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The Nightly Combat with Apophis
Every single night, a serpent tries to swallow the sun — and must be defeated before dawn.
Egyptians believed that every night, as the sun travelled through the underworld, a vast serpent of chaos named Apophis tried to stop it and devour it. The sun god and his crew — including, in this role, the god Seth — fought and subdued the serpent so the sun could rise again at dawn. Temples even performed rituals to help defeat Apophis. The combat expressed the constant effort needed to keep chaos (isfet) from overwhelming order.
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