Twin Serpents of Chaos: One Creates the World, the Other Destroys it -- Egyptian Mythology.

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to dive into some Egyptian mythology, specifically, the twin serpents of creation and destruction, Atum and Apophis - one to create the world, raising it out of the waters of chaos, the other to destroy it, returning it to the waters of chaos.

To begin with, we’re going to discuss the state of existence before creation; then, we’re going to look at the creation of the world; and finally, we’re going to look at the end of the universe and at the cyclical view of eternity held by ancient Egyptians.

Let’s get into it.

Looked at linearly, the timeline of ancient Egyptian mythology can be segmented into seven stages: the oneness of pure chaos, the self-engenderment of the creator, the creation of the world and its denizens (gods, humans, animals), the rule of Ra, the sun god, the rule of other deities, the time of mortal Egyptian kings, and lastly, the inevitable return to chaos.

In the beginning there was only chaos, and for the ancient Egyptians chaos wasn’t conceptualized as a great void but by the primordial waters of Nun, which were dark, boundless, and infinite. In them was contained limitless potential, for the latent power of creation existed in them; yet alone nothing could come of them, for they were perfectly homogenous; in this uniform state, the elements of creation were unseparated, making them inert. It wasn’t until opposites came to be, existing as a series of binaries - life and death, light and dark, male and female, and so on - that creation became possible, as is said in this passage from Egyptian Mythology: A guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt:

“The origin of the universe was an intellectual problem that came to fascinate the Egyptians. Texts that allude to the unknowable era before creation define it as the time “before two things had developed”. The cosmos was not yet divided into pairs of opposites.”

Watch the video for the rest!

Видео Twin Serpents of Chaos: One Creates the World, the Other Destroys it -- Egyptian Mythology. канала Mythology Explained