Sepa

(also Sep)

Sepa, a protective deity whose animal was a centipede, was invoked against stings, bites, and the like. He was worshiped at Heliopolis. A chthonic god, he was connected with the necropoles and came to be identified with Osiris. In the pTurin Museo Egizio 1791 he is referred to as Osiris-Sepa, noble of the bas of Heliopolis. It has been proposed that Osarseph mentioned by Manetho is the combination of Sepa and Osiris.
He is referred to in the Pyramid Texts of Unas as belonging to the earth:

To say the words : 'The uraeus-serpent is for the sky, the centipede of Horus is for the earth. Horus, an oxherd, treads. Unas has trod upon the walk of Horus. Unas knows not, Unas is not knowing.'
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 244

In the Book of the Dead there is a somewhat obscure connection between the Centipede and Anubis. The town Sepa in the Heliopolitan nome was sacred to Anubis:

I am Anubis on the Day of the Centipede, I am the Bull who presides over the field. I am Osiris, for whom his father and mother sealed an agreement on that day of carrying out the great slaughter; Geb is my father and Nut is my mother, I am Horus the Elder on the Day of Accession, I am Anubis of Sepa, I am the Lord of All, I am Osiris."
Raymond Faulkner (translator), The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, 2000, p.107

and in the pLondon BM 10793:

May you remove all evil that clings to him, similarly to what you have done for these 7 akh-spirits which are in the following of their lord Sepa, whose place has been furnished by Anubis on that day of "come-to-us".
The Book of the Dead of the High Priest Panedjem II, Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website

At times Sepa was depicted sporting a donkey's head, at others as a mummy with two centipede antennnae.

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September 2006