Babi

At the edge of a lake of fire, somewhere in the lower country of the dead, a baboon sits and waits for the verdict. The flames lay a red wash over his fur and the air carries the dry, scorched smell of the place. He does not pace. He does not fret. He has done this before and will do it again, because there is always another heart on the scale, and always, eventually, one that comes up wanting.

This is Babi, sometimes called Baba or Bebon, whose name carries the weight of his nature: bull of the baboons. Among the Egyptians a bull was the alpha of any herd, and so the title marks Babi as the dominant male, the one the rest defer to. He was deified from the hamadryas baboon, the silver-maned creature that screamed at the rising sun and fought without restraint, and the Egyptians watched those animals closely. They saw frenzy, impulse, violence, and an appetite that never seemed to rest. They turned what they saw into a god.

The earliest images of him survive on ivory tags from the first dynasties, where he appears as a white-backed baboon with red ears and a hindquarters of deep purple. Later he is the squatting ape, heavy through the shoulders, or a man who carries a baboon’s long muzzle and close-set eyes. In nearly every form one detail stays fixed. He is shown with an erection, and that is not decoration. For Babi the phallus is the seat of his power, the part of him that does the cosmic work.

The Egyptians built a strange and precise theology around it. His phallus was said to be the bolt that locked the doors of the sky, the thing that swung the heavens open or held them shut. It was also the mast of the ferryboat that carried the blessed dead across the waters of the underworld toward Aaru, the islands of reeds where the righteous found their rest. Picture the boat moving over dark water, the dead crowded at its rails, and rising from its center the upright sign of a baboon god’s potency, holding the sail that pulls them home. The image is blunt. The Egyptians did not flinch from it.

His other work was hungrier. Babi was a devourer. He stood by the lake of fire that marked the place of destruction, and when a heart was weighed against the single feather of Maat and found heavy with wrongdoing, he fed. The entrails of the unjust were his portion. He eats the wicked. That, in the end, is the whole job, and it placed him close to the machinery of judgment itself, alongside the baboons who sat on the scales and carried out the measuring work of Thoth.

He sat among greater names as well. In the funerary texts he appears as a member of the great council convened in Naref, seated with Shu, Re, and Osiris, the tribunal before which Thoth argued the case of the dead against their accusers. Babi was thought to be a son of Osiris, and in some tellings the eldest, the first-born, a rank of real honor. That kinship gave the dead something to reach for. A soul moving through the Book of the Dead did not only hope to escape Babi. The soul hoped to become him. To take on Babi’s nature was to take on his deathless virility, and a spell among the Coffin Texts charges an amulet so that the phallus of the deceased becomes the phallus of Babi, granting the power to couple and create on the far side of the grave.

So he is two things at once, and the Egyptians held both without strain. He is the terror at the fiery shore and he is the gift of continued life. His powers follow directly from what he is. Born of the most aggressive animal they knew, he commands aggression, dominance, and an unkillable sexual force, and that same force lets him work the locks of heaven and drive the ferry of the dead. He could be called on against the dangers of the dark, a guard turned outward against snakes and the nameless threats of the night.

His limits follow just as plainly. Babi is bound to the order he serves. His hunger has a leash, and the leash is Maat. He feeds only on those the scale condemns, never on the vindicated, and a soul that has lived true and learned to speak his name passes him untouched. The very menace that makes him fearsome is also the thing the living tried to ward off and the dead tried to put on like a borrowed skin. A god this dangerous was never safe to ignore, but he was never beyond reach either. He was, after all, only as terrible as your own heart made him.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Babi in Egyptian mythology?

Babi, also spelled Baba or Bebon, is an ancient Egyptian baboon god of the underworld whose name means “bull of the baboons.” He was deified from the aggressive hamadryas baboon and represents dominance, violence, and male virility. The Egyptians worshipped him from the Old Kingdom onward as both a devourer of the wicked dead and a source of sexual potency.

What does Babi do to the souls of the dead?

Babi waits beside the lake of fire in the underworld and devours the souls of the unrighteous. After a person’s heart is weighed against the feather of Maat in the judgment of the dead, Babi feeds on the entrails of those found guilty, making him a force of destruction for the wicked.

Why is Babi shown with an erect phallus?

Babi’s phallus symbolized his power and was given specific cosmic roles in Egyptian belief. It was said to be the bolt that opened and closed the doors of the sky, and the mast of the ferryboat that carried righteous souls to the paradise of Aaru. The dead also sought to identify with Babi so they could regain sexual potency in the afterlife.

Is Babi related to Osiris?

Yes. Babi was considered a son of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife and resurrection, and in some traditions he was named as the eldest or first-born son. He also appears alongside Osiris, Shu, and Re as a member of the great divine council in Naref, the tribunal that judged the dead.

Was Babi a good or evil god?

Babi was dangerous rather than simply evil. He punished the unrighteous by devouring them, but he only consumed those condemned by the scales of Maat, leaving the virtuous unharmed. The living invoked his power for protection against darkness, and the dead hoped to share his potency, so he served the cosmic order even while terrifying those who failed it.

Related Entries

Osiris, Thoth, Maat, Ammit, Ahemait, Am-Heh, Anubis, Ra, Shu, Set, Aker, Bennu