THE GODS OF CHAOS APEP & HIS NEMESIS SET
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHAT WAS APEP GOD OF?.
Both Apep and Set, are central characters in the story of the snake, from Ancient Egypt. It is a story that we today are presently living. We’re in the midst of what the Ancient Egyptians when to great lengths to record.
Apep / also spelled Apepi. Coptic Version / Apophis / Ancient Greek: Ápophis, was an ancient Egyptian god who was most often portrayed in the form of an enormous snake. Apep was regarded by the Egyptians as the embodiment of darkness and disorder. And he was often portrayed with his body in huge coils that look like Infinity Symbols, or else stretched out to show its incredible length. Like Atum, Apep had a wealth of totally fascinating myths that were built up around him. Each painting a vivid picture of how much the Ancient Egyptians feared this snake.
References have Apep going back to prehistoric Egypt and it was believed that he was there at the beginning when Ra created the world.
WHY WAS APEP EVIL?
The Ancient Egyptians regarded Apep as quite the evil character, Because they saw him as being was hell bent on killing the Sun God Ra who brought light to the world. Apep was essentially a threat to creation itself. And for his evil intent, he was given several titles that left no doubt about his destructive nature, or the fear that he stirred in the hearts of Egyptians. Apep’s titles included: The enemy of Ra; The Lord of Chaos; The Serpent of Chaos; The Serpent of The Nile; and the Evil Dragon. Apep’s sole reason for existence seemed to be to eat the Sun God Ra which was something that he tried to do every evening at sunset, as Ra travelled into the underworld.
WHEN IS A SNAKE NOT A SNAKE?
Why did the Ancient Egyptians create this monster snake? Was it simply overworked imagination at play?. or could there actually be any truth behind the Apep myth?. Remember the upright cobra, the first snake that explained to you, was a representation of the sun’s Coronal Mass Ejections or CME;s. Apep too is representating energy from the sun though sometimes indirect energy. Apep represents the telluric currents which are electric currents that are found just under the earth’s surface and in bodies of water all across the planet.
While human activity does create some Telluric Currents, Most are created geomagnetically from lightning, CMEs and other solar events which reach the earth. These Telluric Currents are collectively termed: Geomagnetically Induced Currents or GICs. And like the CME’s they too are destructive in their own way, and are capable of causing the chaos that the Ancient Egyptians feared
Imagine for a. moment that you were a brilliant physicist and you had to explain a difficult and complex theory to a bunch of six year olds. (or someone of my very modest level of physics understanding) You would use language and where necessary simple images that they could easily understand ( as much as possible) wouldn’t you?. And then imagine that you tasked that group of six year olds to explain the theory that you had explained to them, to a few of their friends. With the stipulation that those friends had to explain the theory to some of their own friends. Now imagine that spread down the line over a few thousand years . I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what would quickly happen. It’s a no brainer.
Remember, the recurring question in the story of the snake is; “When is a snake not a snake?’ We’ll get back to Apep and his true meaning. For now let’s look at his nemesis, the God Set.
WHO KILLED APEP/ APOPHIS ?
Ra travelled with a group of protectors on his barque as he made his way into the underworld each day at sunset. He was sometimes accompanied by Isis, and the Eye Of Ra. However Ra’s constant protector was The God Set. And it was Set who would slay the giant snake Apep..
yet come the next evening, Apep would again be waiting for Ra in his ongoing, never-ending attempt to defeat him and take over the entire universe.
In one account of the ancient mythology, Ra himself took the form of a cat, and defeated Apep could be Note that both Apep and his Nemesis Set, had names which referred to chaos . Why will become clear as we get to Set and as we use the template to decode the true meaning of what the Ancient Egyptians were really saying in their stories about these two god of Chaos.
WHAT WAS APEP’S POWER?
Apep’s power was related to his abode and his chaotic nature. According to the mythology, Apep was obliged to lie each day below the horizon, rather than stay in the actual world of humans. And since his exact location couldn’t be pinned down, this resulted in yet another title, one that described him as “Encircling the world”. Added to this, the Egyptians believed that Apep’s roar caused the underworld to rumble. And they also thought that Apep was the cause of earthquakes and eclipses.
For Ancient Egyptians chaos wasn’t simply disorder. Chaos specifically referred to the state that existed before creation . So Apep’s power of being able to destroy Ra and return creation to it’s previous state of chaos, was a pretty big deal. It meant none-existence for humans and for everything in creation.
THE RITUALS FOR DEFEATING APEP
Ancient Egyptians were so terrified of Apep, that the priests provided a detailed guide on how to fight the monster and help Ra to kill Apep. And they would even create effigies of Apep to be burnt. The populace also had numerous rituals that they practiced to deal with Apep. This included special prayers, dismembering and spitting on Apep and using a knife to kill the serpent, or defiling Apep with the left foot.
So what on earth is going on here with all these stories about a badly behaving snake? People only devote this level of energy and attention to something relly important. Well Apep is very much a central character in the story of the snake. We’ve already met the rearing cobra, the Uraeus that the pharaohs proudly wore on their headdress. And now in complete contrast, here is this much bigger snake, that lives in the underworld or underground, that all the Ancient Egyptians just wanted to get rid of. The strange thing is, that the Uraeus and Apep the monster, are one and the same snake. as you’ll discover when we get to deciphering the true meaning of Apep and Set.
APEP’S INFLUENCE OUTSIDE EGYPT
Apep’s bad behavior was exported out of Egypt into several other cultures. The mythology surrounding him turned up in places such as India, The far East, Mesopotamia, and among the Vikings. where he was transformed into dragons, or other large serpents. I Some were worshipped for their perceived strength an dominance while some Apep look-a-likes were killed.
In the bible, Apep became the Leviathan, and I suspect, also Satan. Once again being described the embodiment of chaos, with of course some useful rewriting of the myth to serve the specific needs of Christianity.
Painting: The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré
The Greeks, one time Ancient Egyptian conquerors, for their part, transformed Apep into Python. And in our modern times; Apep seems to have been given one more round of infamy by NASA, who named a near-Earth object the Asteroid 99942, Apophis.(another name for Apep) Initially this asteroid was described as being potentially very dangerous should it collide with the earth. However with better tracking information, NASA has since downgraded the potential that Apophis could make contact with earth. And by the way, NASA also has rockets named Apep.
THE GOD SETH/SET AKA THE SET ANIMAL
1.Amulet with Was Sceptre 2.Djed Column, Ankh Was Sceptre in faience 3. The Set-Animal, Sha, (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Set / Sutekh / or Seth is just as fantastical and awful as Apep. The God Set is represented as an animal, that archeologist believe to be a composition of several animals. As you can see from the images, Set was indeed a rather strange looking animal. Set is actually an aardvark. that the Egyptians chose represent in a stylized form, for reasons that I wont go into here. At any rate, Set was no slouch, and he was certainly no hero, even though he did try to kill Apep.
This is because, Set was that guy who killed his brother Osiris, and then hacked up the body. Set did this evil deed because he wanted to take over Egypt’s throne. And then even after Osiris fathered Horus ( Isis Osiris’ wife put his body back together by magic) , Set then kept trying to kill his nephew Horus, who we should note, was also one of Egypt’s Sun God.
You see, Set was that guy who killed his brother Osiris, and then hacked up the body. This act was the most important event in Ancient Egypt’s mythology. Set did this evil deed because he wanted to take over Egypt’s throne. And then even after Osiris fathered Horus ( Isis Osiris’ wife put his body back together by magic) , Set then kept trying to kill his nephew Horus, who we should note, was also one of Egypt’s Sun God. Set’s antics gave birth to two biblical narratives. ( Cain & Abel And Moses in the Bulrushes) Maybe I’ll get into those details at another time and in another post
WHAT WAS SET GOD OF?
Even though Set did have some positive behavior attributed to him for his attempts to protect Ra the Sun God from Apep the monster snake, the Ancient Egyptians didn’t really regard Set as a God with positive qualities. So they made Set God of deserts, storms, violence and disorder. And when the Hyksos conquered Egypt and the Hyksos King chose to identify with Set, The Egyptians made Set “God of Foreigners in addition. Later at the end of the native Egyptian civilization, the ruling Greeks rehabilitated Set’s image to a more positive one, in recognition of the fact that he was a fighter who worked to protect Ra against the evil Apep. .
Image shows.detail of Set’s Face from a Statue
Set like Apep, was represented all the way back to prehistoric Egypt b(3700 -3500). Set was no less monstrous than Apep. In one of the stories about Set’s constant battles against Horus, (set was still trying to get the throne) The highlights of their battles include Set tearing out one or even both of Horus’s eye.
Set also sexually abuses Horus in a homosexual act meant to degrade his rival. It was said that Set’s indiscriminate sexuality was actually one of his major characteristics.
ARE SET & ANUBIS THE SAME GOD?
Set is the child of Geb, the Earth and Nut, the Sky Goddess. And even though when He’s portrayed as the Set Animal , it would appear that Set has Canine characteristics, he is a separate God from Anubis, the other canine deity. In fact, Set is actually Anubis’s father.Set married married his sister Nephthys who gave birth to Anubis.
Set’s story has one particularly strange, often overlooked twist. And this has to do with the Egyptian Scepter called the Was. The Was Scepter was another abstract representation of Set. It was a stylized animal head at the top of a long, straight staff with a forked end. The forked end of the Was, is what explains who Set really was, and his actions that make the Aardvark the right animal to represent him. Because the fork at the lower end of the Was scepter, is used to measure a specific magnetic field.
In order for all of this mythology about Apep and Set to make sense, its now time to use the template to explain what the Ancient Egyptians were really talking about in their fantastical stories about these two gods of chaos. And the part that these two Gods play in the story of the snake.
