Ab-ta
Also called Ab-Ta.
Ab-ta is one of the guardian serpents of the Egyptian underworld, stationed at a division of the night through which the sun must pass, and overcome by the correct words rather than by force.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Egyptian mythology
- Region
- Underworld (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Threshold-Keepers
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
a serpent at a threshold
Behaviour
- Underworld gatekeeper
why
What is stable is the role: a serpent at a threshold, immense enough to matter and specific enough to be named, whose whole existence is the act of barring.
- Can be placated by specific ritual or trick
why
The guardians of these texts are not obstacles to be fought so much as tests of knowledge: the traveller who knows the name and the formula proceeds, and the one who does not is stopped.
Defensive powers
- Threshold guardianship
why
What is stable is the role: a serpent at a threshold, immense enough to matter and specific enough to be named, whose whole existence is the act of barring.
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.
- Serpent carries both readings
1 citation
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ab-Ta."
- Threshold carries both readings
1 citation
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ab-Ta."
- Death meets
1 citation
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ab-Ta."
- Hero meets
1 citation
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Ab-Ta."