Details
Region Additional (if applicable)
Egyptian
Region
Category
Monster
Gender
N/A
Time Period
New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BCE), in the Book of the Dead
Symbol
Beetle Pincers
Tags
egyptian, monster, book-of-the-dead, beetle, underworld, destruction
Introduction
The apshait is a malevolent creature of Egyptian funerary theology, appearing in Spell 36 of the Book of the Dead as a flesh-eating beetle or insect that threatens to consume the body of the deceased in the afterlife. Its Egyptian name, transliterated ꜥpšꜣyt, incorporates hieroglyphic determinatives depicting a beetle or insect, underscoring its identity as an entomological threat to postmortem preservation.
In Egyptian belief, the integrity of the physical body was essential for eternal survival. The deceased needed their body to be preserved in order for the ba (soul) and ka (life force) to reunite and achieve resurrection in the Field of Reeds. The apshait represented a direct attack on this necessity - a force of corruption and decay that could destroy the physical vessel upon which immortality depended.
Gallery
Other depictions of Apshait as a beetle devourer.
Who or What was...
Apshait
Spell 36 of the Book of the Dead - titled "Chapter whereby the Apshait is kept back" - is the primary source for this creature. In the standard translation from the Theban recension, the deceased identifies with the creator god Khnum to command the creature's retreat: "Away from me, thou with parted lips! I am Khnum, the Lord of Shennu, who am bringing the words of the gods to Ra." The phrase "parted lips" (or "lips which gnaw") describes the apshait's anatomy as adapted for chewing - a direct threat to the intact mummy.
The apshait likely originated in observations of real carrion insects that infested poorly preserved mummies. Egyptologists including E.A. Wallis Budge noted that beetles - particularly dermestid species - were sometimes found crushed in mummy bandages, having burrowed into the corpse. This practical reality was transmuted into mythological danger: the apshait became a demonic entity in the Duat, one of many devouring monsters the deceased had to name and repel through magical knowledge.
Vignettes accompanying Spell 36 often depict the deceased spearing a beetle-like creature or confronting it with a knife and staff. The apshait is paired in protective sequences (Spells 33-39) with other threats including serpents and crocodiles, forming a comprehensive programme of bodily defence. Some later interpretations have equated the apshait with cockroaches or other scavenging insects, though the precise zoological referent remains debated. The creature functions as the malevolent counterpart to the scarab deity Khepri, who embodied regeneration and solar rebirth.
Summary
The apshait was a flesh-eating beetle of the Egyptian underworld, documented in Book of the Dead Spell 36 as a threat to the deceased's bodily integrity. Real carrion insects likely inspired its mythological form, which was ritually repelled through identification with Khnum and apotropaic magic.
References
Validation References: - Wikipedia: "Apshait" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apshait) - Grokipedia: "Apshait" (https://grokipedia.com/page/apshait) - E.A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead (1898 edition) - Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (1972) - Salima Ikram, Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt (2005)