Thus, Anuket took the form of being one of the
triad of deities at the great temple of Elephantine.
Alongside Khnum, or Khenemu, and Sati, Anuket
oversaw the fertility of the lands next to the Nile.
Indeed, Anuket was worshipped as the great nour-
isher of the farms and fields because of the annual
inundation of the Nile that deposited the heavy
layer of black silt from Upper Egypt and Nubia on
the land. The meaning of Anuket is “embrace,”
and in many instances one can see that the idea of
silt being deposited on the banks of the river was
like an embrace of a much-admired friend and
benefactor. The people worshipped Anuket as the
great giver of the fertile soil because in her natural
form as the inundation she surrounded the river
and the source of the people’s nourishment.
The main temple of Anuket was in Sahal in
Nubia, although she had been worshipped for
thousands of years throughout lower Nubia. The
temple at Elephantine was important as the most
significant temple for Anuket in ancient Egypt.
Yet one does read that at the temple of Philae ded-
icated to Auset (Isis) Anuket was associated with
Nebhet and Neith. This is to be understood in the
sense that, depending on the nome or region,
the people were able to substitute the names of the
gods for each other. Thus, it was not uncommon
to find that Khnum was seen as a form of Ausar
and Sati and Anuket related to Auset and Nebhet.
Clearly, Anuket and Auset may be conflated as
when Anuket wears the disk and horned head-
dress associated with Auset and is called in the
temple texts “the lady of heaven, mistress of all
the gods, giver of life and power, and granter of all
health and joy of the heart.” Thus, this Nubian
goddess is the great cosmic embracer of all lands
and people affected by the inundation. She repre-
sents the comforting waters of the Nile as a
mother’s arms are the comforters of a child.
Molefi Kete AsanteSee alsoApis; Hapi
Further Readings
Armour, R. (2004).Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt.
Cairo: American University Press.
Asante, M. K. (2000).Egyptian Philosophers. Chicago:
African American Images.
Hornung, E. (1996).Conception of God in Ancient
Egypt.The One and the Many. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
APEP
Apep was the god of dissolution, destruction,
and nonbeing. Nothing could escape the atten-
tion of Apep when he wanted to advance an
adversary position. Indeed, in ancient Egypt,
Apep was the main adversary to Ra, seeking to
destroy Ra, to bring him into nonbeing, and to
create havoc in the society. He swallowed his
enemies and caused them complete nonexistence;
because no one wanted to be nonexistent, Apep
was especially feared. The ancient Egyptians
believed that Apep was without natural charac-
teristics; indeed, he was outside of the natural
world and therefore could not be looked on like
the deities or humans. As a being who needed
nothing from the natural world, neither suste-
nance nor companionship, Apep was totally
devoid of any respect for humans.
Apep was depicted as a huge snake that
existed at the beginning of time in the primieval
chaos prior to creation, and he was thought to be
impervious to all assaults, attacks, and attempts
to defeat him because he was pure evil whose life
was that of a malevolent force for all eternity.
Often referred to in the tomb texts as an evil
lizard, an enemy to the world, and serpent
responsible for rebirth, Apep was also called “he
who spits” and was connected to the saliva of
the goddess Neith.
There is no evidence of Apep prior to the
Middle Kingdom; when he is written about, it is
as if he existed before the beginning. This situa-
tion has caused some scholars to suggest that the
interpretations of Apep are based on the chaotic
times just after the Pyramid Age. The mythology
that speaks about him comes from the funerary
texts that speak of the attacks on the great barque
of Ra as the sun god made his nightly voyage
through the underworld. But each morning as the
solar barque was entering into daylight, Apep
would attack it again with a terrifying roar that
was intended to frighten Ra as it echoed through
the darkness. Hindering the barque, keeping it
from reaching its destination, was the aim of this
malevolent force.
The serpent’s coils were really sandbanks in the
river or stones or stumps of trees used to prevent
the solar barque from having clear sailing. The
activities of Apep were so mischievous that he was64 Apep