All content on this page is ©2001 Kevin Fleury. No part of the text and/or images on this page may be reproduced without permission. If you copy the text and/or images from this page and use them in the creation of your own web site, you will be violating copyright law. Do not take any images from this page.

SOBEK

Role: God of all forms of water (rivers, marshes, canals, and lakes)

Appearance: A man with the head of a crocodile, wearing a solar disc and the atef crown on his head; or just a crocodile.

Sacred animal: crocodile

Centers of worship: Kom-Ombo in Upper Egypt and the Faiyum Oasis region in Lower Egypt

Relations with other gods: Hathor (wife), Khonsu (son), Neith (mother)

 

The ancient Egyptians believed that the water of the Nile came from Sobek's sweat and that he was the god of all bodies of water. So as the lord of all the wet regions, Sobek was worshipped big time wherever there was water. He was especially important at locations right on the Nile, in the delta, and around oases.

Sobek also had a role as a fertility god-- he made all the plants green. The number of crocodile sightings was supposedly an indicator of how successful the farmers would be that year: it was said that the more crocs in the water, the greater the flood, and the more bountiful the crops.

 

Return to Gods & Goddesses page