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Sobek

AlsoSobek

The Crocodile-Headed God of the Nile and Military Might

The Gods Between Sky and Earth · Major Gods
The NileCrocodileMilitary Might

Who they are

Sobek is the crocodile-headed god, master of the Nile, of the river's fertility, and of the might of armies. The crocodile is the most feared beast of the Nile, and the Egyptians raised it to a god in awe — praying both that it bring the river's nourishment and the banks' fertility, and that its ferocious power guard the pharaoh and the army. His cult centers were at the Faiyum ("Crocodilopolis," the crocodile city) and at Kom Ombo, where temples kept living crocodiles adorned with gold as embodiments of Sobek, mummified after death. Sobek was also thought to have helped in creation from the waters of chaos and to have sheltered the wounded Horus. He is the classic case of Egyptian religion's logic of "turning fear into worship": the most dangerous thing is often raised highest — rather than be devoured by it, seat it on a throne.

Key stories

The Living Crocodile in the Temple

In Sobek's sacred city, a living crocodile chosen as his embodiment was kept in the temple pool, adorned with gold rings and jewels, tended with care by the priests, and fed offerings by worshippers seeking blessings. At its death it was mummified with ceremony and buried in a sacred place, and a new one chosen to succeed it. The Temple of Kom Ombo to this day holds a museum of crocodile mummies. To keep the Nile's fiercest predator in the temple and honor it as a god — behind this lies a farming people's tangled feeling toward the great river they depend on for life and that can take life at any moment: dependence and dread at once.

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