Monsters and Mythical Creatures of Ancient Egypt

In the Egyptian canon, it’s often difficult to distinguish monsters and mythical creatures from the gods themselves — for example, how do you classify the cat-headed goddess Bastet, or the jackal-headed god Anubis? Still, there are some figures that don’t quite rise to the level of actual deities, functioning instead as either symbols of power — or ruthlessness — or figures to be invoked as warnings to mischievous children. Below, you’ll discover the eight most important monsters and mythical creatures of ancient Egypt, ranging from the crocodile-headed chimera Ammit to the rearing cobra known as Uraeus.

Ammit, Devourer of the Dead

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A mythological chimera composed of the head of a crocodile, the forelimbs of a lion, and the hind limbs of a hippopotamus, Ammit was the personification of the man-eating predators so feared by ancient Egyptians. According to legend, after a person died, the Egyptian god Anubis weighed the deceased’s heart on a scale against a single feather from Ma’at, the goddess of truth. If the heart was found wanting, it would be devoured by Ammit, and the individual’s soul would be cast for eternity into fiery limbo. Like many other Egyptian monsters on this list, Ammit has been linked (or even conflated) with various obscure deities, including Tarewet, the goddess of conception and childbirth, and Bes, the protector of the hearth.

Apep, the Enemy of Light

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The arch-enemy of Ma’at (the goddess of truth mentioned in the previous slide), Apep was a giant mythological snake that stretched for 50 feet from head to tail (oddly enough, we now have fossil evidence that some real-life snakes, like the allusively named Titanoboa of South America, actually attained these gigantic sizes). According to legend, every morning the Egyptian sun god Ra engaged in a heated battle with Apep, coiled just below the horizon, and could only shine his light after vanquishing his foe. What’s more, the subterranean movements of Apep were said to cause earthquakes, and its violent encounters with Set, the god of the desert, spawned terrifying thunderstorms.

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