Sobek is the crocodile god par excellence, worshipped widely in Ancient Egypt. His godly domains encompass virility, fertility, fecundity, vitality, protection, marshlands and the waters, and all things crocodilian. He is a God of ferocious power and life-sustaining blessings. My hope for this page is that it will demonstrate the breadth and beauty of the Divine Sobek Ra, Sharp of Teeth and Green of Plume, Lord of Terror and Sweet of Love.
Sobek’s name is widely accepted as a nominal form of the verb s-bꜣk, “to impregnate”, “to make fertile”. This is the causative form (s-) of the base verb b’k, which gives the meaning “to swell”, “to fecundate”, or “to propagate”, and does he ever, bringing forth the Nile’s silt-enriching floods.
The s- prefix denotes efficient causation, common in divine names, such as in the name s-nbt “Senebty” = causing fear. This frames Sobek as an active bestower of fertility, the Lord of Semen, who brings fruitfulness.
In hieroglyphs, the name is written sbk:
𓋴 𓎢 𓃀
It was also found represented as a crocodile 𓆊, or the sacred crocodile 𓆋.
To make sbk pronouncable, an “o” and “e” were added by Egyptologists and has remained for convention’s sake, although we are not certain how it may have been pronounced in antiquity.
The Coptic form of his name is Souk, pronounced sook, which became the Greek Souchos (SOO-koss), Roman Suchus.
Dua Sobek 