Babi
Egyptian · deity · mythic · deity
Anyone who has watched a baboon troop will recognise what the Egyptians did here. Babi is the dominant male: aggressive, sexually unconcealed, dangerous to approach, and exactly the sort of power you would want between you and whatever is coming. The Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead use him both ways — as a threat to the dead, who eat their entrails, and as a guardian to be enlisted, with spells that identify the speaker with him. His phallus, in one of the odder passages, is the bolt on the doors of heaven. This is distinct from the baboon of Thoth, who is contemplative and holds a moon.
Domains
- aggression
Sources
- Reference treatments of Babi, his names and his underworld role.