Tradition / Region: Egypt Mythology
Alternative names: Apshait Beetle
Category: Insect

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The Myth

The Apshait was a monstrous flesh-eating beetle from ancient Egyptian mythology and funerary tradition. It appears in the Book of the Dead, particularly in Chapter 36, where it is described as a corpse-devouring creature feared by the dead.

The creature was believed to gnaw upon bodies and consume corpses, making it a symbol of decay and destruction within the tomb. Egyptian funerary spells were designed to protect the deceased from beings like the Apshait during the journey through the afterlife.

In protective rituals, the soul of the dead threatens the Apshait with weapons such as knives and spears, magically driving the monster away before it can damage the body.

Some scholars believe the myth may have originated from real carrion beetles found inside damaged or poorly preserved mummies, where insects fed upon the wrappings and flesh of the dead.

Later Egyptian texts sometimes confused the Apshait with the tortoise, another creature occasionally associated with darkness and enemies of the sun god Ra.

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Sources

A Book of Creatures. (2017, May 22). Apshait. Retrieved May 15, 2026, from https://abookofcreatures.com/2017/05/22/apshait/

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Apshait. In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 15, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apshait

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