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God Sobek

Details about God Sobek

  • 05 16, 2023

The god of ancient Egypt

Sobek – Crocodile deity considered by the inhabitants of the fertile region of Fayyum as the creator of the universe, the demiurge who ordered the world, the supreme god whose anger must not be stirred up under any pretext, Sobek would have emerged from the muddy waters of the primordial ocean to create the universe. Adored at Kom Ombo, on the right bank of the Nile, about fifty kilometres north of Aswan, its temple, erected in the Ptolemaic period, has the particularity of being a double sanctuary, dedicated in its left part to the cult of Haroëris the falcon, god of the sky, and in its right part to that of Sobek the crocodile, sovereign god of waters and fertility. 

The two deities complement each other: the first embodies light, the second, water: two essential elements to life. Sobek will even be charged to recover at the bottom of the Nile the hands of Haroëris cut by Isis because they were stained by the semen of Seth. Sobek also takes the four sons of Haroëris, guardians of the canopic vases, born from a lotus flower, the lily of the Nile, and drifting on the primordial ocean, and puts them to safety. 

Sobek is an aquatic god associated with fertility. Its mere presence makes the vegetation grow. Some even claim that you can hear him laugh when the flood begins. Voracious animal emerged from the darkness of the primitive world, the divine crocodile is associated with monsters of the underground universe and enemies of the earth balance. 

Half-man, half-alligator, he is considered as the ally of Seth who would have dressed in a crocodile skin to escape the punishment that he incurred for having killed his brother Osiris, god of the dead and pharaoh of the first times. It is because he would have eaten the fragments of the skinned body that the crocodile would be provided with a big mouth and so many teeth.

At the end of the Middle Empire, several pharaohs of the 13th dynasty give their reign under the protection of the crocodile god by taking as name: Sebekhotep, which means "Sobek is satisfied". Alone in all of Egypt to refuse to divinize a common reptile, the inhabitants of Elephantine Island commit the sacrilegious act in the eyes of the rest of the country to eat crocodiles, considered as simple staple food.

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Egypt Tours FAQ

Read top Egypt tours FAQs

Sobek was often associated with the pharaohs, who were regarded as the rulers chosen by the gods. The crocodile god was believed to bestow power and protection upon the pharaohs, as he was seen as a fierce and heroic figure in Egyptian mythology.

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