology could change over time.
Parallels in Other Myths
The struggle between a god of order and a serpent or dragon of chaos appears in many mythologies:
- In Mesopotamia, the storm god Marduk defeats the sea goddess Tiamat, often depicted as a dragon, and makes the world from her body.
- In Canaan and Ugarit, Baal fights the sea god Yam and the seven-headed serpent Lotan.
- In the Hebrew Bible, God is said to have crushed the sea monster Leviathan and Rahab.
- In Norse mythology, Thor fights the World Serpent Jörmungandr (see The Children of Loki).
- In Vedic India, Indra kills the serpent Vritra, releasing the waters.
The Egyptian version is distinctive because the battle is never won once and for all. It must be fought every night, forever. Order is not a final victory but a constant effort.
Apophis Today
The name Apophis was given in 2005 to a near-Earth asteroid, 99942 Apophis, which briefly caused alarm when early calculations suggested a small chance of an impact with Earth in 2029. Further observations ruled out a collision, but the asteroid will pass extremely close to Earth on 13 April 2029 — closer than some geostationary satellites — and will be visible to the naked eye. The name, chosen by its discoverers, was a fitting tribute to the ancient serpent that threatened the sun.
Apophis also appears in popular culture, from the Stargate television series, where he is a villainous alien, to video games and fantasy novels.
Last reviewed: September 2026.