Name: Top 10 Creepiest Egyptian Myths
Uploaded: 2026-03-08T17:24:27.000Z
Duration: 10 min 22 s
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And today we're counting down our picks for the darkest stories from Egyptian mythology.

But what if you could take them with you into the afterlife?

This is one of the motives behind the mythology of mummification.

Beliefs that center around preparing souls of the dead for their journey through the afterlife.

As anyone who's seen a mummy knows, ancient Egyptians went to a lot of trouble to evade decomposition.

Trials and tribulations await those embarking upon this journey.

And archaeologists have found evidence of many mummified cats entombed in great numbers alongside their human counterparts.

Well, ancient Egyptians believed cats were really important too.

In fact, they thought they were divine creatures.

Cat mummies were designated as offerings to Bastet, an Egyptian goddess, or as a means of assisting the dead in communicating during their sojourns into the mysterious beyond.

The Egyptian minister of Antiquities, AKA the guy in charge of really, really old stuff, says they've also found a door to another tomb.

They're hoping to open it up soon to find out what ancient secrets lie behind it.

This story of love, death, betrayal and rebirth is a central one to the world of Egyptian mythology.

In ancient Egyptian mythological beliefs, during Egypt's early history, the gods ruled as kings on earth.

Osiris was one of those gods who served as king.

The story of how Osiris was murdered by his brother set and had pieces scattered across the Egyptian landscape of how Osiris wife, in her grief, set off to collect these pieces in an attempt to bring her husband back to life.

Now, by restoring Osiris body like this and then reviving him, Isis made it possible for Osiris to live on forever as king.

The Osiris myth not only speaks to marital love between the gods, it also presents details into the Egyptian underworld, while symbolizing cultural cycles of death and rebirth central to this mythos.

For people who wanted to live on forever after death, emulating Osiris, that is imitating the process that he went through was crucial for success.

Sobek's reputation for violence and aggression is matched only by his fearsome appearance, that of a warrior deity.

The ancient Egyptians chose a lot of their gods based on the natural world.

And crocodiles are large, terrifying things, so they wanted to appease them.

There's another gruesome story involving Sobek however, one that's said to be the genesis of the belief that crocodiles didn't have tongues.

It's been said that Sobek consumed one of the aforementioned pieces of Osiris that had been scattered by Set after the latter murdered his sibling.

The gods punished Sobek for this infraction, tearing out his tongue and thus setting the stage for all future crocodiles that would dwell within the Nile River.

It seems as if every culture possesses some sort of myth or legend that's designed to ward away the young from dangerous places such as dark and lonely water.

Egypt was no different in this regard, as evidenced by the El Nadaha, a spirit that calls men to their doom.

This water spirit could roughly be compared to the Naiads of ancient Greece, female apparitions that are said to lure men to their deaths via drowning in the Nile.

The Nile river affected every aspect of life in ancient Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians were extremely cognizant of how the Nile was their lifeblood.

They respected both its creative and destructive powers, and

thus had many fearful stories designed to instill the same sort of respect for younger generations.

Even today, villagers claim that on quiet nights when the wind is still and the river is calm, you can hear her voice calling, waiting for the next soul to answer.

There is a nebulous origin to the story of Omena el Ghula, sometimes known as the Mother of ghouls.

It's a myth similar to the more familiar tale of Baba Yaga, a Slavic witch said to prey upon children.

The Arabic and Egyptian tales of Omena el Gula are similar in their intent.

To teach children not to wander off, to be careful of whom they trust out there in the world.

Otherwise, Omena el Gula might snatch them up for dinner and they'll never be seen again by their parents or anybody else.

The mother of ghouls is also said to be particularly fond of bad, misbehaving children.

So this folk tale has also historically assisted parents in that time honored tradition of, well, making threats.

Lisa, if you don't behave, we'll turn this car right around and go home.

For God's sake, Homer, it's an empty threat.

The ancient world relied upon stories and myth to explain what occurred around them on a daily basis.

This included events that we take for granted today, such as the rising and setting of the sun at the setting of the sun, Ra enters the caverns of the underworld.

Egyptian mythology designated a nightly battle between Ra, the sun God, and Apophis or Apep, a giant serpent.

The latter attempted to swallow up Ra to stop the sun from rising, leaving Egypt covered in darkness and eternal night.

Apophis was occasionally successful in this aim while which was where other celestial defenders like Set, Bastet and Mehon came into play.

Which one specifically depended on where in Egypt you lived.

As different cities had different patron deities, they would slice open Apophis and free Ra.

And it was on these nights when the normal Egyptians would witness a solar eclipse.

It is my burden to fight the demon Apophis night after night.

Nothing scares us quite like the unknown mysteries of death.

Ancient Egyptians, like all of us, had their own theories and mythologies to explain what went on after we die.

But first that spirit must pass through the Duat, or underworld.

This is a realm of vast caverns, lakes of fire and magical gates, all guarded by fearsome beasts.

Snakes, crocodiles and half human monstrosities with names like he who Dances in Blood.

Their judgment of the dead included Ammit, a God who embodied three fearsome predators of the Nile River.

This deity, with the body of a hippo lion and a crocodilian head, would devour the hearts of those deemed unworthy of entering into Aaru, the Egyptian equivalent of heaven.

Ammit sits alongside Anubis and Thoth as an executioner for those judged within Osiris underworld dominion of Duat, a fearsome and creepy character that nevertheless demands respect.

The worlds of ancient mythology can be a violent, gross and troubling place, full of weird stories of death and creation.

Nu was the name of the dark swirling chaos before the beginning of time.

Atum is one of the elder gods of the Egyptian pantheon, A creator who didn't even need a partner to facilitate the births of spawn like Shu and Tefnut.

It was Atum's shadow that was said to have assisted in this end.

Although the God needed to conceive these children via some pretty gross acts like spit up and vomit in the beginning, Atum created himself, and

It doesn't end there either, since other stories go even further to this end, symbolizing celestial loneliness with tales of Atum utilizing an act of self pleasure in order to bring Shu and Tefnut into the world.

Celestial Rebirth so do you remember how earlier we discussed Isis journey to recover the pieces of her slain husband Osiris?

Did we forget to mention that the pair were also brother and sister?

But wait, we're not actually done because after Isis reconstructed Osiris body, there was postmortem copulation resulted in a son Horus.