Apepi is the personification of the storm-cloud and, as such, is the enemy of Râ, by whom he is vanquished. As representing a natural phenomenon of irregular occurrence, he is not deified like Sutu, the Darkness of Night.
On comparing this chapter with the 99th, it would appear that the occasion for reciting it is on the journey of the heavenly boat through ridges of cloud, which are pictured as the coils of a great serpent, and described as
inanes, empty, void. In the papyrus of Nebket (Pe) the vignette shows the deceased person transfixing the dragon. The chapter itself was said over a wax figure of the demon.
[1.] These wax figures of gods and other personages were used not only for ritual but for unlawful magical purposes. The Rollin papyrus reports about a criminal condemned to death for magical arts. He was charged with making
