The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) · 103 of 357 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 10 (part 18)
The charms against serpents in the pyramid texts of the Vth and VIth dynasties have their equivalents in the XXXIst and XXXIIIrd Chapters of the Book of the Dead, which are found on coffins of the XIth and XIIth dynasties; and in the XVIIIth dynasty we find vignettes in which the deceased is depicted in the act of spearing a crocodile and of slaughtering serpents. In the Theban and Saïte versions are several small chapters the recital of which drove away reptiles; and of these the most important is the XXXIXth Chapter, which preserved the deceased from the attack of the great serpent Apef or Apep, who is depicted with knives stuck in his folds. In the period of the later dynasties a service was performed daily in th temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes to deliver the Sun-god from the assault of this fiend and on each occasion it was accompanied by a ceremony in which a waxen figure of Apep was burnt in the fire; as the wax melted, so the power of Apep was destroyed.
Another name of Apep was Nak, who was pierced by the lance of th eye of Horus and made to vomit what he had swallowed. The Devourer of the Dead The judgment scene in the Theban edition of the Book of the Dead reveal the belief in the existence of a tri-formed monster, part crocodile, part lion, and [1.
Maspero, Recueil de Travaux , t.
iii., p.
220.
2.
Goodwin, Aeg.
Zeitschrift , 1866, p.
54; see also Lepsius, Aelteste Texte , Bl.
35, l.
1 ff.
3.
Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd.
I., Bl.
44.
4.
Ibid.
, Bd.
I., Bl.
46.
5.
I.e.
, chapp.
32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, etc.
6.
For the text see Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd.
I., Bl.
53; and Lepsius, Todtenbuch , Bl.
18.
7.
See Lanzone, Dizionario , p.
121.
8.
The service for the Overthrowing of Apepi is printed in Archæologia , vol.
lii., pp.
393-608.
9.
###.
Grébaut, Hymne, p.
10.] part hippopotamus, whom the Egyptians called Am-mit, i.e.
, "the eater of the Dead," and who lived in Amenta; her place is by the side of the scales wherein the heart is weighed, and it is clear that such hearts as failed to balance the feather of Maat were devoured by her.
In one papyrus she is depicted crouching by the side of a lake. Other types of evil were the insect Apshai,confounded in later times with the tortoise, which dies as Ra lives; the crocodile Sebak, who afterwards became identified with Ra; the hippopotamus, the ass, etc .
The devils of the underworld.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
The efficacy of the wax figure ritual ('as the wax melted, so the power of Apep was destroyed') relies on sympathetic magic principles.
The Egyptian principle of truth, balance, and right order underlying both the cosmos and human conduct; the parallel to Zoroastrian asha and Greek dike.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes the weighing of the heart against the feather of Maat as a central element of the judgment scene.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
Rituals such as burning a wax figure of Apep to destroy his power exemplify engaging divine powers through material symbols.