Apophis

“Apophis, O Enemy of Ra!
Turn your face away!
Ra hates the very sight of you!
Thy head is cut off, hacked in pieces and thrown away on either side of the roads.
Your head is crushed, O Groundling!
Your bones are broken up and your flesh cut in pieces.
Ra has consigned you to the earth, O Apophis! Enemy of Ra!”
- The Overthrowing of Apophis

Apophis was the great adversary of the sun-god Ra and embodiment of the powers of chaos, darkness, and non-being, and thus the opponent of light and Ma’at (truth and order.) The serpent was believed to have existed from the beginning of time, swimming in the water of primeval chaos which preceded creation. Apophis was thought to continually exist in a cycle of attack, defeat, and resurgent attack on the solar boat as it made its way through the underworld.

This demon was not attested before the Middle Kingdom, and seems to have come into being in the uncertain and fearful times which followed the Pyramid Age. In some myths the sun god is encircled or swallowed by the serpent that later disgorges him as a metaphor of rebirth and renewal. In a few myths, Apophis was an earlier and discarded sun-god himself. This helps to explain the snake's strength and his resentment of the daily journey of the sun.

It was said that each night Apophis hypnotized Ra and his entourage who sailed with him except for the god Set who resisted the serpent’s deadly stare and repulsed him with the thrust of a great spear. Then the serpent was bound with chains and hacked to pieces, the dawn sky being stained red with the blood of Apophis. On the occasions when Apophis was said to have been killed, he was able to return each night (since he lived in the world of the dead already.)

Apophis was associated with frightening natural events such as unexplained darkness, storms, and earthquakes. It was thought that sometimes Apophis actually managed to swallow Ra during the day, causing a solar eclipse, but since Ra's defenders quickly cut him free of Apophis, the eclipse always ended within a few minutes.

One spell against Apophis says: “Apophis has fallen into the flame, a knife is stuck into his head, his name no longer exists anywhere on the earth. I sever his vertebrae from his neck, cutting into his flesh with a knife and stabbing through his skin.”

Apophis was pictured as a huge, constricting serpent, never as a cobra - that form was reserved for the goddess Wadjet.

In some myths Apophis came into being from the saliva of the goddess Neith, who spat into the primeval waters when Ra angered her. Others say that Apophis was born from Ra's umbilical cord.