Sobek

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Sobek

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Suchos) was the deification of crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e....
s, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. Egyptians who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, he would protect them from being attacked by crocodiles. The god Sobek, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity; in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.

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Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek

Greek mythology

Crocodile

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
. Most of Sobek's temples were located "in parts of Egypt where crocodiles were common." Sobek's cult originally flourished around Al Fayyum

Al Fayyum

Faiyum is a city in Middle Egypt and the capital of the Faiyum Governorate. It is located 130 Km southwest of Cairo and occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis....
where some temples still remain; the area was so associated with Sobek that one town, Arsinoe

Arsinoe, Egypt

Arsinoe was the name bestowed upon three different cities in ancient Egypt:# Crocodilopolis, also called Crocodilopolis, in the Fayyum, Middle Egypt...
, was known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis
Crocodilopolis

Crocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, Egypt, in lat....
or 'Crocodile Town.' Another major cult centre was at Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo or Ombos or Latin: Ambo and Ombi – is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an Ancient Egypt city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold ....
, "close to the sandbanks of the Nile where crocodiles liked to bask." Some temples of Sobek kept pools where sacred crocodiles were kept: these crocodiles were fed the best cuts of meat and became quite tame. When they died, they were mummified and buried in special animal cemeteries. In other areas of Egypt, however, crocodiles were dealt with by simply hunting and killing them.

Gradually, Sobek also came to symbolize the produce of the Nile and the fertility that it brought to the land; its status thus became more ambiguous. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, Sobek in these circumstances was considered the army's patron, as a representation of strength and power.

Sobek's ambiguous nature led some Egyptian to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat

Duat

In Egyptian mythology, Duat is the underworld.This was the region through which the sun god Ra traveled from west to east during the night, and where he battled Apep....
to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part. In this way, he was seen as a more primal god, eventually becoming regarded as an avatar

Avatar

Avatar or Avatara , often translated into English as incarnation, literally means descent and usually implies a deliberate descent from higher spiritual realms to lower realms of existence for special purposes....
of the primal god Amun

Amun

Amun, reconstructed Egyptian language Yamanu , was the name of a deity in Egyptian mythology who gradually rose from being an abstract concept to the patron deity of Thebes, Egypt and one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt before fading into obscurity....
, who at that time was considered the chief god. When his identity finally merged, Amun had become merged himself with Ra

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
to become Amun-Ra, so Sobek, as an avatar of Amun-Ra, was known as Sobek-Ra.

In Egyptian Art

Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, Sobek was depicted as an ordinary crocodile, or as a man with the head of a crocodile. When considered a patron of the pharaoh's army, he was shown with the symbol of royal authority - the uraeus

Uraeus

The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting Egyptian cobra , used as a symbol of sovereignty, Royal family, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt....
. He was also shown with an ankh

Ankh

The ankh was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants Ayin-Nun -?a'. Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest....
, representing his ability to undo evil and so cure ills. Once he had become Sebek-Ra, he was also shown with a sun-disc over his head, as Ra was a sun god

Solar deity

A Solar Deity , is a deity who represents the sun, or an aspect of it. People have worshiped these for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs have formed around this worship, such as the "missing sun" found in many cultures ....
.

In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus

Four sons of Horus

The four sons of Horus were a group of four gods in Ancient Egyptian religion, who were essentially the personifications of the four canopic jars, which accompanied Mummy bodies....
in a net, as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom. This motif derives from the birth of Ra in the Ogdoad

Ogdoad

In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight deities worshipped in Hermopolis during what is called the Old Kingdom, the third through sixth dynasties, dated between 2686 to 2134 B.C....
cosmogony, and the fact that as a crocodile, Sobek is the best suited to collecting items upon the Nile.