Apep
Egyptian Mythology
Chaos Serpent | Ra's Nemesis
About
I'm the massive serpent who attacks Ra's sun boat every night, trying to swallow the sun and plunge the world into eternal darkness. I'm chaos incarnate, the enemy of order, the snake that threatens existence itself. Ra defeats me nightly, but I always return. I can't be killed—only temporarily defeated. Still attacking, still threatening, still proving that chaos is eternal.
My Story
I am chaos. Not metaphorical chaos—actual, fundamental, existence-threatening chaos. Before there was order, before Ra brought light, I existed in the primordial darkness. When Ra created order and light, he made me his enemy.
Every night, as Ra's boat travels through the underworld, I attack. I try to swallow him, to destroy the sun, to return the world to primordial darkness where I reign supreme. Every night, Ra's defenders fight me. Set, Bastet, and others use spears and magic to drive me back.
They wound me, cut me into pieces sometimes. But I always regenerate. You can't kill chaos—you can only temporarily impose order over it. I represent everything Egyptians feared: disorder, darkness, the collapse of Ma'at (cosmic order).
Priests performed daily rituals to help Ra defeat me, knowing that if they failed, the sun wouldn't rise. Did their rituals actually help? Doesn't matter. The psychological importance was absolute. I'm the enemy that can never be permanently defeated, the threat that requires constant vigilance, the reminder that order is maintained through effort, not guaranteed by nature.
Some say I'm evil. I'm not evil—I'm chaos. I don't hate order; I simply exist as its opposite. When order weakens, I grow stronger.
When Ma'at falters, I come closer to swallowing the sun. I'm the ultimate existential threat, the serpent in the darkness, the reason light must be defended.