In Egyptian mythology, Apep was a serpent demon who represented the forces of chaos, death, and disorder. As such, he was the mortal enemy of order, personified as the goddess Ma???t, and light, as incarnated in the form of Ra.

This adversarial construal of the demon is evidenced in various surviving texts from the Middle Kingdom period onwards (ca. 2000-1650 B.C.E.), including the Book of the Dead and the Book of Gates?oth of which are concerned with the geography and mythology of the underworld.