the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Gods Of The Book Of The Dead.
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.[9]
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.]
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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.[1] Other types of evil were the insect Apshai, [2]confounded in later times with the
tortoise[3], which dies as Ra lives;[4] the crocodile Sebak, who afterwards became identified with Ra;
the hippopotamus, the ass, etc.
The devils of the underworld.
The pyramid texts afford scanty information about the fiends and devils with which the later Egyptians
peopled certain parts of the Tuat, wherein the night sun pursued his course, and where the souls of the
dead dwelt; for this we must turn to the composition entitled the " Book of what is in the Tuat," several
copies of which have come down to us inscribed upon tombs, coffins, and papyri of the XVIIIth and
following dynasties. The Tuat was divided into twelve parts, corresponding to the twelve hours of the
night; and this Book professed to afford to the deceased the means whereby he might pass through them
successfully. In one of these divisions, which was under the rule of the god Seker, the entrance was
guarded by a serpent on four legs with a human head, and within were a serpent with three heads,
scorpions,[5] vipers, and winged monsters of terrifying aspect; a vast desert place was their abode, and
seemingly the darkness was so thick there that it might be felt. In other divisions we find serpents spitting
fire, lions, crocodile-headed gods, a serpent that devours the dead, a huge crocodile, and many other
reptiles of divers shapes and forms.
From the descriptions which accompany the scenes, it is evident that the Tuat was regarded by the
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