The Question of Evil in Ancient Egypt

This volume examines how the Ancient Egyptians understood the origins of evil in the world - was evil present in creation from the very beginning, or did it come about at some point after the first stage of the creation progress, and thus was the world created perfect or imperfect. Kemboly first surveys debates among Egyptologists, then re-examines Egyptian creation accounts and hymns to the creator from the Old Kingdom Pyramid texts to Graeco-Roman era inscriptions. In so doing, he also analyses how the Egyptians conceptualised evil, and finds it personified in Apopis. By discussing texts from a long period, Kemboly also attempts to trace any changes in Egpytian attitudes to these issues over time.