Jawnomicon

Apep

Also called Apophis, Aapep.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, Apep is the primordial serpent of chaos who attacks the sun god Ra's barque each night in the underworld, embodying the ever-present threat that order (maat) could collapse back into chaos (isfet).

At a glance

Tradition
Egyptian mythology
Trait family
The Swallowers

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Serpentine elongated body
    why

    the great adversarial serpent of ancient Egyptian mythology, a being of enormous size sometimes described as stretching for many cubits

  • Armor-like hide
    why

    with a body of stone or flint

Behaviour

  • Attacks sun barque nightly
    why

    Apep's central role in myth is as the nightly enemy of the sun god Ra during Ra's journey through the underworld, the Duat, aboard his solar barque.

  • Endlessly reconstitutes after defeat
    why

    Crucially, in most tellings Apep is never permanently destroyed, only cut down, repelled, or driven off night after night, only to reconstitute himself and renew the assault the following night;

Omens

  • Personifies cosmic chaos
    why

    this endless cycle made Apep less a monster to be defeated once and for all than a permanent cosmic principle, the personification of isfet (chaos, non-being, disorder) standing in eternal opposition to maat (truth, order, cosmic balance) that Ra and the pharaoh alike were charged with upholding.

  • Eternal return cycle
    why

    Crucially, in most tellings Apep is never permanently destroyed, only cut down, repelled, or driven off night after night, only to reconstitute himself and renew the assault the following night; this endless cycle made Apep less a monster to be defeated once and for all than a permanent cosmic principle, the personification of isfet (chaos, non-being, disorder) standing in eternal opposition to maat (truth, order, cosmic balance) that Ra and the pharaoh alike were charged with upholding.

Offensive powers

  • Devouring
    why

    Each night the barque had to pass through Apep's domain, and Apep would attempt to halt or swallow it, most often by attempting to drink up the waters of the underworld river the barque sailed on so that it would run aground.

Defensive powers

  • Regeneration
    why

    Apep is never permanently destroyed, only cut down, repelled, or driven off night after night, only to reconstitute himself and renew the assault the following night

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.