Marco Zecchi

SOBEK, THE CROCODILE AND WOMEN

One of the peculiarities of the polytheistic

religions is that they have been able to imagine divinities endowed with sexual desires,
which are often expressed without ambiguity. From this point of view, the crocodile
god Sobek deserves a particular attention.
This study aims at clarifying a particular aspect of Sobeks personality, and one which
has been until so far completely neglected;
this concerns aspects of his sexuality and his
relations with women.
The study of the sexual behaviour of an
ancient god might be based on and, in its
turn, lead to a historical analysis of the relations of that god with other divine or human beings. Through this kind of enquiry it
is also possible to see how some ideas on
masculinity or femininity with reference to
a particular god took form. Even though sexuality does not represent the basic element
of identity, it is however constituted by attitudes and behaviours which express aspects
of ones individual nature. But the questions
that I would raise here are: what is more
signiWcant, the acts of a god or his identity?
In other words, is the behaviour of a god not
connected to his divine essence or a god performs some acts because these are dictated
by his essence? Sobeks Wgure is rather interesting, because it is through his sexuality that
he can express fundamental aspects of his
nature. As it is well known, Sobek is a crocodile, living both in the water and in the
earth. Because he does not belong to either
of these two worlds, he can easily pass from
the aquatic sphere to the terrestrial one. But
the advantage of having an amphibious nature also caused him to be regarded as having an ambiguous nature. 1
The majority of the available data on the
god Sobek come from religious texts and
documents. 2 In particular, information on

the relations between the god and the feminine world is oVered by texts dating to the
Old and the Middle Kingdom. Already from
the time of the Pyramid Texts, the attitude of
Sobek towards women can be deWned as
selWsh, violent and antisocial. In the Spell 317
of the Pyramid Texts, the dead king, in order
to take all his vital functions, appears as the
crocodile god Sobek. He eats with his
mouth, urinates (wss) and copulates (nk)
with his phallus (hnn=f ); moreover, he is
the lord of semen (nb mtwt), who takes (iti)
wives (hmwt) from their husbands (hyw=sn),
whenever he wishes, according to his desire
(ib=f ). 3 Here therefore Sobek can be regarded as a threat for married women.
In spite of the eVorts of the Egyptian theologians to bestow the god Sobek with divine
attributes and prerogatives however often
based on daring speculations he remained
strongly attached to his animal aspect and
to his nature of crocodile. It is not surprising
that, in the Pyramid Texts, Sobek follows, in
the Wrst place, his instinct, which is one with
his sexual desire. To some extent, Sobeks
behaviour also has political connotations.
Unlike that of other male Egyptians gods,
Sobeks sexuality has a politically dangerous
aspect, because his desire does not respect
social rules, daring to rape women to their
legitimate partners. From this historical
moment onwards, in the ancient Egyptian
rationale, the crocodile, through which
Sobek shows himself, will be connected with
the idea of the refusal or incapacity to suppress individual sexual instincts.
During the xii dynasty, Sobeks Wgure increases his importance, above all thanks to
the interest shown by the ruling kings for
the Fayyum, the main region devoted to this
deity. Sobek achieved in this period new attributes and powers: Wrst of all, he was asso-

1. On the crocodile, see E. Brunner-Traut, Krokodil,

in L iii, cols. 791-801.
2. On the god Sobek, see C. Dolzani, Il dio Sobk,
Roma 1961; E. Brovarski, Sobek, in L v, cols. 995-1031;

M. Zecchi, GeograWa religiosa del Fayyum. Dalle origini

al IV secolo a.C., Imola 2001.
3. K. Sethe, Die altgyptischen Pyramidentexte, LeipzigHamburg 1908-1922, 510-511.

150

marco zecchi

ciated with Horus and therefore was connected to the royal ideology. He became also
the son of Osiris and Isis, and played a role
in the Osirian doctrines. Moreover, the theologians turned the crocodile into a solar deity thanks to a syncretistic process of identiWcation which led to the creation of SobekRa. 4
Sobeks sexual behaviour grew softer. In
the hymns in honour of Sobek Shedety written on the Papyrus Ramesseum vi 5 of the xiii
dynasty, he is represented as a sweet god;
he, for example, can carry the epithets of
beautiful of shapes (nfr irw) and lord of
love (nb mrwt). Moreover, his sexual power is enhanced by new titles which are borrowed by other gods and which associate
Sobek with diVerent animals. He is described
as an ejaculating ram (b3 sty) or ejaculating bull (k3 sty), the bull of the bulls, the
male (k3 k3w t3i), the phallus of the gods
(mt ntrw). Sobek is also invoked as the phallus of the hmswt-women, a word which
means the female opposites to the ka, 6 which
are possessed in a diVerent number by men
and gods. Besides, some goddesses, called
ntrwt hmwt, feel an attraction for Sobek to
such an extent that there is none who takes
away her person from him. Nonetheless,
Sobek cannot forget his ambiguous nature,
often in contrast between his volatile animal
spontaneity and his supposed divine correctness. And so, in another passage of the
hymns, Sobek is related to a group of women named smwt, a term indicating mythological women created by Sobek himself and
made as his concubines. These women address the god with words which suggest awe
and uneasiness, rather than joy and pleasure:
Come our Horus, our god, lord of fear,
great of terror, whose attack is not repelled.

These female Wgures appear also in the CoYn

Texts in a passage where the image of Sobek
is not very attractive; he is, in fact, the one
who eats (even) when he copulates who
makes for himself the smwt to the full extent
of his desire (CT iv, 1-2). 7 In another passage of the CoYn Texts, Sobek is the one to
whom are given his smwt and their hair
who impregnates (sty) the smwt (CT vii, 202203). 8
Whether created by the god himself or
simply given to him, the function of these
women does not change. They do not have
individuality but are a mere female group,
who must appease the sexual appetite of the
god. It is interesting to note the parallelism,
in the above-quoted passage, between the
act of eating and the sexual activity of the
god. For this god, sex with women and food
are on the same level; they are just necessary in order to satisfy his hunger, his vital
and natural functions.
Moreover, the mentioning of hair, which
in the ancient Egyptian rationale have often
unfavourable connotations, and the hieroglyph of the man striking with a stick used
as determinative for the word smwt have
negative and unhappy connotations for these
female Wgures, doomed to yield to the sexual power of their lord and creator.
Sobek stands out amongst the other gods
for the fact that for him the sexual intercourse is selWshly conceived for the simple
satisfaction of his own pleasure. In religious
context, representations and references to
sexual acts occur above all in relation with
Osiris, 9 where his physical union with Isis involves the conception of Horus, the legitimate heir to the throne of Egypt, and in the
texts where goddesses and women are described to welcome the gods of fertility, such

4. On the god Sobek of Shedet, main god in the

Fayyum region, in the Middle Kingdom, see Zecchi,
GeograWa religiosa del Fayyum cit., pp. 25-30, 37-50.
5. A. H. Gardiner, Hymns to Sobk in a Ramesseum Papyrus, RdE 11 (1957), pp. 43-56, pls. 2-4.
6. The word hmswt can be written or determined by
the shield crossed by two arrows, the symbol of Neith,
suggesting a possible association between this goddess
and these female Wgures. Cf. U. Schweitzer, Das Wesen des Ka im diesseits und jenseits der Alten gypter, Glckstadt-Hamburg-New York 1956, pp. 59 V.

7. Cf. R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian CoYn

Texts, i, Warminster 1973, p. 203.
8. Cf. R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian CoYn
Texts, iii, Warminster 1978, pp. 99-100.
9. R. B. Parkinson, Homosexual Desire and Middle
Kingdom Literature, JEA 81 (1995), p. 57 has pointed
out that explicitly sexual motifs seem to have had a
relatively limited role in art and in literature: both text
and representations oVer a high proportion of coded
images or metaphors, and the higher levels of representational art are reticent about sexual activity.

sobek, the crocodile and women

151

as Min and Amon, with exclamations of joy,

which aim at emphasising their beauty and
sexual power. With Sobek, this changes radically: this god is not interested in giving pleasure or in procreation. In my opinion, it is
no coincidence that Sobek is not surrounded by a cosy divine family. He does not have
a child or, more signiWcantly, a wife recognised as his own in the whole Egypt. Although it must be admitted that at Kom
Ombo in the Graeco-Roman Period and in
the Fayyum in the dynastic period, the goddess Hathor can play the role of the wife of
the god. However, this seems due to the necessity to create, on a theological level, a female counterpart of Sobek. At this regard, it
is interesting to note that at Kom Ombo
Sobek is worshipped above all as a god with
solar connotations, while in the Fayyum,
when Sobek is accompanied by Hathor, he
takes up new and diVerent connotations. Iconography oVers a way of expressing pre-existing thoughts about divinities. So, in the
temple of Medinet Habu, 10 the king Ramesses iii is represented oVering wine to Hathor
of Shedet (n Sdt),11 preceded by Sobek, who
is seated on a throne and depicted, for the
Wrst time in the Egyptian history, with a human body and a ram head. It is possible to
state that, in this context, Sobek took the
look of a ram because he wanted to hide his
true crocodile nature to his wife, showing
himself under the appearance of an animal
which, like the crocodile, was connected to
the idea of sexual power, but a power that is
however less aggressive and lacking in negative implications.
The attitude of Sobek towards the smwtwomen and the fact that, in his role of
Hathors husband, his real nature is hidden
under the aspect of a ram are among the
most searching treatments in the Egyptian
religion of the real diVerence between sex
and marriage, desire and proper conduct.

Sobeks behaviour, however, lies beyond

the realm of ethics. In the religious texts,
there is no judgement, but only the description of a divine reality. The ethical factor gets
involved when Sobek, or better the crocodile, comes into the human sphere. Marriage
implies, from a social point of view, very
severe restrictions, imposed on sexual attraction. And, in fact, Sobek, who is free to desire even married women, is placed outside
the matrimony. Paradoxically, outside of the
divine world, the crocodile began to represent an admonition, a curb on the temptation and dangers inherent to a sexual life
which escapes from the social rules. If, on a
mythological level, the crocodile Sobek is an
external threat to matrimony, similarly married women, who abandon themselves to the
call of passion for another man, represent an
internal threat to the same institution. It is
precisely in this connection that, perhaps, we
can Wnd the strained tie linking Sobek, the
crocodile to the feminine world. If, in the
religious texts, Sobek puts aside all scruples
and seduces married women just for sexual
purposes, it is not surprising that women
who yield to adultery 12 are envisaged to
cross, in the literary texts, the threshold of a
world of passion symbolised by the crocodile itself. The adulteress, but also the man
who unites himself with a married woman,
walk down a dangerous path towards the
realm of Sobek and the crocodile. As it is
been noted, many literary texts were written for a male point of view and, some of
them, were used with a pedagogic intent for
the education of schoolboys and must therefore be expression of a certain mental attitude towards women, an attitude which
should be to a certain extent part of the Egyptian society. 13 The Egyptian attributed a high
value to the institution of the family within
their society. The so-called wisdom literature, biographies and art in general often

10. University of Chicago. Oriental Institute.

Epigraphic Survey, Medinet Habu VII, Chicago 1964, 582
d.
11. On the goddess Hathor at Shedet, see Zecchi,
GeograWa religiosa del Fayyum cit., pp. 80-81.
12. For a discussion on adultery in Egypt, see C. J.

Eyre, Crime and Adultery in Ancient Egypt, JEA 70

(1984), pp. 92-105.
13. See L. H. Lesko, The Perception of Women in Pharaonic Egyptian Wisdom Literature, in L. H. Lesko (ed.),
Ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Studies in Memory of
William A. Ward, Providence 1998, pp. 163-171.

152

marco zecchi

stressed the idea of a family in harmony,

where the couple is united by true love. But
the Egyptians were of course aware of the
possible erotic attractions towards people
outside of matrimony. It is worth noting that
in the texts where a female sexual freedom
is described, the crocodile is involved in its
capacity of animal of destiny, agent of justice, evoked to punish or prevent a crime
associated with sex. 14
In a text of the xix dynasty called The Blinding of Truth by Falsehood, 15 the son of a woman, who had a sexual encounter with a
man, apostrophises his mother by saying:
the members of your family ought to be
gathered together and be made to summon
a crocodile (msh). 16 In this passage, the son
is suggesting that the mother should be
thrown to the crocodiles. 17 In other words,
the crocodile is here a potential instrument
of death for a woman who, without being
married, gave way to a sexual call.
The crocodile appears in another text of
the same period, the Tale of the Two Brothers. 18 The story is well-known: Anubis was
married with a woman whose name remains
untold and who tried to seduce the young
brother of her husband, named Bata, who,
however, resisted the woman. The scared
wife accused Bata of having tried to have a
sexual intercourse with her. Anubis, to
avenge the insult, followed his brother with
a spear in his hands. But Bata called for the
help of the god Ra-Harakhty, who, in order
to separate the two brothers, created an expanse of water infested with crocodiles

(mshw). 19 Bata, from the other side of the

bank, called his brother, saying: As soon as
the sun rises, I shall be judged with you in
his presence and he shall deliver the culprit
to the just.
Bata claimed his own innocence, cut his
phallus with a reed knife and throws it into
the water. Anubis returned home, killed his
wife and cast her body to the gods. A part
from the terrible punishment inXicted to the
woman, the text is interesting because the
crocodiles are magically created by Ra-Harakhty not in order to punish Anubis wife,
but in order to prevent that Bata is killed
because unjustly accused for having seduced
a married woman. 20
In a tale of the Papyrus Westcar, 21 written
during the xvi or xvii dynasty, but whose text
probably dates back to the Middle Kingdom,
we encounter another woman for whom
marriage had, evidently, lost its gleam. The
story, told by the prince Khaefra, is another
literary example of what can happen to an
adulteress. The woman, wife of the chief lector priest Wb3-inr, fell in love with a townsman. In order to show her feeling, she sent
him, as a present, a box Wlled with clothing,
an act which is the prelude to their being
driven to an illicit liaison. The townsman
asked the woman to come down the greenhouse in the garden. And so she did. They
spent a day together, drinking and making
love. 22 But, unfortunately, the caretaker in
charge of the garden informed of the aVair
Wb3-inr, who, to avenge himself, fashioned
a crocodile (msh) 23 of wax and ordered the

14. On the crocodile as animal connected with fate

and justice, see C. J. Eyre, Fate, Crocodiles and the Judgement of the Dead. Some Mythological Allusions in Egyptian
Literature, SAK 4 (1976), pp. 103-114.
15. Papyrus Chester Beatty ii (British Museum 10682):
A. H. Gardiner, Late-Egyptian Stories, Bruxelles 1932,
pp. 30-36.
16. Papyrus Chester Beatty ii, 6, 1-2.
17. Cf. G. Lefebvre, Romans et contes gyptiens de
lpoque pharaonique. Traduction avec introduction, notices et commentaires, Paris 1976, p. 166 n. 25.
18. Papyrus Orbiney (British Museum 10183): Gardiner, Late-Egyptian Stories cit., pp. 9-29.
19. Papyrus Orbiney, 6, 7; 8, 1.
20. Cf. Eyre, Fate, Crocodiles cit., pp. 105-106.
21. A. Erman, Die Mrchen des Papyrus Westcar, Berlin 1890; A. M. Blackman, The Story of King Kheops and

the Magicians. Transcribed from the Papyrus Westcar (Berlin Papyrus 3033), Whitstable 1988.
22. Cf. L. H. Lesko, Women and Priests in Two Egyptian Stories, in J. Magness, S. Gitin (eds.), Hesed Ve-Emet.
Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs, Atlanta 1998, pp.
218-219.
23. Papyrus Westcar 3, 2; 3, 5; 3, 12-13; 3, 22; 3, 24; 4,
3; 4, 6-7. It is worth mentioning that in this papyrus, as
well as in The Blinding of Truth by Falsehood and in the
Tale of the Two Brothers, it is used the word msh for
crocodile, which is the classical word to designate
this animal. This could be due to the fact that this term
does not seem to have any negative connotation. Cf.
P. Wilson, Slaughtering the crocodile at Edfu and Dendera, in S. Quirke (ed.), The Temple in Ancient Egypt.
New Discoveries and Recent Researches, London 1997, p.
194.

sobek, the crocodile and women

caretaker to throw it into the water the next
time his wifes lover went down to bath in
the pool. The wax crocodile turned into a
real crocodile of seven cubits long which
seized the lover, taking him away. Told of
this prodigy by Wb3-inr, the king Nebka stated that the crocodile, which in the meantime
emerged from the water, was indeed fearful. But when Wb3-inr caught the animal in
his hands, it became again a crocodile of wax.
The king, however, ordered the crocodile:
take what belongs to you (in.n=k p3y=k) 24
and the animal went down to the depths of
the water taking with him the townsman.
The king then set Wre to Wb3-inrs wife and
threw her ashes into the river. As well as in
the Tale of the Two Brothers, the crocodile
appears magically because connected to a
man who is in relation with an adulterous
wife. Nonetheless, the presence of the animal has here an opposite meaning to the one
of the previous tale. Unlike to the story of
Anubis and Bata, in this context the reptile
does not rescue an innocent, but punishes a
guilty man. 25 The sentence uttered by the
king take what belongs to you is extremely signiWcant. The crocodile takes possession
of a man who has its own characteristics. As
well as Sobek, the lover of the Papyrus Westcar is indiVerent to womens social position.
Moreover both Sobek and the lover prefer
to follow their instinct and disregard matrimony and family, which imply not a natural
relationship, but a social one. And it is perhaps for this reason that the man who goes
out of the norm, is taken away from the society by means of a crocodile, the animal
through which Sobek manifests himself.
Even though the available documentation
is perhaps scanty, this is suYcient to assert
that Sobek and the crocodile had strong as-

24. Papyrus Westcar 4,6.

25. Cf. Eyre, Fate, Crocodiles cit., pp. 106-107.
26. A. Volten, Demotische Traumdeutung, Kopenhagen 1942, pp. 86-87, 98-99.

153

sociations with those men and women

whose social position is at risk because compromised by adultery. In particular, the relation women-crocodile-sex is destined to
continue in the centuries of the Egyptian history, as it is suggested by a dream book of
the second century AD in demotic and composed for women. In this text it is stated that
if a woman dreams of having an intercourse
with a crocodile it means that she will die
soon. 26 Besides, the idea of the aggressive
nature of the crocodile and its sexual appetites, expressed in the Egyptian texts, is
reXected in Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride 27 of
the i century AD and in Horapollos Hieroglyphica.
In this work, which is one of the fruits of
the last pagan circles in Egypt during the v
century AD, it is stated that the ancient Egyptians used the hieroglyph of a crocodile to
designate a man with a furious and proliWc
nature. 28
Every god deWnes himself through his
diVerent aspects, which, in their turn, constitute his nature. Sobek, who is a crocodile,
is a striking example in the Egyptian religion
of the Xexibility of manner which Wnds a
parallel in the Xexibility of manner of human
beings. Like other Egyptian gods, Sobek is a
vacillator. As well as men and women, Sobek
vacillates between what was regarded as
proper and improper. Sobek is a selWsh and
violent god, certainly: not only he is apt to
entertain cruel relations, but he is also sexually unscrupulous. However, his peculiar
behaviour and the realism of his character
are, to a certain extent, clear signs of his belonging more to the human world than to a
divine sphere.
Universit degli Studi di Bologna

27. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 75.

28. Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, 67.

Amministrazione e abbonamenti
Accademia Editoriale
Casella postale n. 1 , succursale n. 8, I 56123 Pisa
Tel. +39 050 878066 (5 linee) Fax +39 050 878732
Abbonamenti (2004):
Italia: Euro 60,00 (privati) Euro 90,00 (enti, brossura con edizione Online)
Euro 120,00 (enti, rilegato con edizione Online)
Abroad: Euro 90,00 (Individuals) Euro 120,00 (Institutions, paperback with Online Edition)
Euro 150,00 (Institutions, hardback with Online Edition)
Fascicolo singolo: Euro 120,00 (brossura) Euro 150,00 (rilegato)
I pagamenti possono essere eVettuati tramite versamento su c.c.p. n. 17154550
o tramite carta di credito (American Express, Visa, Eurocard, Mastercard)
La Casa Editrice garantisce la massima riservatezza dei dati forniti dagli abbonati e la possibilit di
richiederne la rettiWca o la cancellazione previa comunicazione alla medesima.
Le informazioni custodite dalla Casa Editrice verranno utilizzate al solo scopo
di inviare agli abbonati nuove proposte (L. 675/96).
*
Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Pisa n. 21/03 del 26/11/03
Direttore responsabile: Fabrizio Serra
*
Sono rigorosamente vietati la riproduzione, la traduzione, ladattamento, anche parziale o per estratti,
per qualsiasi uso e con qualsiasi mezzo eVettuati, compresi la copia fotostatica,
il microWlm, la memorizzazione elettronica, ecc., senza la preventiva autorizzazione scritta
degli Istituti Editoriali e PoligraWci Internazionali, Pisa Roma,
un marchio della Accademia Editoriale, Pisa Roma
Ogni abuso sar perseguito a norma di legge.
*
Propriet riservata All rights reserved
Copyright 2004 by
Istituti Editoriali e PoligraWci Internazionali, Pisa Roma,
un marchio della Accademia Editoriale, Pisa Roma
http://www.libraweb.net
Per la migliore riuscita delle pubblicazioni, si invitano gli autori ad attenersi, nel predisporre i materiali da
consegnare alla Redazione ed alla Casa Editrice, alle norme speciWcate nel volume
Fabrizio Serra, Regole editoriali, redazionali & tipograWche, Pisa Roma, Istituti Editoriali
e PoligraWci Internazionali, 2004 (Euro 18,00, ordini a: iepi@iepi.it).
Il capitolo Norme redazionali, estratto dalle Regole, cit., consultabile Online
alla pagina Pubblicare con noi di www.libraweb.net
Stampato in Italia Printed in Italy
issn 1724-6156

composto, in carattere dante monotype,

impresso e rilegato in italia dalla
accademia editoriale, pisa roma

*
Luglio 2004
(cz2/fg3)

Tutte le riviste Online e le pubblicazioni delle nostre case editrici (riviste, collane, varia, ecc.)
possono essere ricercate bibliograWcamente e richieste
(sottoscrizioni di abbonamenti, ordini di volumi, ecc.) presso il sito Internet:

www.libraweb.net
Per ricevere, tramite E-mail, periodicamente, la nostra newsletter/alert con lelenco delle novit
e delle opere in preparazione, Vi invitiamo a sottoscriverla presso il nostro sito Internet
o a trasmettere i Vostri dati (Nominativo e indirizzo E-mail) allindirizzo:

newsletter@iepi.it
*
Computerized search operations allow bibliographical retrieval of the Publishers works
(Online journals, journals subscriptions, orders for individual issues, series, books, etc.)
through the Internet website :

www.libraweb.net
If you wish to receive, by E-mail, our newsletter/alert with periodic information on the list
of new and forthcoming publications, you are kindly invited to subscribe
it at our web-site or to send your details (Name and E-mail address) to the following address :

newsletter@iepi.it