Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Sobek,
a god represented as either a crocodile or as a man with the head of a crocodile.
Infamously known for snatching women from their husbands whenever the mood struck him,
he was the god of water, especially the waters of the Nile, of river banks and marshlands, the
patron of fishermen, and depending on the version, either a force for order or a force for chaos.
Let’s get into it.
Sobek, whose name means crocodile, was worshiped from at least as far back as the Old Kingdom,
a period that began nearly 5,000 years ago, and he was revered for his power,
the locus of which was rooted in a sphere of influence based largely on, among other aspects,
common crocodile haunts. The Pyramid Texts show him to be the son of Neith, a creator goddess
who embodied the primordial waters of Nun, who was also said to have birthed Ra, the sun god,
and was extolled with names like the Great Mother and the Terrifying One. In these same texts,
Sobek was called the “raging one [who] takes women from their husbands whenever he wishes according
to his desire”. His consort, depending on the source, was either Renenutet, the harvest goddess,
or Hathor, goddess of women, the sky, love, and fertility. In some places, such as Crocodilopolis,
somewhere we’ll cover in greater detail later on in the video, Sobek was worshiped as the
great male god who emerged from the primordial waters. He was most feared and most venerated
where people had to be wary of crocodiles. Moreover, he became the patron god of fishermen,
who worked on his waters and had to contend with his great carnivores - clad in scales,
always lurking - on a daily basis, so fishermen invoked him for protection and prosperity.
One story in the Coffin Texts (which are a collection of religious writings,
such as spells and incantations, inscribed into coffins to help the dead negotiate the
journey through the underworld), tells of how Horus’ hands were thrown into the Nile
after Isis cut them off. Ra dispatched Sobek, tasking him with retrieving Horus’ hands,
but the task proved more challenging than cursory consideration would lead one to believe; so Sobek
was unable to carry out his duty until he invented fish, whom he subsequently instructed to set out
and salvage the hands for him. Because a great many fish were considered creatures of chaos,
Sobek, by virtue of feeding on fish, was seen as a force endeavoring to establish and maintain order,
but he wasn’t always viewed as such; some sources viewed Sobek as an agent of chaos and destruction,
one working towards the dissolution of divine order. In one spell counted among
the Coffin Texts, Sobek is given the epithet, ‘the rebel’, and the blame for mutilating the
body of Osiris is laid at his feet; and in that same vein, he’s associated with the crocodile
characterization of Set, the god who murdered and dismembered Osiris, his own brother. Additionally,
Sobek was connected to nature in many ways. Places where crocodiles dwelt were associated with him,
so he was the god of riverbanks, of marshes, particularly those interspersed between the
lush lands of the Nile and the arid desolation of the desert, and of water, especially of the
great waterway of the Nile and its myriad of tributaries, all of which were said to have
accumulated from his sweat. Green plants that grow in fields and on riverbanks, particularly the two
banks that bordered either side of the Nile, were given life by him, linking him with procreation
and with plant propagation and proliferation. Furthermore, Bakhu, the mythical mountain that
loomed in the Eastern horizon, was where Sobek’s abode was located. He lived in a temple fashioned
of carnelian, which is a semi-precious stone with red and orange colouring. Syncretism (meaning,
in a religious or mythological context, the fusing of multiple points of belief into a single
incorporated point) was ubiquitous throughout ancient Egypt, so it was common for various
gods to be combined, merging them, usually two, into amalgamated entities. Sobek was integrated
with the cults of a diverse assortment of other gods, including: Osiris, Amun, and especially Ra,
the two of them compounding into Sobek-Ra. Because of Sobek’s association with Ra, he became regarded
as an aspect of the creator sun god, which was why the Greeks equated him with Helios,
their own sun god. It could also be that he became a representation of pharaonic power
through his association with other preeminent gods, such as the three just listed - all of
them maintaining high-ranking positions in the hierarchy of ancient Egypt’s pantheon.
In appearance, there are two forms in which Sobek is depicted:
either as fully zoomorphic or as partly zoomorphic and partly anthropomorphic. When fully zoomorphic,
he’s portrayed as a crocodile, and when partly zoomorphic and partly anthropomorphic
(his hybrid form), he’s portrayed with the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. Whether
he’s in animal form or in his hybrid form, a headdress decorated with horns, a sun disk,
and two tall plumes often surmounts his head. The colour green is strongly associated with him,
a fact attested to by numerous textual sources referring to him as
‘green of plume’. Many artifacts honoring Sobek have been recovered from the remnants of ancient
Egypt that have survived through to today, but perhaps the most famous piece recovered
hearkens back to the strong connection Sobek once had with the pharaoh; it’s a statue of Amenophis
III standing next to a seated Sobek - the god’s head adorned by the aforementioned headdress.
Finally, we’re going to close out this video by looking at when Sobek’s cult existed.
Also known as the ‘Age of the Pyramid Builders - it was during this time that the art of pyramid
building was perfected and the pyramids of Giza were raised - the Old Kingdom of Egypt was a
period that lasted from the early 27th to the late 22nd century BCE. Virtually all of the information
that historians and archeologists have gleaned and pieced together from this period is carved
in stone. There is evidence of worship paid to Sobek going as far back as the Old Kingdom, then
continuing for thousands of years through to the hegemony of the Roman empire. Of all that time,
a span encompassing thousands of years, it is thought that Sobek’s peak prominence
was during the Middle Kingdom, a notion lent support by the names of several pharaohs during
the 12th and 13th dynasties, such as: Sobekhotep, meaning ‘Sobek is satisfied’, and Sobekneferu,
meaning ‘beautiful of Sobek’. (The Middle kingdom lasted from the mid 21st century to the late 18th
century BCE, and over its course, some of the greatest accomplishments of ancient Egypt in
art and literature were achieved.) Religious sites dedicated to Sobek were prevalent;
however, the two foremost cult centers devoted to him were located in ancient Shedet (later called
Crocodilopolis by the Greeks). Sacred pools filled with crocodiles were a feature
common to Sobek’s temples, and these crocodiles were mummified when they died,
becoming sacred relics. Amulets emblazoned with crocodiles were regularly worn for
their apotropaic augmentation, as it was thought they were strong symbols for warding off evil.
And that’s it for this video!
If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel
As always, leave your video suggestions down below