Apep

In this week's episode, we're heading over to Ancient Egypt to look at a god! I know, shock and horror, BUT he is also a monster - yes, we're covering Apep this week! How does this monster contrast the Egyptian pantheon? Where's best to avoid his soul-sucking aura? Find out this week?

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

It’s been the best July ever so far, the weather has been amazing because it’s been miserable over here and for me, it’s ideal gaming weather with the rain pitter pattering outside. I’m hoping the rest of the summer goes like this, although I’m pretty sure not many people would agree. Bonus is that England are doing very well in the Euros too, so that’s always fun.

DESCRIPTION:

But let’s head over to somewhere actually warm this week and go on over to Egypt to look at a monster who crosses over into god territory. Yes, we’re looking at Apep this week for a godly monstrosity.

So who is and what is Apep? 

Apep was described as a huge 360 feet long, gold serpent. He had a head made of flint and markings running the whole way down his body. It’s said that he was a hooded snake in some myths, much like the famous Egyptian cobra, that could flare his hood when attacking. His length alone was impressive and he was said to be as long and as wide as the river Nile that runs through Egypt. He was sometimes also said to appear in the guise of a Nile crocodile instead of a snake, but it’s more commonly thought that he is a snake god.

His main goal in life was to eat the sun, ending life on earth, but most importantly killing his biggest rival, Ra, the falcon-headed sun god king of the Egyptian pantheon. 

This is because Apep was the ancient Egyptian god of evil, darkness, disorder and chaos, so literally everything that Ra stands against. He lives in the dark of the Egyptian underworld, called the Duat, empowered by the darkness and waiting for his rival to wander by so he can consume him and gain power for himself over all. He also commanded an army of demons from the underworld who would prey on both the living and the dead, which he could send out to the people of Egypt to cause chaos.

Speaking of powers, as you can imagine for a god, there are a few that we can talk about but many are the usual god traits. He is immortal, but not invulnerable - with the power to regenerate any damage to him when he slinks back to the underworld after a fight, hibernating in the dark pits, needing no nourishment to bring him back up to full health to go fight again. He is also said to have a manipulative stare, where he can hypnotise his enemy, create earthquakes when he moves on the Earth or create storms and solar eclipses, as well as bringing a primordial darkness wherever he goes. 

There was a routine to Apep’s attacks. Ra would pass into the Duat each night as he walked with the sun, where Apep would be waiting for him - he would attempt to swallow Ra, however Ra would always win with the help of other Egyptian gods, such as Bast, the goddess of cats, Set, god of tempests, Sobek, the god of strength and power, Thoth, the god of knowledge, Maat the goddess of justice and lastly, Isis, the goddess of magic. Apep’s horde never stood a chance, and was defeated every night. 

There was only one exception to this, where Ra would be caught off guard in broad daylight and swallowed, causing a solar eclipse - however, he would be disembowelled pretty quickly by Ra’s entourage and would slink back to the shadows, ready the next day for a new fight.

He is also known as the Eater of Souls, as during the day - when the light of the sun was not on a certain part of it, he would consume the souls of all within the dark - never giving them a chance to resurrect or live within the underworld. In addition to all this, his bite was deadly, he could eat people whole and could even fly - so he’s a pretty scary dude. Also, a good point to mention was that he could talk - just like all the Egyptian gods even though they mostly had animal heads.

So how did Apep even come to be? This one is actually disputed which makes it interesting, some say that he was born from the umbilical cord of Ra but this is contested as some Egyptian creation myths cite that Ra was born from the primordial ocean by the creator god, Atum. However, others claim that Apep was formed by the primordial Nile goddess, Neith, who created Apep whilst spitting at the god Nu - and her length of spit becoming this reflection of rivalry and spite in the form of a snake. That means of course, there is only one of him - he doesn’t reproduce to make more and he can’t die - so he’s a solo monster and god in this story.

ORIGIN:

The etymology for Apep is tricky because there’s no official guide on how to interpret hieroglyphics but it is believed that Apep means ‘he who was spat out’ which backs up both of those origin stories for him. He did have another name, but in Greek, Apophis - but we’re not too sure what it means 

For history, of course we can talk about the ancient Egyptians - but please know that we don’t have a specific date for when this monster came to be. It may have been before the ancient Egyptians even started writing about him so do keep that in mind.

What I can tell you is that the Ancient Egyptians were around between the first king being crowned in 3100 BC to the death of the last pharaoh, Cleopatra in 30 AD. The Ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic, meaning they worshipped a pantheon of gods, which totalled almost 1500 gods at one point! Pharaohs were considered gods themselves and were believed to have divine powers, but as well as this - acted as intermediaries between the wider pantheon. However, their main aim was to maintain Ma’at, which is the natural order of things through worship and offerings, as well as repelling chaos which was personified with our monster, Apep. Duality was really important in the Ancient Egyptians eyes, and in order for this to exist - there had to be a fight between good and evil. 

Apep was not worshipped in Ancient Egyptian society, but feared and banished by the people. Instead of having temples dedicated to him, there were temples dedicated to eradicating his evil - where priests would create effigies of him and imbue it with all of the evil of the land, then was crushed, beaten, covered in mud and burned. They also created wax figures of Apep and would dismember it, then using it to burn a drawn version of the snake on a piece of papyrus. There’s actually a whole book of ways to dismiss Apep called the Book of Apophis because the Egyptians hated him that much. 

There are a few stories about him but they’re mostly linking to this attack on Ra and the rest of the pantheon. For instance, in one myth, Apep would trap the boat of Ra in his massive coils, which were referred to as the sandbanks or cause the waters of the underworld to flood to overwhelm him - however, would never succeed in swallowing the god. There were also multiple funerary texts where it would show Apep being dismembered, releasing souls that he had destroyed or even being sliced up by a cat with a giant knife, which is either thought to be Ra, Hathor, goddess of the sky or Bast, goddess of cats.

According to one myth, Apep would hypnotise Ra and the rest of his entourage, except Set who would repel the serpent by piercing his side with a spear. He was very often linked to Set, and sometimes even considered to be the same god, as he was also a god of chaos and was linked to these same scary weather events on Earth, as well as the demon-goddess Taweret. However, Set could always be reasoned with and was often a force for good, whilst Apep was the opposite. 

Now Apep is part of a monster type we’ve covered before with ancient Egypt - you might remember if you’ve been a listener for a while that we covered Ammit, the goddess of death and judgement upon death. This crocodile goddess devours the hearts of the evil, but this is just her job - she allows those who achieve Ma’at to go free and live in the peace of the Duat, just damning the evil to her stomach. Apep is slightly different here, because he is inherently evil and wants to kill everyone on the planet, beginning with his archnemesis. 

But before you come for me and say, Erin, I thought this podcast was meant to be god and hero free? Well to that I say, it’s hard - especially with ancient Egypt. It’s one of the most popular mythologies to study, however, there are not many mythical beasts attached to it - which means I can’t cover it a lot and that makes me and everyone else sad. 

What’s important here is the definition of monstrosity within mythology and what I on this podcast deem as monsters - and by that I mean mythical beasts - be them good, bad, ugly and potentially, godlike. Both Ammit and Apep could be considered mythical beasts, being giant creatures and not humans - and the religion is ancient enough as to not offend anyone by putting them within a monster or beast category. So that’s my justification, but just to reiterate - Apep is literally just a giant snake with god powers who wants to eat everything, I’d deem that pretty monstrous even if he is a god. 

Whilst Ammit is a good comparison for this one in terms of the same mythos and godliness, another great comparison is Jormungander from Norse mythology. Technically, the world serpent who could consume the world is a god themselves and is just waiting for Ragnarok to consume most of the Norse pantheon - only to be defeated by Thor, god of thunder during the end times. Jormungader is pretty chill the rest of the time, relaxing in the bottom of the ocean and only really coming up to munch on a ship or two to pass the time. He’s also literally holding the world in balance, so the idea of Ma’at could also wind into this monster - making them a nice Norse version of Apep.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, Apep isn’t in a huge amount of media himself, however, what I can give you is some ancient Egyptian bits to fill it in! 

For art, have a look at some of the classic art pieces taken from tomb paintings of Apep. Otherwise, have a look at some of the cool independent bits on this monster for a better representation of what he might have looked like. 

In movies, we have; Aladdin, Joseph: King of Dreams, Gods of Egypt, Weighing of the Heart, The Pyramid, Prince of Egypt, The Mummy series, Death on the Nile, Cleopatra, The Ten Commandments, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Pharaoh, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Stargate & X-Men Apocalypse.

For TV, we have; Moon Knight, Cleopatra in Space, American Gods, Mummies Alive, The Fall of the House of Usher, Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God, Rome, The Cleopatras, Papyrus, Stargate, Yu-Gi-Oh!, The Secrets of Isis & Tutenstein.

In video games, we have ones such as; The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian, Total War: Pharaoh, Age of Mythology, Civilisation, Genshin Impact, Ankh, Pharaoh, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, Assassins Creed Origins, Super Mario Bros, Entombed, Big Karnak, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Titan Quest, An Egyptian Tale, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Empire Earth II: Art of Supremacy, SMITE & Valley of the Kings.

My book recommendation this week is for Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice by John Baines and Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pitch for some great ancient Egyptian reads.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

Well it’s an easy and a hard one all at once - because the idea of a giant snake roaming about is pretty scary, but also pretty fantastical so the logical brain part is screaming no at me. However, this is a god that spends most of his time in the Underworld - so of course, we wouldn’t see him or have any need to fear him until the night time, but I’ve not heard about or seen a giant snake roaming about stealing souls then either. 

But again, they’re gods - we’re not meant to see them in their true form so there’s also that. As someone who believes in multiple deities myself, I totally think there’s room for one ruling over darkness and chaos in the Egyptian pantheon and I like this monster very much to oversee that. 

Because they’re gods too, it kind of reiterates that questioning their existence is a bit of tricky territory for me - I don’t want to dismiss the belief of an entire religion and civilisation who believed in them I guess - so I suppose this one is a maybe for me.

I do love that he’s just so hellbent on destroying his archnemesis that he will go back again and again to get his little jump on him when there’s an eclipse and I think that’s kind of wholesome in a way, ya know? Either way, Apep is pretty metal and he’s the kind of god that scares me but also I think is pretty cool and interesting so that’s that.

But what do you think? Does Apep still rule over evil and darkness? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

I love covering monsters that cross into the god category, it makes them that much more interesting to research and gets us right in with the religion of these ancient civilisations and how they saw the world - so they end up being some of my favourite ones to cover just for wider information around the mythos they came from.

Next week, we’re heading over to China for a zombie of another name and it’s our first proper zombie one too! So come shuffling in with the Jiangshi next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.