Dragons of Lore Series: Apep, Enemy of the Egyptian Sun God Ra

I love Egypt. The mysterious pyramids, the pharaohs, Cleopatra, the gods, the goddesses, hieroglyphs, the biblical Moses story, the mummies, the Nile…the list goes on and on. Oh, and they also have an incredible dragon myth. For those of you that didn’t know that, let me introduce you to Apep, the greatest enemy of the sun god, Ra.

In Egyptian mythology, Apep is a serpent dragon and the chief demon god of the underworld. Every night when the sun sets, Ra would have to travel through the underworld in order to bring back the sun the next morning. Apep would be waiting to destroy him. Of course, Ra, with the help of his lesser god and goddess buddies would always emerge victorious, slaying the dragon Apep, who would inevitably come back to life to battle Ra again the next day.

Apep became part of Egytpian mythology in the middle part of the pharaoh dynasties, replacing the demon-god Set as lord of the underworld, the leader of demonic armies and the bad ass icon of all things evil. At that point, Set joined forces with Ra and Apep became supreme god. But the trio of Ra, Set and Isis wanted to share that power with him. He refused, so they attacked. When they cast him into the underworld, he made it his mission to destroy Ra. Luckily for us; he hasn’t been able to…yet.

Apep used many weapons to battle Ra. The cold darkness of the underworld was his first choice, but there were more tricks up his sleeve than that. He also used sandstorms, thunderstorms and earthquakes to steal the light from the sky. Probably the most stunning of his weapons was his use of solar eclipse to bring darkness to the world of humans. In this case Ra would call upon his own minions to save him, such as Bast, Isis and Horus. They would use swords to cut the serpent to pieces and free the life giving sun from eternal hell.

The people of Egypt also helped Ra. They would hold a ritual called Banishing Apep and other spells from the Book of Apophis to protect themselves from his wrath and bless their main god. Ra’s priests and worshippers would make an effigy of Apep and destroy it to symbolically show their love for their god and to protect both the living and the dead.

Apep was depicted in hieroglyphs as a giant serpent and sometimes as a circular ball that represented his evil eye. Usually he is shown being cut to pieces by a cat with a knife. An all-powerful god, Apep could be temporarily defeated, but never be totally destroyed. He always came back to life to bring the battle back to Ra.

This great dragon-demon was not just known to Egyptians. The ancient Greeks called him Apophis, In today’s world, a near Earth asteroid bears his name.  Apophis has a small chance of impacting our planet in 2029 and again in 2036 and 2068. If it somehow does hit us, the resulting explosion of dust it would fling into our atmosphere would surely entrap Ra in darkness…for a time.

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Dragons of Lore Intro

With all due respect to unicorns, faeries, dwarfs, elves, trolls and other fabled beings, my favorite mythical creature are dragons. If lions are kings of the jungle, then dragons were emperors of the air, water and land. Nothing could strike more fear into the ancient hearts of our ancestors than dragon attack. Real or made up doesn’t matter, legends of dragons were believed to be true by human beings for many millennia. Who am I to say they didn’t know what they were talking about?

These creatures loved one thing: hordes of treasure, and they would do anything to protect their horde, once they stole it from humans or some other mythical creature. They would destroy entire kingdoms to get what they wanted. Some have even demanded tribute, usually a young virgin chosen by a shaman, in exchange for not destroying a kingdom.

The best way to kill the dragon was by the combination of wizard/priest and a brave knight in shining armor. The dragon had one weakness: One scale missing right in front of his heart; the proverbial soft spot. Hit that spot and the dragon was slain. Of course, slaying a dragon would make one famous for eternity. Remember the stories of Beowulf, St. George & Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristan? All were dragon slayers. However, most daring warriors that challenged dragons ended up as a juicy roast.

I’ve often wondered how dragons would fare in today’s world? In Suffer the Witch Chronicles, I wanted to write a story about non-stereotypical characters who suddenly gain unbelievable paranormal powers and I also wanted to bring dragons into the twenty-first century. I believe Gazzy Windstorm, my dragon character in Rise of the Raven Knights, has given me the inspiration to accomplish my goals.

Some of the dragons I am going to touch on during the next several weeks are Smaug (from The Hobbit), the dragon slain by Beowulf, the Lambton Worm, St. Georges dragon, Medieval dragons, Indian dragons, Chinese dragons, the biblical dragon of the Apocalypse, the four types of Greek dragons (the Dracones, the Cetea, the fire-breathing Chimaera and the female Dracaenae), Egyptian Apep (the Sun god Ra’s enemy of darkness) and one or two more I haven’t yet settled on.

What exactly where dragons? UFO’s? All civilizations have UFO myths, disguised in one way or another, just as they do dragon myths. No tangible evidence exists for either, yet… Dinosaurs? Kind of similar looking creatures, these dinosaurs and dragons, aren’t they? Given our ancients somewhat modern trait of stretching tall tales, one could certainly make the case for them seeing dinosaur bones and making a connection. There could more to this story than that, though. Recent evidence suggests that modern humans and dinosaurs could have lived in the same age. The evidence speaks for itself and I will explore this development in depth in an upcoming blog. Comets? Besides UFO’s firing advanced laser technology, I can think of nothing that could represent the fire breathing flying beast which destroys civilizations better than comets. Volcanoes could’ve also had the same effect. In a religious sense, dragons could have the meaning of sin and also conquering kingdoms. Dragons have been linked to all of these things at one point or another throughout recorded history. One could make a case for and against any of these. I will dig deep into this question and come up with an interesting take for you, my readers, to enjoy.

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