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Apophis was feared as a power of darkness and chaos in Ancient Egypt. To refer to Apophis as a "power" is probably more accurate than using the words demon or deity since the word we translate as god - netjer can be applied to any immortal, and "demons" were more likely to be described as monsters.
Apophis is described in the ancient texts as living in the waters of NUN - the primordial chaos and rising to attack the solar ship of RA at twilight and dawn, and although defeated, and either killed or driven away, he ALWAYS RETURNS. (Yes any Stargate fans reading this is the origin of that phrase!) One possible origin is that Apophis was a predynastic storm god, since there are other African cultures in which serpents are bringers of storms and rain, and one of his other titles was the ROARER. Perhaps his worshippers refused to support the offical state cults of Osiris-Ra, unlike those of Set who had a place in the Egyptian pantheon, for there are stories of Set battling Apophis, and there is an Egyptian stele, which I have personally seen when it came to Australia for an exhbition, which shows Set battling Apophis. In later eras of Egyptian history Apophis was sometimes identified with SET as both came to be perceived as not merely forces of chaos and part of the nature but as evil powers actively hostile to other gods and humans. This change of perception, from Apophis and Set being merely powers of darkness, to being regarded as actively "demonic" in the modern sense of the word may have something to do with the Hyksos and their possible worship of Semitic and Indo-european sky/storm gods? See further down in the Hyksos section! Demonic comes from daimonic -a greek word that actually means a spiritual or elemental power that is not necessarily evil just non physical and non human. The Egyptian words for Divine were netjer (god divine being) or djeser (set apart holy sacred).
The Book of the Dead and several wall paintings from tombs (Dynasty 20, Tomb 358 at Thebes, that of Inherka, being one example) depict Apophis as a black headed snake having its head cut off by Ra in the form of a cat or lynx wielding a knife while seated under the sacred (ished) sycamore tree of heliopolis. There are other versions in which Ra is shown as a mongoose or genet. A text survives of a ritual drama performed in the Middle Kingdom period in which an actor representing SET attacks Apophis with a dagger. The dagger shown appear to be similar in shape to flint knives used in the Predynastic period.
You may have noticed there seems to be several ways to spell "Apophis"! As well as Apophis other spellings include apep apepy apepi aphwphi. If the stem is aap then the first part of the name may mean the flier. There is a word aapef meanign the serpent fiend
This particular spelling is the transliteration into the Roman alphabet of the Greek spelling of a Late Egyptian / Coptic word. The Greeks sound the word - alpha, phi or pi, omega, phi, iota, and then added a final sigma for grammar reasons - so that it would fit into the third declension pattern. The Copts used a modified Greek uncial script that replaced demotic. Budge states in his dictionary that this word menas Giant or Titan in Coptic. (Any Coptic scholaras reading this - your input is invited). In the original hieorglyphics the word is written with phonetic symbols including the aya sign and two p squares plus a hieroglyphic pictogram shoiwng a large snake.
The original pronouciation of the word in Middle Egyptian may have sounded more like "ayapep". "aya" is my transliteration of a word that combines two phonetics symbols, both representing sounds not used in English, one being a glottal stop similar to Hebrew Ayin and Arabic Alif, the other a pharyngeal fricaitve - similar to Hebrew Ayin and Arabic "Ain. English speakers not familiar to spoken Semitic or to be "P.C." Afroasiatic languages tend to hear these sounds as vowels. I suspect myself that several of the phonetic symbols used by the Egyptians were allophonic - representing vowels in one context and semivowels or consonants in another. Such a dual usage would explain why the Egyptians never bothered to develop separate vowel signs!
For more information see my article on the Egyptian "ABC" which shows the uniliteral phonetic symbols and their transliteration in IPA symbols.
Apophis had more than one name. Many of these names have as the final sign in their sequence a glyph showing a warrior carrying a what could be an axe or stone mace? Some of my definitions are more speculative than others but all are based on the signs used to write the words. I have not given the full list of names just those I could work out an approximate meaning for.
It is also possible that the depiction of Apophis as a giant serpent is a folk memory of some extinct snake or python species. Fossils of a large python have been found in North Africa near the Nile Valley but date back millions of years to the Tertiary period. The snake species known to and given names by the Egyptians were the Egyptian Cobra (the Royal Uraeus snake) the Horned Viper (the Fent) and the Black headed Spitting Cobra and lastly the African Rock Python (Python Sebae). Images that may be of this last species ONLY appear in Predynastic art and to my knowledge this species is no longer found in the Nile Valley?
There are several paintings that show Apophis being "straightened out" which depict a procession of gods carrying an large UNcoiled snake about anaconda size and this is a method used by mondern animal handlers for pythons! Perhaps there was once a large form of python found in the Nile Valley that was either a nocturnal hunter or given to rising suddenly from underwater concealment to sieze prey? This technique is used by anacondas to take cattle in the Amazon basin.
The biological origin of the myth may have been a large python species that lived in the post glacial waterways and lakelands of Norht Africa before the savannas reverted to desert. Certianly many other African cultures have myths and legends about giant serpents living in lakes. As cats have been known to hunt or attack small snakes this could also explain the cat with a dagger image. A clan of hunters specializing in killing large snakes that attacked valuable cattle could have had a cat totem?
There were 2 rulers who took a name later written as Apophis in Egyptian history and both were Hyksos - the immigrant rulers of Dynasty 15 who controlled the Delta and probably most of northern Egypt. The Hyksos, or Spepherd Kings, as some call them were the Hikau-khoswet or Heka-khaswt, and were not remembered fondly by the Egyptians. They were an alliance of tribes of varying origins and they introduced chariot warfare and horse rding into Egypt which suggest some of them were northerners? Their captial was at Avaris (Tel El-Daba and their conflicts with Seqenenre Tao of Dynasty 17, his queen Aahotep, and their two sons and heirs, Kamose and Ahmose, founder of Dynasty 18, have been described in a series of colorful historical novels by Christian Jacq.
The first ruler called "Apophis" was Apepi 1 who also called himself Auserre - powerful like Ra. Apepi 2 was alson known as Aqenenre - Spirit of Ra. We know these names from surviving royal cartouches and Seals. On them Apepy was spelt I plus the man sign determiner of humans plus two p-squares and again the I feather so the pronounciation may not have been that of the dark serpent pwer but rather something like Jaipepy or Jipepey or Ipepi? Later Egyptian scribes including Manetho told the Greeks na dRomans these kings were called Apophis. It would appear the Egyptians resented the Hyksos rulers so much that they delibarately alterd their names to match more exactly that of the infernal chaos serpent?! Whatever their actual behaviour was they were perceived and remembered as tyrannical invaders.
Other Hyksos rulers of Dynasty 15 had names like Sheshi, Yakub-her (Jacob of Horus?) Khyan and in Dynasty 16 (if this was a separate dynasty?) Anather (anat+her house of anat? a semitic warrior goddess) and Yakobamm. Note the semitic names? Many cultures in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia had storm gods leading or prominent within their pantheons. If the Hyksos rulers identified Set and Apophis with their weather gods and gave them primacy over other deities this would have deeply disturbed the Egyptians.
We hope you enjoyed your visit to "Apophis". Please also visit Real Egypt or go to the Home page of Neith's Place to explore further. You can email me at scholara@yahoo.com
