To perhaps no one’s surprise, Sobek’s primary element is that of water.
Throughout the world, anywhere crocodiles are worshipped, they are always tied to water. Hunter/gatherers know that in times of drought, if you follow a crocodile long enough, they’ll eventually lead you to water.
In Egypt, with its proliferation of crocodiles in the Nile River, he was inseparable from the rhythm of life of the river that was so essential to the life of Egypt itself. Sobek is responsible for the Nile’s inundation, bringing his famed fertility and lush growth to the land that flourished surrounded by harsh deserts.
Sobek is “Lord of Waters”, “Lord of the Flood”, “The One Who Lurks In the Waters”, “He Who Came Out of the Overflow of the Flood”, “Lord of the Inundation”. The water is his domain, of which he rules over. Nothing is quite so masterful and dangerous in his waters as the crocodile.
He was born of Neith, identified with Mehet-Weret, the “Great Flood”. From the Pyramid Texts, he emerged as the “ferocious one who emerged from the shank and tail of the Great Radiant One (Neith)” (1).
“Unas emerged from the overflowing flood, Unas is Sobek…Unas came from its streams in the land of the great overflowing flood.” (PT Spell 317) His primal dominion extends to lakes and marshes, as he is “Lord of the Lake” in the Fayum. Here, the Fayum oasis is at the heart of creation, where Sobek Ra emerges triumphant from the watery underworld on the eastern edge of Lake Moeries, and descends into the underworld in the west as the sun sets.
In the Coffin Texts, the deceased becomes “Sobek, Lord of the Winding Waterways”, as they travel the dangers of the Underworld, taking on the power of Sobek. “I traverse the lakes, I am alert on the shores…I am he who emerges, the lord of water.” (2) He is “lord of the great green” who “eats enemies in his lake”, and “overseer of the marshlands, rich in fish”, his vitality expressed in aquatic abundance.
It was during the Middle Kingdom that Sobek gained some dominion over royal irrigation projects in the Fayum, a Nile-dependent oasis, filled with canals and other water-control systems. Pharaoh Amenemhet III was particularly focused on water management, including the use of a Nilometer at the Second Cataract to measure Nile levels in order to predict harvest and manage the flood waters (3). Amenemhet III was a particularly devout worshipper of Sobek, commissioning many temples and statues for him throughout the Fayum. We have records of him ordering the completion of enormous black basalt statues for Sobek in his “House of Sobek” at the Hawara mortuary temple, and there are quite a few reliefs depicting Amenemhet offering to Sobek throughout the area. It would seem a very natural thing to pray to the crocodile god of the waters to ensure the productivity of local irrigation projects in the Fayum, of course.
By controlling flood water flow, with the intention to turn the land to a fertile agricultural yield, directed through canals and retention walls, Amenemhet, “Beloved of Sobek of Shedet” deeply involved Sobek as the divine guarantor of this fertility.
The crocodile god of Egypt was profoundly connected to waters, his epithet “Lord of the Waters” very well-earned. His domain was that of the Nile, as well as other rivers, lakes, and the marshy liminal areas between the realms of water and earth, where life was abundant and green. The annual inundations of the Nile, which Sobek brought forth, deposited nutrient-rich soil, bringing abundance and renewal. He continued to guard and guide the dead along the waterways of the underworld, where he brought them the essence of life in the Duat, restoring their senses amid his indestructible vitality.
(1) Locks, M. Temples, Crocodiles and Mummies: Ex-Votos of Sobek From the National Museum Collection (2005)
(2) Zecchi, M. Sobek of Shedet – The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period (2010)
(3) Barney, Quinten. Sobek: The Idolatrous God of Pharaoh Amenemhet III (2013)
Dua Sobek 