Babi

**Babi**


 * Other Names:**

Babay, Beb, Bebti, Baba, Babu


 * Meaning of Name:**

“Bull of the Baboons”

Babi was a dangerous, bloodthirsty, and virile deity, who controlled the darkness and lived on human entrails. He had the power to ward off dangers such as snakes and control turbulent waters. The pharaoh aspired to this god’s power in the Afterlife and is associated with the god directly so that it is said “The King is Babi, Lord of the Night Sky, Bull of the Baboons. . .”

A god representing unrestrained aggression and masculinity, Babi's phallus serves variously as the mast on the Duat ferry barque, and the bolt on heaven's doors. Baboons have noticeably high sex drives, in addition to their high level of genital marking, and so Babi was considered the god of virility of the dead. He was feared as the “Keeper of the Books of the End of the Year,” the books in which the gods wrote the names of those who were going to die during the year. Babi was thought to travel in the company of seventy-seven of his followers, who took the form of black dogs.

Pictured as a baboon with a heavy mane and a protruding phallus, Babi was invoked to ensure successful intercourse in the afterlife. In the Pyramid Texts he is specifically described as “red of ear and purple of hindquarters,” and this coloration is sometimes applied to representations of the god, to differentiate him from the gentle baboon of Thoth and to help stress his violent nature.

Egyptian Deities - B