Sobek
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| Sobek in hieroglyphs |
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Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek, Suchos) was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. His worship began as an attempt to pacify crocodiles so as to reduce the danger they posed.
Gradually, Sobek, also came to symbolize the produce of the Nile, thus the fertility that it brought to the land, and so his status quickly became more ambiguous. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, Sobek in these circumstances being considered the army's patron, as representative of their strength and power.
Sobek's cult originally flourished around Al Fayyum where some temples still remain; the area was so associated with Sobek that one town, Arsinoe, was known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis. In Crocodilopolis, they kept a tamed crocodile, ornamented with jewellery, and hand fed with meat, which the Greeks referred to as Petsuchos, meaning he of Suchos [i.e. Sobek]. The Petsuchos was seen as the current incarnation of Sobek. Sobek-worship flourished in and after the Twelfth Dynasty, with other major centres developing in Kom Ombo and Thebes. However, in other areas of Egypt, crocodiles were dealt with simply by hunting and killing them.
Sobek's ambiguous nature lead some to say he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat 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 of the primal god Amun, who at that time was considered the chief god. When his identity finally merged, Amun had become merged himself with Ra to become Amun-Ra, so Sobek, as an avatar of Amun-Ra, was known as Sobek-Ra.
In art, 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. He was also shown with an ankh, 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.
In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus 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 cosmogony, and the fact that as a crocodile, Sobek is the best suited to collecting items upon the Nile.
[edit] In popular culture
Sebek is Monster in My Pocket #69. In one panel of issue #4, he was depicted working alongside the evil monsters.
Sobek is a veteran member of the Desert Legion of the Nahkti in Unreal Championship 2. He personally trains Anubis into a warrior in order to ready him for the Liandri Tournament.
In the DC Comics series 52, Sobek is the name of a crocodile altered by Doctor Sivana to have human-like characteristics. Although befriended by the Black Marvel Family, he eventually betrays them and is revealed to be Famine of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips.
A song on Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile's album Annihilation of the Wicked is entitled "Sacrifice Unto Sebek".
In the RTS game Age of Mythology, the petsuchos is a mythological unit available to the Egyptian civilization.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Offler the crocodile god, inspired by Sobek, is one of the major deities.
The God Sobek appears in issue 9 of the K.A. Applegate book series Everworld. Here he is the only Egyptian God who has not become a living statue. Senna persuades him to overthrow the Amazons that have conquered Egypt's capital.
In the Cthulhu Mythos, Sobek has been linked with the Great Old Ones. [1]
Sobek also appears in McFarlane toys Spawn Series 33: The Age of Pharaos, where he is more precisely described as the god of crocodiles and has an upstanding, on his hindlegs standing but distinct crocodile-like appaerance.
Sobek is referenced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5, episode 8, "Shadow", when Glory raises a reptile demon from a transmogification spell created by Sobek's followers, that had supposedly been lost for centuries, to help her find the key.
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