Sobek

Sobek


 * Other Names:**

Sebek, Sobki, Suchos, Sobeq, Soknopais


 * Meaning of Name:**

“He Who Watches”


 * Hieroglyphics:**




 * Titles:**

“Green of Plume”

“Lord of the Waters”

“The Rager”

"Beautiful of Face"

"The White-toothed One"

“He Who Makes the Herbage Green”


 * Family:**

Sobek was thought to be the son of Neith or Set, the husband of Taweret, Hathor, Renenutet, and Heket, and the father of Horus, Khonsu, and Khnum.

A god of water, Sobek was praised for regeneration, and was associated with the mood of the river Nile. It was believed that the sweat from his body became the waters of the Nile. Sometimes Sobek was said to have rose up out of the waters of Nun to lay an egg on the banks, and thus created the world. Sobek was the “Lord of //Bakhu//,” the mythological mountain of the horizon where it was asserted that he had a temple made of carnelian. As the Lord of Crocodiles, Sobek was originally a demon, as crocodiles were deeply feared in a nation so dependent on the Nile River. His worship began as an attempt to pacify crocodiles so as to reduce the danger they posed.

A god of fertility and rebirth, Sobek represented the symbolic strength of the ruler of Egypt. The crocodile’s power to snatch and destroy its prey was thought to be symbolic of the might of the pharaoh - the strength of the reptile was a manifestation of the pharaoh’s own power. Sobek was considered to be patron of fishermen, and to have invented the first fish trap. Many fish were regarded as creatures of chaos, so as a fish eater, Sobek helped to establish order.

Sometimes Sobek's natural tendencies overwhelmed his divine nature - when Set cast the dismembered Osiris into the Nile, Sobek yielded to temptation and gulped down part of the body. As punishment, he had his tongue cut out. That, as the story goes, is why crocodiles have no tongues.

According to some evidence, Sobek was considered a fourfold deity who represented the four elemental gods (Ra of fire, Shu of air, Geb of earth, and Osiris of water.) Sobek was invoked to do away with annoyances and negative situations, as the ancient phrase “to Sobek with it/him/you!” shows. It was used much as modern-day slang consigns bothersome things and persons “to Hell.”

Sobek was represented as a crocodile wearing the sun disc or the Two Feathers Crown, a crocodile with a falcon’s head, a man with the head of a crocodile, and as a human-headed crocodile. Sobek was venerated as one who restored sight to the dead, and revived their senses. As a god of water, he often had blue or green skin. The worship of Sobek was very popular in the city of Arsinoe (known as //Shedyet// to the Egyptians) near the Faiyum, causing the Greeks to rename the city "Crocodilopolis."

Sacred crocodiles, called the //Petsuchos//, were kept in temple pools, and mummified when they died. Considered to be the living incarnation of the god Sobek, these crocodiles were ornamented with gold and glass jewelry on their heads and bracelets on their forefeet, and hand-fed roasted meat, cakes, milk, and wine by priests. Pilgrims flocked to Sobek’s temples to help feed the sacred crocodiles; it was considered a sign of benevolence if the crocodiles accepted food from the pilgrim. Crocodile eggs were incubated in mounds of sand in special nurseries, and the resulting small Sobeks were carefully reared.

Protective crocodile amulets made of faience, gold, bronze, and carnelian, representing Sobek, were highly popular. The British Museum holds an ancient set of body armor and a helmet made out of crocodile skin, dated to the 3rd century C.E. It was most likely worn by the priests of Sobek to absorb the god's strength and power. For a worshiper of Sobek, it was a supreme honor to fall in the Nile and get eaten by a crocodile.

According to Herodotus, those killed by crocodiles enjoyed a special status: "Whenever any one, either of the Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried off by a crocodile, the people of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse and bury it as that of one who was something more than man."


 * Feast and Holy Days:**

October 20 (Festival for Sobek)

December 26 (Birthday of Sobek)

March 29 (Day of the Cutting Out of the Tongue of Sobek)


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

Hymns of Sobek


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity:**

Sobekmsaf, Dedusobek, Se-Sobek, Khusobek, Sebek-shedty-Neferu, Sobek-nakht ("May Sobek Live"), Sobekhotep (“Sobek is Satisfied”), Sobekmose ("Born of Sobek"), Sobekneferu (“Beautiful of Sobek,”) Sit-Sobek ("Daughter of Sobek")

Egyptian Deities - S