One of the most ancient legends about the Sun comes from Egypt. It concerns Kephera – ‘The Sun God Of The Egyptians’ and age-old feud between the Sun himself and his mortal enemy and jealous rival, black Apep of the dark underworld. This version concerns the respect Sun worshipers had for the Sun God – even when traveling…
Rested and refreshed from his overnight camp, the merchant traveller emerged from his temporary tent in the desert. His feet sank into dark sand that was mercifully cool between his toes and there was even a covering of blessed dew on the hide of his tent. Relieved not to have missed the sacred hour of dawn, he knelt to study the horizon and the silver line of light that was beginning to brighten the lifting darkness. He bent to kiss the ground and to spend only a few minutes praying and greeting the Sun God. He knew he must cover as much ground as he could before Annu Kephera rose high in the sky and baked the sand until it was too hot to walk on and burned every live thing that had not managed to find water and shade, under his merciless glare. For the moment, he exulted in the rarity of the moist air, the earth was refreshed and rehydrated like a tender green sycamore sapling, new every morning.
Soon Kephera would show himself after his daily re-birth and the traveller would mark his progress through the heavens and the day. The sky was changing from deep indigo to violet and the silver line became a band of gold. Kephera, the morning scarab, the self-created bornless one and creator of all, was coming. A lizard flicked its tongue to capture a fast-disappearing dewdrop, and scuttled onto a flat rock ready to absorb the life-giving properties of the sun. Other creatures rapidly disappeared into the protective hollows of darkness in the rocks. A single sunbeam lit the waters of the lake in the distance and they shimmered like liquid gold. Violet was banished and sapphire sky took its place as the fiery orb blazed over the horizon. A giant orange disc pulsated over the land, heating the sand, the palms, the oases, the Nile, the Delta, Luxor and the first pyramids, and the world beyond. King of all, the Sun God cleared the horizon to assert his royal domination.
The traveler made haste to cover some ground, as the Sun God rose to approach his mode of transport for the day . Until noon he travels in his morning boat “Matek” as he grows in strength. At Noon, the height of his power and his zenith, no living creature dares to step into his light. Until then he will travel in this boat, a long thin vessel with two oars at the stern and a heavy -beaked Egyptian bird at the prow. Decorating the stern however, is a fearsome snake-like creature, serving to remind him that from Noon onwards he will sink lower in the heavens, grow weaker and after sunset, fight battles with the creature in order to uphold his domination of the sky.
Just after noon, when the drained traveler lies sweating in the shade of his tent, only a snake dares to venture out for a few seconds and only because he has the ability to whip and writhe his long body across the scorching dunes so that each part of his body touches the searing sand for but a few seconds. At last Kephera drops a few degrees on the skyline. He is on his way downwards. The afternoon air is glazed with a transparent curtain of wave after wave of shimmering heat, weaving patterns of mirage in the distance. He must change boats now, to his “diminishing” boat called Semktet. As he loses his strength gradually, it will take him towards evening and sunset.
At last the yellowing western light of late afternoon allows travelers and creatures to move again, announcing the lowering of the Sun God in the sky as he ages and tires – mirroring the seven ages of man himself. The traveler risks, once again, another few miles before dark. Sadly, he beholds the last triumph of the aged Sun God’s day the flashes of color, violet, maroon, rose, coral and scarlet that announce his descent into the dark region below. Here he must battle the Forces Of Evil all night and prevail against the perils of the Underworld. Only then can he re-emerge the triumphant winner the next day, maintaining his top position on the leader board and vanquishing his arch-enemy Apep.
The score he has to settle with Apep goes back a long way for Apep once held the coveted position of Sun God himself. Then the evil being was hurled down to the Underworld in the form of a dragon-like sea-serpent. Every night his task is to prowl the underworld, seeking out Kephera in his “Boat Of The Sun,” assailing him with new horrors and trials to put a stop to his journey of morning re-birth. The only moments when Apep comes close to achieving this dream results in an eclipse or other representation of turbulence on earth such as thunderstorms, for he is the King of Chaos. The eclipse would always pass however, leaving him to bitterly gnash his teeth, and Kephera to lord it again in the golden skies.
In the blessed coolness of the lotus-scented night air the traveler reaches the edge of the desert. As he pitches his tent for the last time on this trip, he reaches into his saddlebag. Out comes a crudely-fashioned wax serpent statuette. He spits on it and stabs it with sharp pins for it is a representation of Apep, the enemy of Kephera and he wills the Sun God to prevail against him, and to re-appear glorious and triumphant in the morning.
