The Creation of the Cosmos

Many of the Egyptian temple’s cult rituals were designed to protect the sun-god Re as he made his daily voyage across the sky and through the perilous underworld. This ritual incantation—taken from a fourth-century B.C. papyrus found at the temple of Karnak, in Luxor— descibes Re’s initial conception of the universe and his ongoing struggles against the forces of chaos (embodied here in the form of a mighty serpent named Apophis). Temple priests would recite this incantation four times a day, in an effort to “curse’ Apophis and ensure the safe return of Re each morning; the All-lord said, after he had come into being:

“I am he who came into being as Khepri [the morning sun god]. When I had come into being, being came into being, and all beings came into being after I had come into being. Many were the beings that came forth from my mouth, before heaven came into being and, before the ground and creeping things had been created in this place. I put together (some) of them in Nun [chaos] as weary ones, before I could find a place in which I might stand. It (seemed) advantageous to me in my heart; I planned with my face; and I made (in concept) every form when I was alone, before I had spat out what was Shu [god of air], before I had sputtered out what was Tefnut [goddest of moisture], and before (any) other had come into being who could act with me.