Apophis is an Egyptian monster living in perpetual darkness.
Apep represents the forces of chaos, death, and disorder and thus share some common factors with Seth the personification of creative chaos, yet the nature of Apophis seems to have always been dark and threatening, while Seth could at times be beneficial.
This evil-demonic snake god is the chief of the antagonists of the sun god Re and each night he tries to stop the sun god's barque on his journey through the underworld....
In the struggle between light and darkness, the monster is wounded by the divine entourage of Re with knives and spears...
In some legends, Apep was an earlier and discarded sun-god himself.
This helps to explain the snake's strength and his resentment of the daily journey of the sun.
Apep is depicted as a huge serpent often with tightly compressed coils to emphasis his huge size.
In funerary texts he is usually shown in the process of being dismembered in various ways.
In a detailed depiction in the tomb of Ramesses VI twelve heads are painted above the head of the snake representing the souls he has swallowed who are briefly freed when his is destroyed, only to be imprisoned again the following night.
In an alternative depiction inscribed in a number of tombs of private individuals Hathor or Ra is transformed into a cat who slices the huge serpent with a knife.
The serpent was also represented by a circular ball, the "evil eye" of Apep, in numerous temple scenes...
In some accounts Apep was captured in magical nets and his body was cut into pieces - though each night he is revived to attack once more.
In fact, other legends state that the sun god is encircled or swallowed by the serpent who later disgorges him as a metaphor of rebirth and renewal...
Probably this demonic monster was killed by the god Aten or in some tales, by the cat goddess Bast.
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See also Tiamat:
See Bastet:
Post Image: http://bit.ly/PIiCyA
Another picture of Apep trying to engulf the globe: