Apophis: On the Origin, Name, and Nature of an Ancient Egyptian AntiGod

Author(s): Ludwig D. Morenz

Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 63, No. 3 (July 2004), pp. 201-205
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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201
APOPHIS: ON THE ORIGIN, NAME, AND NATURE OF AN ANCIENT
EGYPTIAN ANTI-GOD*
LUDWIG D. MORENZ, University of Leipzig
Apophis is an impressive supernatural gure. This anti-god and enemy of order
surely deserves to be studied in a monograph.
1
Here, however, I offer a brief study of only
some of his attributes.
Apophis is not attested in written or pictorial sources of the Old Kingdom. Does this re-
ect the absence of the concept of Apophis, or is this an accident of transmission or in-
tended restriction caused by decorum? His rst appearance dates to the Period of Regions
(PoR),
2
where he is mentioned in the presentation of self
3
of the nomarch Ankhti of Moalla.
The dating of Ankhti has been widely discussed but can now be xed with some degree
of condence in Dynasty IX.
4
In his tomb there is a long inscription describing a great
famine,
5
a topic characteristic of the PoR.
6
In the center of this microtext embedded in the
presentation of self one reads:
tz pn n pp
this sandbank of Apophis.
* I would like to thank John Baines and Mark
Collier for their valuable suggestions and comments
on earlier drafts of this article.
1
A monograph is still lacking, but cf. E. Hornung
and A. Brodbeck, Apophis, in L, vol. 1, cols. 350
52, esp. 350; cf. also H. Brunner, Seth und Apophis,
in H. Brunner, Das hrende Herz, OBO 80 (Freiburg,
Switzerland and Gttingen, 1988), pp. 12129. One of
the most recent books dealing with Apophis is R. K.
Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical
Practice, SAOC 54 (Chicago, 1993), index, p. 307,
sub Apophis. P. Kousoulis (University of Rhodes) is
preparing a monograph on Apophis.
2
This period was not a dark age. We should thus
replace the common term First Intermediate Period; see
the discussion in my Geschichte(n) der Zeit der Re-
gionen (Erste Zwischenzeit) im Spiegel der Gebelein-
Region, Eine fragmentarische dichte Beschreibung
(Habilitationsschrift, Tbingen, 2001), in preparation
for publication.
3
The term autobiography is rather misleading be-
cause these texts are often not auto- (in the sense of
authorship) nor are they biographies at all; see the
discussion in my Tomb Inscriptions: The Case of the
I versus Autobiography in Ancient Egypt, in Hu-
man Affairs: A Postdisciplinary Journal for Humani-
ties and Social Sciences 13 (2003): 17996.
4
E. Brovarski, The Inscribed Material of the
First Intermediate Period from Naga ed Deir (Ph.D.
diss., University of Chicago, 1989), Appendix C, The
Date of Ankhti of Moalla, pp. 101327. See also
D. Spanel, The Date of Ankhti of Moalla, in GM
78 (1984): 8794.
5
J. Vandier, Moalla, BdE 18 (Cairo, 1950), inscrip-
tion IV.10.
6
J. C. Moreno Garca, tudes sur ladministration,
le pouvoir et lidologie en gypte, de lAncien au
Moyen Empire, gyptiaca Leodiensia 4 (Lige, 1997),
pp. 192; see my Hungersnte in der Ersten Zwi-
schenzeit zwischen Topos und Realitt, in Discussions
in Egyptology 42 (1998): 8497, and my article Ver-
sorgung mit Getreide: Historische Entwicklungen und
intertextuelle Bezge zwischen ausgehendem Alten
Reich und Erster Zwischenzeit aus Achmim, in SAK
26 (1998): 81117.
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Journal of Near Eastern Studies 202
The name Apophis is written as: . In this inscription the snake sign serving as a
determinative has a regular form,
7
while in later writings (from the Cofn Texts onwards)
it was commonly mutilated for euphemistic reasons.
The phrase stands in a damaged part of the inscription, but it seems possible to com-
plete the sentence as proposed by J. Vandier
8
and W. Schenkel:
9
p.t jgp(.tj)
10
t m tw
[z nb hr mwt] n hkr
hr tz pn n pp
The sky is cloudy, (but) the earth is dried,
[Everyone dies] through famine
on this sandbank of Apophis (Moalla IV, 810).
Verse 1 may be a topos of the inverted world as found commonly in works of literature
such as the Admonitions or the Foretelling of Neferti that evoke the PoR, but dateat
least in written formto the Middle Kingdom.
11
Topoi of the inverted world include the
theme of natural disorder or even disaster. The alliterations p.t : jgp(.tj) and t : tw in l.c.
verse 1 can be seen as an intentional poetic feature.
12
Tz with the meaning sandbank is
also attested in other texts from the PoR that describe the shortage of water.
13
The pho-
netic writing pp is determined with the sign of a snake ( , Gardiner, Sign-list, I 14)
14
indicating Apophiss snakelike nature.
15
Unlike Seth, Apophis was never designated ntr
god. Furthermore, he was never represented in statues because he never received a cult
of his own.
Apophis is used here metaphorically. Such a usage is meaningful only if both the name
and the gure are more or less familiar. The absence of Apophis in sources dating to the
Old Kingdom, however, might be more than accidental. The gure of Apophis seems to
be originally a concept of popular religion
16
outside the decorum of the restricted sources
of the elite-culture that survived from the Old Kingdom, while statements about the nether-
world are largely lacking in the Pyramid Texts because the concept of the hereafter that
7
In the tomb of Ankhti there are no examples of
mutilated signs with the exception of the crocodile with
an arrow in its neck; see my Die SobeksSpuren von
Volksreligion im Mittleren Reich, in M. Fitzenreiter,
ed., Tierkulte im pharaonischen gypten, Internet-
Beitrge zur gyptologie und Sudanarchologie 4
(Berlin, 2003), pp. 9293.
8
J. Vandier, Moalla, pp. 223 ff., n. j.
9
W. Schenkel, Memphis, Herakleopolis, Theben,
A 12 (Wiesbaden, 1965), p. 54, n. c.
10
The determinative (sign-list N 1, typical
form of the PoR) could even be understood as an indi-
cator of the stativejgp.tj when read phonetically
as p.t.
11
E. Blumenthal, Die literarische Verarbeitung der
bergangszeit zwischen Altem und Mittlerem Reich,
in A. Loprieno, ed., Ancient Egyptian Literature: His-
tory and Forms, Probleme der gyptologie, vol. 10
(Leiden, 1996), pp. 10535, and my article Literature
as a Construction of the Past in Middle Kingdom
Egypt, in J. Tait, ed., Never Had the Like Occurred:
Egypts View of Its Past (London, 2003), pp. 10117.
12
W. Guglielmi, Der Gebrauch rhetorischer Stil-
mittel in der gyptischen Literatur, in Loprieno, ed.,
Ancient Egyptian Literature, pp. 46597, esp. 46769.
13
W. Schenkel, Die Bewsserungsrevolution im
alten gypten (Mainz, 1978), pp. 5051.
14
Note that a different snake sign was used to de-
termine ntr, god (Moalla I, 12 and I, 13).
15
There are two typical images of Apophis, as a
snake and as a turtle. The hieroglyphic sign of the
turtle (sign-list I 2) was much less common than the
various snake signs. This could be the reason why in
writing Apophis had the snake sign determinative (sign-
list I 14). The snake is, however, in accordance with
pictorial representations of Apophis, for example, in
the Amduat.
16
J. Baines, Practical Religion and Piety, in JEA
73 (1987): 7998.
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Apophis 203
they depict is mainly celestial. The great shifts in the PoR that included changes in reli-
gious belief and in the system of decorum might have led to Apophis being accepted by
the culture of the elite.
17
As in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods, features appear
in the PoR that were not canonized in the Old and the Middle Kingdom. An interesting
parallel between the Predynastic Period and the PoR is provided by such fabulous animals
as the grifn, which are depicted on, for example, a Late Predynastic slate palette and in
tombs at Beni Hassan.
18
Ideas from folklore were occasionally taken over into the re-
stricted culture of the elite, and one of the periods in which such things happened more
easily is the PoR.
Apophis is mentioned more frequently in the Middle Kingdom Cofn Texts, mostly as an
enemy of either the sungod or the dead. Spell 414 describes him as a snake who attacks the
bark of Ra; his snakelike being is also indicated by the determinative (see, for example,
CT V, 244a , , ). He is evidently a snake living in the water.
19
His
mythological role is strongly marked in the underworld books of the New Kingdom. Mag-
ical spells against Apophis were numerous, and some were collected in the form of books.
20
It seems possible to interpret the name pp as a composite word, an exocentric com-
posite,
21
consisting of the two elements great and pp roar, blabber, babble. The
etymological meaning of pp would then be great babbler. Pp seems to be an onomato-
poeic word imitating the inarticulate or even nonverbal sound of this mythological water-
snake. Personal names such as Ppy are comparable in their use of the sound p. Together
with names such as Mmj, Ttj, among others, they constitute a group of Lallnamen.
22
The
doubling of the letter p intensies this quality.
23
The snake merely repeats the plosive
sound p as a kind of gibbering. Characterizing speech by onomatopoeia is very common
in Egyptian, as seen in the roots hm and zm.
24
This interpretation of Apophis as
(great) with the onomatopoeic pp is supported by Bohairic afwf or afwp giant, which
is a clear derivative of pp.
25
It might be possible to understand pp as an onomatopoeic
word for a snake, although no pp root meaning snake has been identied.
26
The syllabic
structure of the word Apophis is u pa1pu(w).
27
17
See also E. Hornung, The Triumph of Magic:
The Sun Gods Victory over Apophis, The Valley of
the Kings, trans. D. Warburton (New York, 1990),
chap. 7, esp. pp. 103 ff. (original title: Das Tal der K-
nige [Zrich and Munich, 1982]).
18
See J. Baines, Symbolic Roles of Canine Fig-
ures on Early Monuments, Archo-Nil 3 (1993): 57
74, p. 62. Fabulous animals have been quite a popular
motif in wall painting in the tombs of Middle Egypt
dating to the late PoR and the early Middle Kingdom.
19
That is why Apophis is colored in blue in some
pictures; see A. Piankoff, Les deux papyrus mythol-
ogiques de Her-Ouben au Muse du Caire, in ASAE
49 (1949): 12944, esp. p. 136 and pl. 8.
20
J. C. Goyon, Apophisbuch, in L, vol. 1, cols.
354 ff.
21
The construction is equivalent to nfr hr; cf. K.
Jansen-Winkel, Exozentrische Komposita als Rela-
tivphrasen im lteren gyptisch, in ZS 121 (1994):
5175.
22
H. G. Fischer, The Transcription of the Royal
Name Pepy, in JEA 75 (1989): esp. p. 215, n. 7.
23
Duplication creates either diminutiva or inten-
siva; see J. Osing, Die Nominalbildung des gyptischen
(Mainz, 1976), pp. 295309, sub V.B.II. Reduplikations-
bildungen (Diminutiva und Intensiva).
24
Cf. P. Derchain, propos de deux racines s-
mitiques *hm et *zm, in CdE 42 (1967): 30610. Hm
as well as zm were also duplicated: hmhm and zmz,
zmzm.
25
Contrary to the ideas of W. Vycichl, the name
should not be derived from pj; see Osing, Nominalbil-
dung, p. 345.
26
Many names of snakes are listed in the treatise
on serpents, but these do not include pp; see S. Sau-
neron, Un trait gyptien dophiologie: Papyrus du
Brooklyn Museum N
os
47.218.48 et 85, Publications
de lInstitut franais darchologie oriental, vol. 11
(Cairo, 1989).
27
E. Edel, Altgyptische Grammatik, vol. 1, AnOr
34 (Rome, 1955), s 229; Osing, Nominalbildung,
p. 297.
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Journal of Near Eastern Studies 204
An alternative to the above explanation would be to derive the name of the mythologi-
cal snake pp from the word p, which is attested once in the Old Kingdom, in the tomb
inscription of Ti (Urk. I, 174, 5 f.). Here p ( ) is used complementary to msqq:
[my rdy(=j) hpr] msqq.t=f nb q.t
ny rdy(=j) hpr p=f nb h ntr
[Never will I permit] that anything he hates (msqq) [should happen]eternally;
never will I permit that his p should happen before the great god.
Here too p could be an onomatopoeic word composed of the root and the plosive
sound p with the meaning stammer. On the other hand, p( p) may be just onomato-
poeic. In combination, the glottal stop and the ayin were used to characterize foreign,
barbaric languages by onomatopoeia in the root ( j).
28
The deceased should not stam-
mer but should speak clearly and articulately before the great god in the hereafter. Accord-
ing to this interpretation pp seems to be a construct on the intensive pattern ABC/C
29
with the meaning the one who stammers most. Here one may compare the sea monster
tannin in the Hebrew Bible. This term is also found in the sense of serpent. The etymol-
ogy of tannin is uncertain, but it has been suggested that it is related to the root TNH (re-
count, rehearse) as lament, howl.
30
The noblest function of language is communication.
31
Meaning and relationships are
founded by it, and the entire web of culture depends on communication. Apophis, how-
ever, is strictly anticommunicative. In the underworld books, Apophis appears as the g-
ure of darkness and embodiment of anticommunication. Language endows meaning and
relation, and Apophis is the negation of precisely these ideas. In the seventh hour of the
Amduat about Apophis it is said:
jn hrw=f ssm ntr.w r=f
It is his (Apophiss) voice that leads the gods to him
32
and in the sixth hour of the Book of the Gates:
33
jw.tj jr.tj {n}[=fj]hf.w pn
jw.tj fnq=f jw.tj msqr.wj=fj
zrk=f m hmhm.t=f
nh=f m qwj=f qs=f
One without its eyes is this snake,
without its nose and without its ears:
it breathes its screaming (hmhm.t),
it lives on its own shouting.
28
Cf. L. D. Bell, Interpreters and Egyptianized
Nubians in Ancient Egyptian Foreign Policy: Aspects
of the History of Egypt and Nubia (Ph.D. diss., Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, 1976).
29
Edel, Altgyptische Grammatik, s 229, p. 100,
and Osing, Nominalbildung, p. 297.
30
K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P. van der
Horst, eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the
Hebrew Bible, 2d ed. (Leiden, 1999), p. 1579, sub
Tannin.
31
For the importance of communication in Egyp-
tian civilization, see J. Assmann, Maat: Gerechtig-
keit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten gypten (Munich,
1990).
32
E. Hornung, ed., Texte zum Amduat, Teil II: Lang-
fassung, 4. bis 8. Stunde, gyptiaca Helvetica 14 (Ge-
neva, 1992), p. 551.
33
Idem, Das Buch von den Pforten des Jenseits,
gyptiaca Helvetica 7 (Geneva, 1979) (Text), scene
35, pp. 21314.
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Apophis 205
This short stanza describes Apophis as an antisocial creature without any proper sensory
organs. Apophis is just noisy. In the litany of negative epithets (the names of Apophis which
shall not be, n rn n pp ntj nn wn=sn, in P. Bremner-Rhind 32,1332,42), Apophis is
called:
pp h hmhm.tj
Apophis, the fallen one, the Roarer (32,17).
A supercially similar but in reality very different phenomenon from Apophis is the lan-
guage of Yahweh as described especially in Deut. 4:12 and 5:22. The people of Israel did
not hear distinct words but only the voice (5:22) or the voice of words (4:12). That
is why Moses acted as translator of the language of God, which was incomprehensible to
ordinary people.
34
The language of the gods was transhuman in Egypt as well. It was the
mysterious language of the baboons.
35
A physician of the late Old Kingdom held the
title j hmw.t st.t speaker of the secret art, which refers to a perhaps magical language
( j) in medicine (hmw.t st.t).
36
In this context j means metaphorically either an abra-
cadabra or possibly a genuine foreign language. In order to be efcacious, this language
had to transcend daily life, and so had to be in some sense non-Egyptian.
In summary, Apophis is conceived as a great babbler, a snakelike being living in the
water. One should recall the general context of Egypt in the ancient Near East (cf. Levia-
than, Tannin, etc.), where the image of a snake-dragon that symbolizes water as well as re
was very common.
37
Most probably the conception of Apophis was transferred from
popular religion into the culture of the elite during the PoR and remained signicant until
the very end of ancient Egyptian culture or even later. Perhaps Apophis lived on, only
slightly changed, as the dragon of the Middle Ages.
38
Holding back water is one of the
most characteristic activities of dragons, and this notion is present in the very oldest
known occurrence of Apophis, namely, in the metaphorical expression sandbank of Apo-
phis attested in the tomb of Ankhti at Moalla.
34
To translate the language of Yahweh was seen as
one of the most important prophetic tasks of Moses;
cf. Philo Vita Mosis 2. 18991.
35
H. te Velde, Some Remarks on the Mysterious
Language of the Baboons, in J. H. Kamstra, H. Milde,
and K. Wagtendonk, eds., Funerary Symbols and Re-
ligion (Festschrift M. S. H. G. Heerma van Voss)
(Kampen, 1988), pp. 12937.
36
See my article (Magische) Sprache der gehei-
men Kunst, in SAK 24 (1997): 191201.
37
O. Keel, Die Welt der altorientalischen Bilder-
symbolik und das Alte Testament (Zrich, 1972), pp.
3947.
38
E. Brunner-Traut, AltgyptenUrsprungsland des
mittelalterlich-europischen Drachen? in E. Brunner-
Traut, Gelebte Mythen: Beitrge zum altgyptischen
Mythos (Darmstadt, 1988), pp. 10916.
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