Sobek: Offerings and Symbols

Offerings to Sobek (also Sebek)

Some of these are attested in ancient sources while others come from my own (or other people’s) personal experience giving offerings to the God.

Liquid Offerings
Water
Beer
Pomegranate-Wine
Wine
Coffee
Tea

Food Offerings
Bread and Barley
Fruits and Vegetables
Figs
Dates
Fig Newtons
Pastries; cookies and cakes
chocolate

Meat Offerings
chicken or duck
beef

Non-Food Offerings
Scents: myrrh, frankincense, sandalwood
Flowers: Red roses,
Light: green candles; beeswax candles; lanterns
Colors: Green; Blue
Jewelry: Gold, solar colors

Taboos
pork
fish; any seafood

Disposal of Offerings
1) Eat them
2) With wine or water, you can leave it to evaporate on the Shrine or pour it out as a libation when done.

Sacred Animals
Crocodile

Sacred Symbols
Sun
Nile
Green plants
Udjat Eye

Specialized Form
Soknopais (Sobek, Lord of the Island)

Syncretisms
Sobek-Heru
Sobek-Ra
Sobek-Wesir

Sources

Quirke, Stephen. The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001.

Widmer, Ghislaine. “On Egyptian Religion at Soknopaiou Nesos in the Roman Period,” in Tebtynis und Soknopaiu Nesos. Leben im römerzeitlichen Fajum. Sandra Lippert. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, pp. 171-184.

Zecchi, Marco. “Osiris in the Fayyum.” Fayyum Studies: Volume 2. Sergio Pernigotti and Marco Zecchi, ed. (Ante Quem and Dipartimento di Archeologia dell’Università di Bologna, 2006), pp. 117-145.