Sokar

**Sokar**


 * Other Names:**[[image:Silver_Horus_Statue.jpg width="206" height="298" align="right" caption="Silver gold-covered statue of Sokar"]]

Seker, Sokaris, Seger, Sakar, Sokher, Zkr


 * Meaning of Name:**

“Adorned One”


 * Hieroglyphics:**

or


 * Titles:**

"Lord of the Horizon"

“He Who is On the Sand”

“Great Lord With His Two Wings Opened”

"Lord of the Secret Place"


 * Family:**

His wife was Sekhmet or Nephthys.

A god of fertility, darkness, and the souls of the dead, he signified the freedom of the bonds of death by those resurrected in the afterlife. A very ancient funerary god, Sokar predates Osiris by many years. A statue of Sokar was often placed in tombs, the bottom of it containing the deceased’s Book of the Dead. He was associated with silver, thought to be the bones of the gods. The silver falcon-headed coffin of Sheshonq I was probably intended to transform the king into Sokar after death.

The sandy desert of the Duat, guarded by snakes, was the kingdom of Sokar. In the fourth and fifth hour of the night Ra and the souls of the deceased traveled through the realm of Sokar in their barque, the ship changing into a serpent to slither across the sands. As a chthonic deity, Sokar had to be appeased during //Peret// (when canals were dug and the fields were plowed), or when underground tombs were built. His shrine was a secret pyramid of “blackest darkness” hidden in the earth’s core, called the “Gate of the Ways.”

Sokar was the patron of the royal cemetery near Memphis, and it is called after him, Sakkara, to this day. Sokar was also seen as a patron of craftsmen, specifically of jewelers, armorers , and other metal workers. He was thought to be responsible for making the silver bowls in which the feet of the dead were washed. In the chapel of Sokar at Abydos, the king asks Sokar to accept a bread offering “that I may live, that I may be joyful, that I may unite with thee.” Sokar was pictured as a greenish mummified man with a falcon’s head, wearing the sun disk or Double Crown, or as a falcon. Sokar was sometimes associated with the //Djed//.

Sokar’s dedicated festival was the Henu Festival, and was held every year in Thebes. The festival celebrated the resurrection of Sokar, and the spirits of the dead were thought to join in the celebrations, much like Halloween. The festival involved a huge procession with the image of Sokar being carried in a gilded barque decorated with images of fish and oryx, his sacred animals. The procession was followed by worshipers wearing strings of onions, Sokar's sacred food, around their necks.


 * Feast and Holy Days:**

January 11 (Feast of Sokar)

March 15th (Offerings to Sokar)

July 12 (Holiday in the Temple of Sokar)


 * Quotes from t****he Book of the Dead and other sources:**

“He is Sokar, never seen nor looked upon, the benevolent face of darkness, the good death that men call upon, the end, the beginning of truth.”

Egyptian Deities - S