Sobek
Also known as: Sebek ~ Sochet

Sobek was an ancient god of crocodiles, first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. His worship lasted till Roman times, the people of Egypt worshiping him to gain his protection and strength, or reviling him and killing the crocodiles of the area because of the evil that they could do. To his worshipers, he was a god who created the Nile, a god of fertility and rebirth, and the symbolic strength of the ruler of Egypt.

The ancient goddess of war, Neith, was revered as the goddess of wisdom was the mother of Sobek.

Sobek was shown wearing a plumed headdress with a horned sun disk or the atef crown. In his hands he was shown to carry a was sceptre and the ankh sign of life. His sacred animal, the crocodile, was both revered and reviled by the people of Egypt - in some areas, a tame crocodile was worshiped as the god Sobek himself, while in other places the reptiles were killed. The Egyptians seemed to both respect and fear the power of the crocodile, and as the result of this, Sobek was seen as an ambivalent creature.

Sobek was most popular in the city of Arsinoe. In fact, the Greeks renamed the city Crocodilopolis. Ancient Egyptians would keep crocodiles in pools and temples. They ornamented the crocodiles with jewels in honor of their beloved god, Sobek. The people of ancient Egypt worshiped Sobek in order to appease him, the crocodiles, and to insure the fertility of their people and crops.

Sobek was called the Lord of Faiyum, and was considered the god who controlled the waters. According to legend, Sobek was a fourfold deity. He represented the four elemental gods, Ra of fire, Shu of air, Geb of earth, and Osiris of water. A crocodile, a man with the head of a crocodile, or a mummified crocodile are used as representations for Sobek. He is sometimes shown wearing a solar disk and horns like those of Amon-Ra.

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  The name of Sobet in hieroglyphs

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