The Middle Kingdom

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib Sdt wsir m [tA-S?]

12) statue Strasbourg, Institut d’Egyptologie no. 1382 (doc.
106) (Twelfth-Thirteenth Dynasty, unknown provenance)366;

Htp-di-nswt wsir Hry-ib tA-S; Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdt; Htp-di-nswt ptH

13) statue AIEN 88 (doc. 107), of the imy-r Hmw-ntr Hr tA-S wab Hrt
pr-ptH imny (Twelfth-Thirteenth Dynasty, unknown provenance);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty wsir ity Hry-ib tA-S, Htp-di-nswt Ht-Hr nbt
Srt-bnbn
14) statue Cairo JdE 43093 (doc. 131), of the Hm-ntr sbk-nxt-
rn=f-snbw (Thirteenth Dynasty, from Shedet);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty nb tA-S; Htp-di-nswt ptH-skr

15) statue (doc. 87) of the imy-r pr sbk-Htp (Thirteenth Dy-
nasty, unknown provenance);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdt; Htp-di-nswt ptH-skr

16) statue (doc. 93) belonged to the Hm-ntr gbw (Twelfth-Thir-
teenth Dynasty, unknown provenance);

Htp-di-nswt sbk nb iwnw sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib Sdt wsir nb ddw

17) statue (doc. 129) belonged to the Atw n wrS rn-snb (Thir-
teenth Dynasty, unknown provenance);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty; Htp-di-nswt imn-ra nb nswt tAwy

18) statue Turin 3064 (doc. 130) of the xtmty bity imy-r AHwt
xpr-kA born of tnt and of the imy-r pr Sna sbk-m-mr (Thirteenth
Dynasty?, unknown provenance);

Stelae:
Htp-di-nswt wsir xnty imntt inpw (?) nb Abdw sbk Hr Sdty
19) stela CG 20758 (doc. 110), of the iry-at n pr-Hd kmn (Twelfth-
Thirteenth Dynasty, from Abydos);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib Sdt

20) stela Louvre C 145 (doc. 102), of the Smsw sA-sbk (Twelfth-
Thirteenth Dynasty, unknown provenance);

Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdt (together with other offering formulas ded-

icated to other deities)
21) stela AEIN 1539 (doc. 103) of the hall-keeper Sepi (Twelfth-
Thirteenth Dynasty, from Haraga);

366
Based on a personal copy of the inscription. The statue is unpublished and is quoted
in PM VIII, 346.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

Other objects:
Htp-di-nswt sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib Sdt
22) scarab Cairo JdE 38253 (doc. 112), of the Hm-ntr sbk
(Twlfth-Thirteenth Dynasty, unknown provenance).

It is worth noting that the offering formulas of thirteen out of

seventeen statues mention Sobek – Horus of Shedet alone or to-
gether with other Fayyumic gods, such as Hathor of Sheret-ben-
ben and, above all, Osiris ity Hry-ib tA-S, the speciic Osirian form
of the region, whose cult seems to have started in the late Twelfth
Dynasty 367. So, the ilial relation between these two important
local deities was acknowledged also by part of the local popula-
tion. This is not surprising, since some of the dedicants seem to
have been high oficial or priests serving within the boundaries
of the region.
Some of the statues were very likely dedicated by private citi-
zens in the temple of Sobek at Shedet368, even though the preva-
lence of mentions of the gods Osiris and Ptah/Ptah-Sokar might
suggest that some of them were placed in funerary contexts. And
indeed, the interest for Sobek of Shedet as funerary god seems
to have increased in this period, as it is suggested by a statue
belonging to a woman who, in its inscription, calls herself imAxyt
xr sbk Sdt (doc. 101).

Sobek in the hymns

Two hymns to Sobek of Shedet provide one of the most vivid

pictures of the god’s character and of his role in mythical events.
The two hymns, preserved on a papyrus roll found in a Middle
Kingdom tomb at the back of the Ramesseum (doc. 85)369, are
written in retrograde and cursive hieroglyphs in 143 columns.
The irst hymn runs from column 1 to columns 41; the second
one is incomplete and begins with the title ‘speaking word: prais-
ing Sobek’, written in a horizontal line above the text.
Despite the archaeological provenance of these hymns being
known, their origin remains uncertain. The tomb in which they
were found also contained magical papyri and other texts and, as
has been suggested, it might have belonged to a lector priest. It
is indeed plausible that they were originally composed to be read
during rituals at particular festivals, very likely in a temple in

367
ZECCHI 2006, 117-145.
368
VERBOVSEK 2004, 129-143, 444-469, 548.
369
GARDINER 1957, 43-56, pls. 2-4. For other translations, see: BARUCQ, DAUMAS 1980, 419-
430; ZECCHI 2004, 57-65. See also PARKINSON 1999, 91.

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 The Middle Kingdom

the Theban area or at Sumenu370. Even though the prominence

accorded here to Sobek of Shedet might be simply due to the
importance of the Fayyum depression during the Twelfth Dy-
nasty, the fact that these texts were created to magnify this spe-
ciic form of Sobek, and not a southern crocodile god, might as
well suggest that they were a religious Fayyumic product which
was also adopted in other temples. In any event, these texts are a
piece of evidence of the diffusion of the cult of Sobek of Shedet
outside the boundaries of his region.
The irst hymn ends with the mention of a king Amenemhat
(cols. 36-41), very likely Amenemhat III, whose reign can there-
fore be regarded as the terminus a quo for the writing of these
texts371: ‘King Amenemhat has given you this beautiful face, with
which you see your mother Neith and with which you show mercy
to the gods (di.n nswt imn-m-HAt Hr=k pw nfr dgg=k imy=f mwt=k
nt Htpy=k imy=f n ntrw). Incense on the lame! (sntr Hr sdt). It is
for Sobek Shedety – Horus who resides in Shedet, lord of myrrh,
the one who rejoices in the incense372 (iw sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib Sdt
nb antyw Hkn m sntr). May you be merciful to king Amenemhat,
through whom your face is happy on this day (Htp=k n nswt imn-
m-HAt nfr Hr=k imy=f m ra pn)’. The expressions ‘incense on the
lame’, repeated also in column 79, and ‘on this day’ conirm that
the hymn was for liturgical use.
The two hymns are a clear expression of the evolution and
changes undergone by Sobek’s personality during the Middle King-
dom, in particular during the time of Amenemhat III, and provide
a much wider picture of the god’s nature. Sobek is here endowed
with such qualities that he becomes involved in a wide range of
themes, cult centres and ambits. Moreover, both the hymns are
characterised by an original and innovative phraseology. Most of
the epithets of Sobek are a complete novelty and will become com-
mon for other important deities only in the following periods.
The irst hymn begins with an invocation to Sobek: ‘hail to
you, who arises from the Nun’ (wbn m nwn)373 (col. 1), an epi-
thet that immediately presents Sobek as a primordial god, who
showed himself for the irst time as emerging from the prime-
val water, which existed before and at the time of the creation.
Despite the fact that Sobek of Shedet is quite reluctant to be

370
MORENZ 1996, 152-154; PARKINSON 1999, 91.
371
VERNUS 1980, 117.
372
For the epithet ‘lord of myrrh’, see: LEITZ 2002, III, 602. There is no other example of
the epithet ‘the one who rejoices in the incense’: LEITZ 2002, V, 558.
373
For this epithet, attested here for the irst time, see LEITZ 2002, II, 312-313. From the
New Kingdom it will become quite common for other gods. It will be applied again to
Sobek/Sobek-Ra in the temple of Kom Ombo.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

identiied with Ra, in this context he is with no doubt a ‘solar’

demiurg. Even though Ra is not expressly mentioned, in the ‘Cof-
in Texts’ Sobek is already the one ‘who rises in the East and sets
in the West’ (CT VII, 202). But it is in the hymns that he can be
called ‘Sobek who is in Shedet – Ra – Horus’ (sbk imy Sdt ra Hr)
(cols. 45-46), ‘replica of Ra374, the great light maker375, who comes
forth from the lood water’ (sn.nw ra sHd wr pr m nwy) (cols. 6-7),
‘the primeval being of the Great Ennead’ (pAwty psdt aAt)376 (frag-
ment B) and ‘the great in the House of the Prince’ (wr m Hwt-sr)377
(fragment A), denoting both the temple of Ra and a chamber
dedicated to Osiris at Heliopolis378.
The hymns offer a list of places where the god lives and where
he is supposed to exercise his power, among which Nennesu (aA
bAw m nn-nswt), Hebnu (nb snd imy Hbnw), Aht (nb AHt)379, Ta-
seti (Hry-tp m tA-sty), Sesh (wtt bA Hry-ib sS)380, Thebes (nb wAst),
Sumenu (aA m swmnw), Cynopolis (Htp m inpwt), Nemety (nfr iw
m nmty), Abydos (sA nt m Abdw), Iu-nesha (cols. 18-28), the un-
known localities of Ra-muha, Ra-uakh (aA xaw m rA-wAx) (cols. 22
and 26) and Imy-she (Hry-tp n imy-S) (col. 94), Bakhu (nb bAhw)
(col. 93), Sais (nb Sat m Hwt-bity), Kheraha and Heliopolis (sHtp
xAw m hr-aHA Hnmmt m iwnw) (col. 116). In another passage, he is
the ‘lord of Ra-sehuy’ (nb rA-sHwy) (col. 16), ‘lord of the lake’ (nb
S), that is, very likely, the entire Fayyum depression, and ‘the one
who breaks open Ra-henet’ (ngi rA-Hnt). The verb ngi is usually
associated with the idea of the opening of a territory to make the
lood pour out. Owing to the location of Ra-henet381, at the east-
ern entrance of the Fayyum, it seems that in this context Sobek,
in his capacity of lord of the Fayyum, is regarded as the god who
makes the water of the Bahr Yussef go through the territory of
el-Lahun in order to inundate the whole region. But nothing es-
capes Sobek’s authority. His dominion extends over the whole of
Egypt, the desert and the foreign lands, the water, the sky with its
winds, and the divine world. He is indeed the ‘lord of the lord-ly-

374
First attestation of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, VI, 364.
375
Another example of this epihet occurs in CT III, 196b. Then, it was used starting
from the New Kingdom: LEITZ 2002, VI, 477.
376
This is the only attestation of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, III, 22.
377
This is the only example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, II, 452.
378
An offering formula on a statue of unknown provenance dedicated to ‘Sobek lord of
iwnw, Sobek Shedety – Horus who resides in Shedet, Osiris lord of Busiris’ represents
a further evidence of the connection between the crocodile god and Heliopolis already
in the Middle Kingdom: WILD 1971, 114-130. See also ZECCHI 2001, 46.
379
Possibly located in the Fayyum depression: ZECCHI 2001, 172.
380
ZECCHI 2001, 97-98.
381
BEINLICH 1991, 289-291; ZECCHI 2001, 98-99.

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 The Middle Kingdom

ing lands’ (nb xrw)382 (cols. 1-2), ‘ruler of the desert-edge’ (HqA ad)
(col. 2), ‘ruler of the foreign lands’ (HqA xAswt) (cols. 33-34)383 and
of the ‘rivers’ (HqA itrww, Hry itrww)384 (col. 12), ‘lord of the dock-
yards’ (nb wxrty) (col. 94), ‘the one who crosses the ponds’(hn
swnw)385 (col. 3), ‘the one who sails northward in his beauty and
southward when he has made the lood many times’ (xd m nfrw=f
xnt mH.n=f aSA tnw) (cols. 5-6), ‘the one who comes to his canal’
(ii m mr=f) (col. 140), ‘lord of the island-lands’ (nb nbwt) (col.
48), ‘the one those who are in the water adore’ (dwA imyw-nwy)
(cols. 113-114), ‘star that is in the ields’ (sbA imy sxwt) (col. 35),
and ‘controller of the winds’ (sr tAw) (col. 13). Thanks to his iden-
tiication with the falcon god, Sobek is ‘Horus chief of the two
lands’ (Hr Hry-tp tAwy) (col. 47), the one who has appeared ‘as king
of Upper and Lower Egypt’ (xa m nswt-bit) (cols. 62, 136), ‘more
powerful than the gods, as Horus, great of the wrrt-crown’ (wsr r
ntrw m Hr aA wrrt) (cols. 106-107), the one who has appeared with
the Great of Magic’ (xati m wrt-HkAw) (col. 83), ‘mayor of his two
lands’ (HAty-a tAwy.fy) (col. 94). Moreover, he is ‘the one who rejoic-
es with his sceptre’ (Hkn m sxm=f) (cols. 20-21), ‘great of festival’
(wr Hb)386 (col. 71), ‘the ruler amongst the gods’ (HqA m ntrw)387
(col. 137), and, in accordance with his characteristic aggressive-
ness, he is the ‘great power, who steals the wrrt-crown’ (sxm wr
xnp wrrt) (col. 139), that is to say, his dominion is based on a
violent act. The hymns inform us that, just immediately after his
irst apparition, the crocodile god took possession both of heaven
and earth: ‘Sobek appeared, then he has ruled the sky and has
illed the two lands with his might’ (xa sbk HqA.n=f pt mH.n=f tAwy
m wsr=f) (cols. 105-106). But Sobek rules over the known world
with terror and, indeed, he is the one ‘at whom the two lands roar
because of the fear of him’ (nhmhm n=f tAwy n snd=f) (cols. 104-
105) and ‘at whom the bowmen cry aloud and for whom those
who are in panic sift their gold’ (nhmhm n=f iwntyw nqrqr n=f
imyw nrt nbw=sn) (cols. 91-93). Moreover, many of his epithets
evoke his dangerous wildness, describing both his animal fea-
tures and his bad temper. He is the ‘restful of feet’ (Htp rdwy)388
(cols. 66, 103), ‘watchful of face’ (rs Hr)389 (col. 72), ‘exalted of

382
There is no other attestation of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, III, 719.
383
This is the irst example of this epithet. Subsequently, it will become a common title
for other deities: LEITZ: 2002, V, 519-520.
384
No other example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, V, 498-499.
385
No other example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, VI, 14.
386
LEITZ 2002, II, 452.
387
It is attested the variant HqA ntrw, applied to Osiris: See LEITZ 2002, V, 515-516.
388
LEITZ 2002, V, 577.
389
This epithet had been already applied to Sobek in Pyr. §507.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

front’ (stn HAt)390 (cols. 103, 140-141), ‘sharp of teeth’ (spd ibHw)391
(col. 100), ‘runner sharp of teeth’ (wn spd ibHw) (col. 73), ‘run-
ning upon his body’ (wn Hr dt=f) 392 (col. 101), which seems an
appropriate description of the reptile’s pace, ‘great of terror’ (aA
nrw) (cols. 15, 91, 130-131)393, ‘whose attack cannot be repelled’
(iwty xsf At=f) (col. 131) and ‘the powerful god, whose seizing can-
not be seen’ (ntr sxm xmm mA itt=f) (cols. 3-4), ‘lord of fear’ (nb
snd)394 (cols. 91, 130), ‘the strong one’ (nxt) (cols. 50, 60), ‘the
one who seizes through his might’ (iti m wsr=f)395 (col. 73), ‘the
one with Sethian rage’ (nhs At) (col. 72), and ‘owner of the locks,
who loves robbery’ (Hnskty mr=f xnp) (col. 15) and ‘the one who
lives robbingly’ (anx m awA) (col. 4), three very disruptive epithets,
which seem to locate Sobek outside the boundaries of Maat396.
But even though Sobek does not long to escape his original na-
ture, he seems equally reluctant to a reduction of his personality
to a mere crocodile, with its implicit cruelty. So, he starts show-
ing an increase of gentleness, not only towards his ‘personal’ king
Amenemhat, but on a more general level, through the epithets
‘lord of love’ (nb mrwt) (col. 14), which is here for the irst time
attributed to an Egyptian god397, and ‘the one who comes when
invoked as Horus the child’ (ii nis m Hr wAd) (col. 17).
As well as many other deities, Sobek can offer many versions
of himself. He is not only the crocodile par excellence, becom-
ing the ‘crocodile-image of the gods, the strongest among them’
(ahm ntrw nxt imy=sn) (cols. 90-91)398, but he can equally ap-
pear in other guises. Nevertheless, his choice is limited just to

390
This epithet is bestowed for the irst time to Sobek of the Fayyum: LEITZ 2002, VI,
709-710.
391
LEITZ 2002, VI, 280-281.
392
This is the only example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, II, 389.
393
This is the irst and only example of this epithet before the New Kingdom, when it
started to be applied to other deities: LEITZ 2002, II, 30-31.
394
During the Middle Kingdom the only other god to be bestowed with this epithet
was Osiris. In the following periods it will become common to many other gods: LEITZ
2002, III, 734-735.
395
This is the irst example of this epithet. Substequently, it will appeared again in
Greco-Roman Period to be bestowed to other deities, such as Hor-wer and Horus of
Edfu: LEITZ 2002, I, 628.
396
The last epithet, in the variant anx m awA=f, occurs also in CT VI 293-294 and in CT
VII 50b, where it is applied to a ‘messenger of Seth’: LEITZ 2002, II, 138.
397
This will become a rather frequent epithet for Egyptian deities from the New
Kingdom onwards: LEITZ 2002, III, 648.
398
This is the only example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, II, 208. As suggested by GARDINER
1957, 51 note 8, the word ahm, written here with the determinative of the crocodile,
might be related to the verb aSm / ahm, ‘to seize’, so that the term could be applied in
religious texts to crocodile or falcon deities or to dangerous animals. In Spell 268 of
the ‘Cofin Texts’, for being transformed into Sobek, the deceased is aSm aSm Hr, ‘the
crocodile-image, the crocodile-faced’ (CT IV, 4d).

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 The Middle Kingdom

few animal forms, because he seems inclined to adopt animal

manifestations able to convey an idea of strength, but, above
all, a vigour intimately connected with sexuality. And indeed the
hymns are characterised by a recurrent sexual symbolism. If un-
der the guise of a ‘lion with terrible look, great of strength’ (mAi-
HsA aA pHty) (cols. 32-33) Sobek can show all his physical force,
the ram and the bull, together with the crocodile form itself,
shed light on the god’s sexual life. So, the crocodile Sobek is able
to turn himself into the ‘bull of the powers’ (kA sxmw)399 (frag-
ment B), ‘ejaculating bull’ (kA sty)400 (cols. 13, 31-32), ‘bull of the
bulls, the great male’ (kA kAw tAy wr)401 (col. 48), ‘phallus of the
gods’ (tAy ntrw) (col. 71), ‘gold of the bulls, bull of the Hathors’
(nbw kAw kA HwwtHr) (col. 95), ‘ram’ (bA) (col. 90), ‘ram, great of
awe’ (bA aA SfSft) (cols. 103-104), ‘ejaculating ram (bA sty)402, phal-
lus of his Hmswt-women (tAy Hmswt=f)’ (cols. 95-96), a group of
women, counterpart of the male kas and representing the femi-
nine life force403. And his beneicial activities as controller of the
lood and draining of the lake area are also due to his vigour,
if he can be evoked as the one who opens his lakes ‘as young
bull’ (wbA=k Sw=k m kA rnp) (col. 124). If all these epithets might
seem a bizarre exaggeration of the sexual activities of the god,
they however correspond to his attitude towards sex already ex-
pressed in the ‘Pyramid Texts’ and in the ‘Cofin Texts’404. Sobek
is irresistible, ‘beautiful of shapes’ (nfr irw) (col. 33), endowed
with an excellent sex appeal, but, at the same time, he shows a
certain degree of savage darkness and selishness and, in front of
him, women and goddesses have just to succumb, with no fear
of giving way to natural desires. For him, ‘the female falcons’
(bikwt) and the dwAwt-women ‘leap up’ (stp)405 (cols. 96-97, 127-
128), and there is no goddess (ntrwt Hmwt) who ‘takes away her
person’ (nHm dt=s) from him and the unhappy concubines of
the god, called semut-women, also appear406 (cols. 127-129). All
these groups of women crave for the god’s presence, crying, with
a certain degree of fear: ‘Come our Horus! Come our god!’ (cols.
96-98, 126-130).

399
This is the only example of this epithet: LEITZ 2002, VII, 271.
400
This is another new epithet which occurs here for the irst time. From the New
Kingdom onwards, it will become common for many other gods: LEITZ 2002, VII, 272.
401
For the irst epithet, see: LEITZ VII, 273. The second one is here attested for the irst
time, even though in CT II 382c there is an epithet tAy attributed to Seth, another god
with a strong sexual appetite.
402
As well as the epithet ‘ejaculating bull’, also this epithet is attested here for the irst
time: LEITZ 2002, II, 697.
403
SCHWEITZER 1956, 59ff.
404
ZECCHI 2004a, 149-153.
405
The god is also called SAt n=f ntrwt (col. 97). The meaning of the verb SAt is uncertain.
406
On these female igures, already quoted in the ‘Cofin Texts’, see: ZECCHI 2004a, 150.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

Sobek of Shedet is also the ‘great-breasted falcon’ (bik aA Snbt)

(col. 140), ‘the falcon upon the battlements’ (gmHsw Hr snbw)
(cols. 141-142), ‘the one whose bas appear in front of the gods’
(xa bAw m-bAH ntrw) (cols. 101-102), ‘mighty thanks to his ba’ (sxm
m bA=f) (cols. 73-74), ‘high of heart’ (qA ib) (col. 35) and ‘foremost
of heart’ (xnt ib) (col. 137), ‘power of powers’ (sxm sxmw)407 (col.
93), ‘lord of incense in the middle of ceremonies’ (nb sntr Hry-ib
irw) (col. 34), ‘lord of the offerings’ (or ‘lord of peace’?) (nb Htpw)
(col. 8) and, as a self-supporting deity, he is ‘the one who provi-
sions himself’ (drp sw ds=f) (col. 14).
Sobek of Shedet maintains a privileged relationship with
Neith, who, in the hymns, is quoted three times (cols. 26-27, 36,
78-79), always as mother of the god, in accordance with a more
ancient tradition408. It might be worthwhile to note, however, that
a cult of Neith does not seem to have been active in the Fayyum
before the Third Intermediate Period409.
Nevertheless another association was to become more im-
portant for Sobek. As it is testiied by the offering formulas in a
number of objects of the Middle Kingdom, his syncretistic identi-
ication with Horus caused the crocodile god to be involved with
Osiris. And a speciic Fayyumic form of this god was created:
Osiris ‘the sovereign who resides in the land of the lake’ (ity Hry-ib
tA-S)410. But it is in the second hymn that the Egyptians created
the essential Osirian drama, in which Sobek desperately seek to
save his father, assembling his scattered body and performing the
rituals for his resurrection. This audacious version of the Osirian
myth is the most impressive and passionate of Sobek’s enterprise:
‘you travel in the land of the lake, you traverse the Great Green,
you seek your father Osiris (Sm=k S xns=k wAd-wr sxn=k it=k wsir)’
(cols. 50-52). As suggested by Pascal Vernus411, the hymn uses
here the sdm=f form in order to stress the critical phases of the
myth, that is the quest of Osiris’ body, but when this has been ac-
complished, the hymn opts for the sdm.n=f form. Moreover, the
god’s wandering in the Fayyum provides a variety of settings for
a series of actions taken from the ‘Ritual of the opening of the
mouth’, and which will cause Sobek-Horus to be recognised as
the legitimate heir and son of Osiris (sA=f mry=f) and, as such,

407
This epithet is here attested for the irst time in the Egyptian sources: LEITZ 2002,
VI, 541.
408
As we have seen, the ilial relation between Sobek and Neith goes back to the
‘Pyramid Texts’. This kind of association might be due to the fact that both the deities
have strong connection with the aquatic world: YOYOTTE 1962a, 103, and EL-SAYED
1982, 101.
409
ZECCHI 2001, 76-78.
410
ZECCHI 2006a, 117-145.
411
VERNUS 1980, 120.

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 The Middle Kingdom

to become king of Upper and Lower Egypt: ‘You found him and
you revived him (gm.n=k sw sanx.n=k sw) (col. 52). You said: ‘this
one wipes (sk) the mouth (r) of your father in his name of Sokar’
(dd.n=k sk pn r it=f m rn=f skr)412 (col. 53) You commanded your
children to go, so that they can help your father, namely him, in
their name of helpers of Sokar (wd.n=k msw=k sbi=sn sm=sn it=k
im=f m rn=sn n smw skr) (cols. 54-56). You have adjusted the
mouth of your father Osiris, you have opened for him his mouth,
you are his beloved son (mdd.n=k r n it=k wsir wp.n=k n=f r=f twt
sA=f mry=f) (cols. 56-57). You have saved your father Osiris… in
his name of Ptah (nd.n=k it=k wsir […] m rn=f ptH) (cols. 58-60).
He has brought to you your eye; he has illed for you your eye
with the medjat-unguent413 (in.n=f n=k irt=k mH.n=f n=k irt=k m
mdt), he has placed (?) your eye sound, for you, in the socket (?)
(rdi[.n=f ?] n=k irt=k wdAt m mqrt ?) (cols. 60-62) You arise [as]
king of Upper and Lower Egypt and the hearts of the gods fear
you and the royal food offerings surround you (xa [m] nswt bit snd
n=k ibw ntrw phr n=k bSw nswt) (cols. 62-63)’. In his capacity as
performer of the rituals and king of the whole of Egypt, Sobek
obtained the ability to reckon the hearts of the gods, a role usually
attributed to Anubis for his involvement in the weighing of the
heart of the deceased414: ‘You have rescued your father Osiris and
you have reckoned for him the hearts of the god, being become
as Anubis (nd.n=k it=k wsir ip=k n=f ibw ntrw xprt m inpw) (cols.
64-65)’. And the fact that Sobek is able to reckon the hearts of the
god implies that he was able to assess the correctness and moral
qualities of all the other deities.
It is likely that the Fayyum region was the place where these
legends with Sobek of Shedet as saviour of his father Osiris orig-
inated. The relation between these two gods involved a varied
choice of Osirian themes. First of all, thanks to it, Sobek is able
to play a funerary role, carrying out a fundamental function in
the process of the resurrection of his father. Then, the crocodile
god further stresses his connection with kingship and legitimate-
ly inherits the throne of Osiris. Moreover, Sobek’s search of his
father’s body and his journey in the land of the lake might evoke
the lood originating from the corpse of Osiris; in this way, as
has already been stressed in other passages of the hymns, Sobek
will gain power over the arrival of the annual inundation in the
region. It was the association with Horus, promoted above all by
Amenemhat III – whose name is indeed invoked in the hymns –

412
The same pun of words occurs in the Scene 32 of the ‘Ritual of opening the mouth’.
413
The presentation of this unguent is a ritual usually performed by the heir for his
father in order to guarantee his rightful inheritance: CAUVILLE 1983, 174.
414
WILLEMS 1998, 719-743, in particular 735.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

that permitted Sobek to achieve all this. These ideas survived for
centuries415 and were expressed through the image of the croco-
dile with a mummy on its back, an iconography which united
Sobek with Osiris and Ra, as, for example, in the ‘Book of the
Fayyum’416 or in the temple of Phile, where above the crocodile
with the mummy is the solar disk raising from the mountain on
the horizon containing an enthroned Osiris with, at his feet, a
child with a inger in his mouth representing the raising sun417.
Sobek is also the main protagonist in a group of texts known
under the name of ‘Hymns to the Diadem’, preserved on the pGo-
lenischeff I (doc. 86). The manuscript has been dated to the end
of the Second Intermediate Period, but, very likely, the composi-
tion of the texts goes back to the Middle Kingdom418.
The papyrus consists in a series of hymns addressed to vari-
ous crowns of Sobek Shedety – Horus who resides in Shedet. The
irst hymn contains an appeal to the white crown (Hdt) (I,1–II,1).
Thanks to this Sobek-Horus is able to seize the two lands, and to
become powerful and to have the gods bow to him. The second
part is a rather long hymn to the ‘Great of Magic of the north’
(wrt-HkAw mHt) (II,1–VII,1), a name of the uraeus goddess Wad-
jet. The goddess is invited to awake peacefully and is described
in her dangerous aspects and called under different names, and
at the end Sobek-Horus, called ‘the one who appears with Wadjet
(xa m wAdt), beautiful with his great eye, which is under his eye-
brow (an m irt=f wrt hryt inH=f)’, takes possession of this crown,
which protects him. The third hymn is for the uraeus (iart)
(VII,1–XI,1). After a good awakening, the crown appears on the
head of Sobek-Horus, protecting him and causing all the lands
to be happy and the foreign countries to be frightened by him.
The following hymn is to the Double Crown (sxmty) (XI,1–XII,1),
which is irm of the god’s head when he takes possession of the
two lands. Then, there is a formula to be united with the Double
Crown (r n hnm m sxty) (XII,1–XIII,5), where the god is asked
to take this headgear, symbolising his two eyes. Then, there is
a hymn to the red crown (nt) (XIV,1–XV,1), which protects the
god, and a hymn to the atef-crown (XV,2-XVII,2), which causes
him to be great and to be respected by all the gods and protects
him in front of his enemies. These are followed by a litany listing
the crown under its numerous names (XVII,3–XVIII,29) and by
a hymn to the dndnwt-crown (XIX,1–XIX,4), the eye of Sobek,

415
ZAKI 2002, 103-108; KOEMOTH 2009, 50-51, 56.
416
BEINLICH 1991, pl. 18. See also ZECCHI 2006a, 138.
417
JUNKER 1913, 43, ig. 10; DERCHAIN 1965, 36.
418
As noted by GOEBS 2008, 27, note 4, however, certain parts of the text occur already
in the ‘Pyramid Texts’ (formulas 220-221).

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 The Middle Kingdom

which make him powerful amongst his enemies. The last hymn
is addressed to the wnwnt-crown (XIX,4–XX,3), which makes
Sobek happy and makes him a legitimate ruler.
The actual use of these hymns and crowns remains unclear;
however, their presentation as items of the insignia of the god and
the recurrent use in the texts of the expression ‘wake in peace!’,
addressed to the crowns, suggest that they were supposed to play
a signiicant role in the daily temple ritual of the crocodile god,
who, since the reign of Amenemhat III, had been strictly associ-
ated with royal headgears. In all these hymns, there are recur-
rent themes: the crowns are symbols of the royal power; thanks
to their brightness, they can be regarded as the eyes of the god;
and thanks to their dangerous nature, they carry out a protective
function and allow the god to win any enemy. But what it inter-
esting, is that these hymns are a further evidence of the strong
connections of Sobek of the Fayyum with the royal ideology.
Through his identiication with Horus, constantly evoked next to
Sobek in these hymns, the crocodile god can take possession of
the major symbols of the ofice of kingship, which mark him as
an invincible ruler of the two lands.

From the Thirteenth Dynasty to the Hyksos Period

Even though the period of intense monumental activity in the

Fayyum ceased with the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, the rise of
the Thirteenth Dynasty did not necessarily coincide with the be-
ginning of a period of crisis. On the contrary, the main localities
of the region remained active, the administrative system of La-
hun did not collapse419, and Hawara420 and the temple of Medinet
Madi were not abandoned and the gods of the region maintained
a great part of their prestige. Sobek of Shedet was still served by
a good number of priests, while, as we have seen, private citizens
kept on dedicating statues and stelae with offering formulas in
his honour.

419
The pUC 32166 (GRIFFITH 1898, pl. X; COLLIER, QUIRKE 2004, 116-117) is dated to
the irst year of reign of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt sxm-ra-xw-tAwy. The pUC
32163 (GRIFFITH 1898, pl. IX; COLLIER, QUIRKE 2004, 110-111) is dated to the third
year of sxm-kA-ra, possibly to be identiied with Sekhem-ka-ra Sonbef, successor of
Sekhem-ra-khutawy (RYHOLT 1997, 316, 319, 403). These two kings must be located
at the very beginning of the dynasty and, according to RYHOLT 1997, 12-13, 209, they
should be regarded as its irst two sovereigns. The latest royal name found at Lahun
is the prenomen of king Ibiaw, wAH-ib-ra, written on a faience cup (UC 16056: PETRIE
1890, pl. X.72), who ruled approximately half a century before the beginning of the
Fifteenth Dynasty.
420
BLOM-BÖER 2006, 84-85.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

The royal documents of this period are however limited to a

few seals and two statues. In many cases, the kings call them-
selves ‘beloved of’ Renenutet, or Sobek of Sumenu or, above all,
Sobek of Shedet. At least six kings, Sedjef-ka-ra Amenemhat VII
(doc. 67), Imyremeshaw (doc. 68), Neferhotep I (doc. 70), Sobek-
hotep IV (doc. 71), Mer-hotep-ra Sobekhotep V (doc. 72) and Aya
(doc. 73), adopted, in seals, the formula mry sbk Sdty. Within the
temple of Medinet Madi, A. Vogliano brought to light a granite
statue representing Sehotep-ka-ra Antef V seated on a throne and
with an inscription which declared the king ‘beloved of Renenu-
tet, the living of Dja’421. A few years later, king Neferhotep I set
up, very likely in the temple of Shedet or at Hawara, a seated
statuette of himself with the epithet ‘beloved of Sobek Shedety –
Horus who resides in Shedet’422 (Fig. 9).
Despite the lack of monumental building activities in the
Fayyum, the surviving evidence shows that the interest in the
region and its gods did not diminish with the kings of the Thir-
teenth Dynasty. On the contrary, it must be stressed that two
royal statues come from the region and that, in this period, the
deities usually mentioned in this kind of monuments, besides
Sobek of Shedet and Renenutet, are important Egyptian gods,
such as Ptah, Khnum, Amon-Ra, Hemen, Ra-Harakhty, Osiris
and Satet423. Moreover, it is worth pointing out that Sobek’s name
is the one which occurs more frequently in the royal seals of the
Thirteenth Dynasty and that, more speciically, the seals with
Sobek of Shedet are outnumbered only by those with the name
of Sobek of Sumenu424.
Actually, it seems unlikely that the fortune of Sobek of Shedet
was due to mere religious aspects or that it was based on the fact
that the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty just wanted to imitate
their predecessors of the previous dynasty by dedicating seals to
the crocodile god of the Fayyum. Rather, it must be due to po-
litical and economic reasons. Even though the seals and the two
statues were not produced in the Fayyum, it may be assumed that
they indicate that the region was under the control of their royal
owners. The Thirteenth Dynasty seems to have faced a signiicant
decrease in wealth and the rise of the Fourteenth Dynasty must
also have had a serious effect upon the resources of the Thirteenth

421
Cairo JdE 67834: DONADONI 1952, 6-7; DAVIES 1981, 24, no. 16; RYHOLT 1997, 342.
422
Bologna EG 1799. The provenance of this monument is unknown. But PM IV, 103
attributes it to Medinet el-Fayyum.
423
RYHOLT 1997, 338, 339, 342, 344, 348-350, 353, 358.
424
RYHOLT 1997, 338, 340, 341, 343, 346, 354. Other forms of the crocodile god attested
on seals are Sobek of iw-m-itrw, Sobek nfrtw and Sobek lord of nbwyt: RYHOLT 1997,
336, 346, 350. Other deities mentioned in royal documents of this period are Khenty-
khety, Satet, Anuket and Hathor: RYHOLT 1997, 338, 342, 344, 349, 350.

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 From the origin until the end of the Old Kingdom

Dynasty425. The fertile Fayyum,

with its arable lands, must have
represented for this dynasty an
important productive area, from
which a big surplus of foodstuffs
might be obtained. Moreover,
the royal monuments from the
Fayyum, seals and statues, are
chronologically circumscribed to
the middle of the dynasty, from the
reign of Sedjef-ka-ra Amenemhat
VII to that of Aya. This might be
due, of course, to archaeological
reasons, but it could also indicate
that in this span of time, of about
90 years, the production of seals
did not decrease because there still
was an eficient administrative sys-
tem and, accordingly, a irm con-
trol over the region by the ruling
dynasty.
The dedication of a statue to
Renenutet, goddess of harvest,
and of one statue to Sobek-Horus,
lord of the whole Fayyum, by An-
tef V and Neferhotep I respective-
ly, might be seen as a simple sign
of the presence of the ruling dy-
nasty within the region. But, it is
plausible that the two kings, with
these two monuments, wanted
also to pay homage to the nurtur-
ing and beneicent disposition of
these two gods, whose territory
was important from an economic
point of view.
In harmony with what hap-
pened in the whole of Egypt, and with the exception of two seals Fig. 9 - Statue of
with the name of Sheshy of the Fourteenth Dynasty426, after the Neferhotep I Bologna
EG 1799.

425
It is generally believed that Egypt was united at least until the reign of Sobekhotep
IV; nevertheless, more recently RYHOLT 1997, 75 ss. has argued that the Fourteenth
Dynasty of Canaanite origin came into existence in the Delta at the end of the Twelfth
Dynasty and that it was the rise of this dynasty to cause the distinction between the
Twelfth and the Thirteenth Dynasties and not a change in royal families.
426
PETRIE 1891, 20, pl. XXIII.1; BRUNTON, ENGELBACH 1927, pls. XIV.43, XL.5.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

reign of king Aya there is no royal document until the Hyksos pe-
riod. It is possible that the last ephemeral kings of the Thirteenth
Dynasty lost control over the Fayyum or, at any rate, that they
were no longer able to exploit eficaciously its territory. So, the
pressure of external circumstances from the Fayyum overthrew
Sobek’s fortune and with the death of Aya, and after almost two
centuries, Sobek’s ascendancy over the ruling dynasty slowly pe-
tered out.
It is also possible that the Fayyum was in a state of desolation
in the late Second Intermediate Period. Very likely, the Fayyum
fell under the control of the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty, as
seems conirmed by the large-scale transport of monument of the
Twelfth Dynasty from the region to Avaris427. However, no Hyksos
king connected himself with Sobek of Shedet428. A scribal palette
with the name of Apophis has been found in the Fayyum429. In
its inscriptions, the king calls himself ‘living image of Ra’ (twt anx
n ra), ‘’scribe of Ra’ (sS n ra), ‘he whom Thot has instructed’ (sbA.n
dHwty) and claims to descend directly from the goddess Wadjet
(mwt=f wAdt). The palette is said to be ‘made for the king’ and was
actually a royal gift to a certain Itjw (itw), who, despite his simple
title of ‘scribe’, must have been an inluential man in the Fayyum
of the Fifteenth Dynasty. It is worth noting that in this object,
which, as has been suggested, served as royal propaganda430, no
attention at all is paid to Sobek of Shedet. There is nothing to
suggest that the crocodile god of Shedet fell out of favour with
the Hyksos kings. Possibly, for them Sobek of Shedet remained,
after all, a provincial deity. They simply did not acknowledge the
importance reached by the god in the previous dynasties and did
not deem him worthy of being representative of royal values and
ideas. It is possible that the palette was made outside the Fayyum
and that Apophis, in order to describe his divine nature, chose
epithets which linked him with ‘national’ deities and, more sig-
niicantly, with gods of the north, such as Ra and Wadjet, who
could boast a greater and even more ancient prestige than that of
the crocodile god of the Fayyum.

427
RYHOLT 1997, 133-134, 143-144; VERBOVSEK 2006.
428
There is, however, a dagger dedicated to Sobek of swmnw by Apophis: JAMES 1961a,
39-40, pl. XIII.6.
429
Berlin 7798: KAISER 1967, 49; PM IV, 104; GOEDICKE 1988, 42-56. See also: RYHOLT
1997, 149.
430
GOEDICKE 1988, 53-56.

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 Chapter III

THE NEW KINGDOM

The Eighteenth Dynasty

During the Middle Kingdom Sobek metamorphosed into one of

the ‘dynastic’ deities. For the provincial god, it was an astonishing
transformation. But, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty,
the god was almost invisible. This might be largely a question
of materials. Or rather a lack of them, since there is not a single
piece of contemporary evidence of the god during the irst reigns
of the dynasty. The last architectonic activities in the Fayyum
go back to the reign of Sobekneferu and, as a matter of fact, the
history of the region subsequently to the queen’s reign remains
unclear. Very likely, after the late Thirteenth Dynasty, Sobek of
Shedet ceased to be of any interest for the ruling kings for more
than two centuries.
As far as I know, the most ancient document of the New
Kingdom related to the Fayyum and its god might be a
fragmentary statue in grey granite dated to the Eighteenth
Dynasty and belonging to the ‘overseer of the divine offerings of
Sobek of Shedet’ (imy-r pr Htpw-ntr sbk Sdty) Tety (doc. 149)1.
In the text, Tety declares to have been rewarded by a king with
a statue. Even though, unfortunately, the king’s cartouche seems
to have been deliberately erased, Loredana Sist, on the basis
of the dimension of the lacuna, suggested that it might have
contained the throne name of Hatschepsut, Maat-ka-ra2. The
inscription is also interesting because it seems to allude to an
architectonic intervention of the sovereign in Shedet. Following
Sist’s translation, Tety says that the statue (twt) was given to him
‘come ornamento (m hpw) nella sua cappella presso il suo seggio
(r nst=f) che è là per l’eternità e accordandomi offerte quotidiane
dagli altari (Htpt m hrt Hrw Hr xAwt) [di suo padre (?)] signore
di Shedet, poiché io sono un privilegiato (imAxy) grazie al suo
favore, uno che occupa una posizione sotto il dominio del re (wsx

1
The statue is kept in the Museum of the Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche
Archeologiche e Antropologiche of the Università “La Sapienza”, Rome.
2
PM VIII, 557: ‘… with the cartouche of Amenophis…, with Khawam (dealer) in
Cairo in 1967’.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

st hr rdwy nswt)’3. As noted by Sist, the sign used for the word
translated as ‘cappella’ is similar to the sign Hn; however, it might
be a mistake for the sign of the pr-nw with bucranium, typical of
Shedet, or also a mistake for aH, ‘palace’, often used, especially in
the Twelfth Dynasty, to denote the temple of Sobek4. Although
there is no reason to doubt that the sign indicates a sacred place
connected to the royal throne and which could host a private
statue, the inscription does not necessarily prove that this place,
‘chapel’ or part of the temple, was actually built by Hatshepsut.
However, as noted by Sist5, in the inscriptions of the Speos
Artemidos the queen claims credit for restoring the monuments
of her forebears, particularly those in Middle Egypt. The presence
of Hatshepsut in the Fayyum depression, which at present must
remain hypothetical, might be part of this programme of public
works. Moreover, if the dating to the queen’s reign is correct, the
statue would imply an interest on the part of Hatshepsut for at
least one member of the religious personnel of Shedet, Tety, of
whom no other document survives and who, very likely, owed his
high position to his role of controller of the offerings of the local
temple, which must have still been a sanctuary of considerable
importance, despite the fact that it might have suffered badly
during the last part of the Hyksos period.
Hatshepsut’s immediate successors did not leave any trace
of their presence in the temple of Shedet, and the irst king of
the new dynasty who can deinitely be attached to the great
crocodile god of the Fayyum is Thutmose III. Even though some
burials dated from the late Predynastic Period onwards suggest
some settlement in the area of Gurob6, it was this king who was
responsible for the establishment of an important harem-palace
in the site7. This remained in use, through the Amarna Period, at
least until the end of the Twentieth Dynasty. The town of Gurob,
the ancient mr-wr, located on the desert edge close to the eastern
entrance to the Fayyum depression, was surrounded by a large
enclosure, hosting three smaller enclosures. The central one was
the main building of the whole complex. Here, Petrie discovered
a limestone lintel and a stone slab bearing the name and titles
of Thutmose III. The irst one, now in the South Australian
Museum in Adelaide, bears an inscription in two similar halves

3
SIST 1992, 56.
4
Also the reading ‘di suo padre’ and ‘signore di’ are uncertain. The sign for nb is
almost unreadable and it might also be the sign for Sd or the sign of a crocodile.
5
SIST 1992, 61-63.
6
There is no evidence of activity during the Middle Kingdom at Gurob.
7
On Gurob, see: PETRIE 1890; PETRIE 1891; LOAT 1904; BORCHARDT 1911; BRUNTON,
ENGELBACH 1927; GARDINER 1943, 37-46; KEMP 1978, 122-133; THOMAS 1981; LACOVARA
1997; SHAW 2007, 12-19; SERPICO 2008, 17-98; SHAW 2008, 104-115; SHAW 2009, 207-217.

– 108 –
 The New Kingdom

and in which the king is described as ‘beloved of Amon-Ra’8. The

second item contains an inscription in two lines: ‘[mn-]xpr-[ra]
sbk Sdt [mry] | dHwty-ms HqA wAst di anx, ‘Men-kheper-ra, beloved
of Sobek of Shedet, Thutmose, ruler of Thebes, given life’ (doc.
135). The interpretation of these two pieces is not clear. They were
ascribed by Petrie to a temple, while Barry Kemp has claimed
that these architectural remains were just part of the entrances,
framed in stone, of the harem-palace9. It is also possible, however,
that the harem-palace contained sacred buildings or areas for
the worship of gods. In any case, even though we cannot be sure
of the presence within the large enclosure of a large limestone
temple dedicated to Sobek of Shedet, what it is signiicant here
is the fact that Thutmose III pays homage, next to Amon-Ra of
Thebes, to the main god of the region where he built the harem-
palace. Moreover, he was the irst king, after Mer-nefer-ra Aya
of the Thirteenth Dynasty, to readopt the title ‘beloved of Sobek
of Shedet’. Despite the fact the crocodile god, in comparison to
the previous periods, might have lost great part of his prestige,
evidently he was able to retain great importance on a regional
sphere.
After Thutmose III’s reign, this title was adopted, for the irst
time, not by a king but by a member of the royal family. The
queen Tiaa, wife of Amenhotep II and mother of Thutmose IV,
was represented seated with her son on a throne in a black granite
statue of ine quality discovered in the Fayyum. The monument,
preserved from the waist down, has still two columns of text
written on opposing sides of the queen’s legs. On the right one
can read: mwt nswt Hmt nswt wrt tiaA anxty; on the left: Hmt nswt
wrt mrt=f mrt sbk Sdt, ‘king’s mother, great royal wife, Tiaa, may
she live. Great royal wife, beloved of him, beloved of Sobek of
Shedet’ (doc. 150). It has been suggested that the origins of Tiaa
were in the Fayyum and that she may have been a resident of
the harem-palace at Gurob during the reign of her husband10.
However, the queen probably dedicated the statue in the great
temple of Sobek at Medinet el-Fayyum, where Heinrich Brugsch
said to have found the monument, before it went into the hands
of private dealers.
If in the Twelfth Dynasty, the vehicles through which the
Fayyum and its god became important were the reclamation
land and the creation of royal complexes in its territory, during
the Eighteenth Dynasty, it was above all the foundation of the
harem-palace by Thutmose III and its frequentation by kings

8
PETRIE 1891, 20, pl. XXIV.3; PM IV, 112.
9
KEMP 1978, 129.
10
BRYAN 1991, 103, 105.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

and members of the royal family that made the region achieve
again a prominent status. As we have seen, Thutmose III did
not neglect Sobek, while some mayors of the Fayyum, who were
also important members of the local priesthood, became quite
prominent igures. In the inscriptions of one statue, the mayor of
the Fayyum (HAty-a m tA-S) and ‘overseer of the hem-priests of Sobek
Shedety’ Sobekhotep, son of Kapu (doc. 151)11 and of a woman
called Meryt (I), declares that, in his capacity of ‘attendant of
the lord of the two lands in the islands that are in the land of the
lake’ (iry-rdwy n nb tAwy m iw Hryw-ib m tA-S), he was responsible
of the hunting and ishing of an unnamed king (but almost
surely Amenhotep II) 12 in the Fayyum: ‘when his Majesty spent
a moment amusing himself (ir Hm=f At m sdA-Hr=f), he distracted
himself at his time (r nw=f) lingering over crossing the marshes
of the land of the lake (m sint sAbt sSw n tA-S), traversing the ields
(xns SAwt), slaying (smA) the birds and shooting (stt) the ishes. The
king is the one who is beloved of Sekhet13, a sovereign beloved of
Sobek (sbk mry)’. These two deities are quoted also in connection
with the Fayyum in a New Kingdom story, ‘The Pleasures of
Fishing and Fowling’14. In accordance with the inscriptions of
Sobekhotep’s statue, the Fayyum depression is here depicted as
the ideal place for sportsmen who wanted to ish and hunt. The
text tells that, before starting the hunting expedition, they had to
stop to burn propitiatory offerings to Sobek, who, in his role of
supreme divinity of the whole region rather than of its main town,
is appropriately invoked as ‘lord of the lake (nb S)’, and as ‘son
of snwy15, the great one, overseer of the marshlands (Hnt), rich
in ish and great in offerings’. Sobekhotep, who acquired his title
of mayor through his father Kapu16, might have had occasion,
thanks to his responsibilities towards the region and the harem-
palace of Gurob, to meet the king during a visit of the latter to
the Fayyum region. The relations between Sobekhotep’s family
and royal members carried on for a few years. The similarity
of titles and female names between the family of Sobekhotep
son of Kapu with that of the namesake Sobekhotep, overseer of
the treasury and mayor of the Fayyum and who served under
the reign of Thutmose IV, can hardly be a coincidence. The

11
See also the statue Berlin 11635: doc. 152. Sobekhotep son of Kapu held other titles,
amomg which ‘mayor of the southern and northern lakes’ (HAty-a n S rsy S mHty) and the
honoriic title ‘great in the Fayyum’ (wr m tA-S).
12
BRYAN 1990, 83; BRYAN 1991, 104.
13
A goddess of the marshes: GUGLIELMI 1974, 206-227.
14
CAMINOS 1954, 4, 7-8.
15
Lit. the ‘two brothers’, he is a crocodile god, which migh be identiied with the
Psosnaus quoted in a greek inscription. See: LEITZ, 2002, VI, 368.
16
In the statue Berlin 11635 Kapu helds the title of HAty-a S.

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 The New Kingdom

second Sobekhotep, son of a treasurer named Min, active during

Thutmose III’s reign, married a woman named Meryt (II), who
very likely was daughter of Sobekhotep son of Kapu, receiving
her name for her grandmother. Sobekhotep must have inherited
his ofice of overseer of the treasury from his father Min, who did
not bear any Fayyumic title, while, very likely, he obtained the
title of mayor of the Fayyum, as well as the control of the local
priesthood, from his father-in-law17. In his Theban tomb (no. 63)
(doc. 154), he was represented with his wife Meryt (II) receiving
offerings from their two sons Paser and Djehuty. As suggested
by Betsy M. Bryan18, this scene is a sort of ‘memorial’ of the
strong connections of the family to the Fayyum. Sobekhoetp is
here presented with his regional titles and Meryt as the ‘greatest
entertainer of Sobek Shedety’ (wrt xnrt n sbk Sdty), while
elsewhere in the tomb he appears as ‘treasurer’ and his wife as
‘royal ornament’ (hkrt nswt). Moreover, in this scene, Meryt,
named also ‘nurse of the king’s daughter’, is represented with a
princess on her lap, called the ‘king’s daughter’ Tiaa19. Very likely,
Meryt’s religious title and that of ‘nurse’ are in here in relation
because they are both connected to the Fayyum. Tiaa, daughter
of Thutmose IV and named after her grandmother, who, as we
have seen, dedicated a statue to Sobek of Shedet, was very likely
a resident of the harem-palace of Gurob20. Sobekhotep himself is
represented in one of his statues holding the prince Amenhotep
mer kheppesh (doc. 153)21, who, it has been suggested, could be
identiied with the future Amenhotep III22. The typology of the
monument and its offering formulas to Osiris of the Fayyum
and Sobek-Horus of Shedet suggest that it was dedicated by
Sobekhotep in the temple of Shedet, possibly during a residence
of the young prince in the Fayyum23. The connections of
Sobekhotep and his wife with royal children is proof of the
importance of the mayor and his family. That Sobekhotep was
a man of some political stature in Thutmose IV’s administration

17
BRYAN 1991, 103-106, 244-246, 266; BRYAN 1998, 60-61. The Fayyumic titles of
Sobekhotep son of Min were ‘mayor of the southern lake, the lake of Sobek’ (HAty-a n
S rsy S n sbk), the honoriic title ‘great in the land of the lake’ and ‘overseer of the hem-
priests of Sobek Shedety’.
18
BRYAN 1991, 105.
19
DZIOBEK, ABDEL RAZIQ 1990, pl. 40.
20
Very likely, the mother of Tiaa was Nefertiry, whose name appears together that of
Thutmose IV in a scarab from Gurob: PETRIE 1917, XXX. On the princess Tiaa, see also:
ROBINS 1982, 55-56, and CABROL 2000, 71-72. On Nefertiry, see BRYAN 1991, 140-143.
21
Sobekhotep bears the title of it ntr mry both here and in the scene from TT 63, where
his wife Meryt holds princess Tiaa. The title ‘god’s father’ can have both religious and
lay applications and is compatible with a role of Sobekhotep as tutor of a crown prince.
22
DE WALLE 1963, 83-85; BRYAN 1990, 86; PM VIII, 555. See also CABROL 2000, 74.
23
BRYAN 1991, 245.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

is also conirmed by his presence as legal representative for the

cause of the temple of Hathor at Gebelein in a court proceeding
in the palace at Thebes before noble dignitaries24. It is not clear
why Sobekhotep acted for Hathor’s temple; however, in the end,
he won the case.
It is possible that Sobekhotep’s Fayyumic titles refer to the
irst part of his career. The title of mayor passed to his eldest son
Paser, who, in the above-mentioned scene in the Theban tomb,
is called ‘mayor of the lake of Sobek’, HAty-a n S sbk. But, unlike
his father, he does not seem to have gained control over the
personnel of the temple of Shedet, functioning simply as ‘hem-
priest of Sobek Shedety’. However, Paser was active as mayor for
a long period, from Thutmose IV’s reign until at least year 30 of
Amenhotep III’s25.
A ifth mayor of the Fayyum in the Eighteenth Dynasty was
a certain Itwnm, who was HAty-a S rsy and also ‘divine father of
Sobek of Shedet’ (it ntr n sbk Sdt) and who is known thanks to a
stela of his son Amenemhat, found at Sedment26.
A number of objects from Gurob and the Fayyum dated from
the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty conirm that the harem-palace
was still occasionally occupied by members of the royal family.
Some of these objects were commissioned by Amenhotep III’s
wife, Tye27. Among these items, there are a black granite offering
table28 and a wooden stela29, both inscribed for Amenhotep III
and with offering-formulas dedicated to Osiris30. On the basis of
these objects, some scholars have claimed that the queen lived at
the harem-palace towards the end of her life31. This cannot be
proved, but it is very likely that she visited the harem-palace and
possibly stayed there for a time.
The name of Tye’s son, king Akhenaten appears on a variety
of objects, such as a base sculpture with the names of the king,
Nefertiti and their three daughters Meritaten, Maketaten and

24
pMunich 809, irst published by SPIEGELBERG 1928, 105-108. See also BRYAN 1998,
60-61.
25
Paser is quoted on a wine label at Malkata, bringing local wine for the sed-festival:
HAYES 1951, 101.
26
Stela Philadelphia, University Museum: doc. 155. Very likely, Itwnm is to be
identiied with another ‘divine father of Sobek of Shedet’, named Itwnwn, mentioned
on the stela CG 34044, possibly from Sedment: doc. 156.
27
PM IV, 112-115; KOZLOFF, BRYAN 1992, nos. 26, 27, 50, 51.
28
PETRIE 1891, 20, pl. XXIV.7.
29
Berlin 17812: BORCHARDT 1911, 20; Berlin 1924, 393; GILES 1970, 47-48; DAVIES 1992,
53 no. 616.
30
ZECCHI 2006a, 124.
31
BORCHARDT 1911, 20; ROEDER 1958, 66; GILES 1970, 47-48; HERBIN 1974, 343.

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 The New Kingdom

Ankhesenpaaten32, papyri33, a little pot34 and scarabs35. The king

also ordered that the name of the god Amon be removed from
monuments of Gurob36, Shedet37 and Medinet Madi38. Also the
names of Tutankhamon39, Ay40 and Horemheb41 occur in a few
items from the region. But none of these kings connected himself
with Sobek of Shedet, neither associating their names with that
of the crocodile god, nor dedicating monuments in his honour.

The Ramesside Period

Things changed again with the beginning of the new dynasty.

Early in his reign, Sety I left in the Fayyum a boundary stela,
with a single image of the king holding a staff and an ankh and
wearing the shendyt-kilt and the white crown (doc. 136)42. The
monument, dated to year 2, was commissioned as the result of a
land survey and mentions the ‘House of Sobek Shedety’ (pr sbk
Sdty). This place-name occurred for the irst time in the inscription
of the Wadi Hammamat dated to year 19 of Amenemhat III’s
reign and became, in the New Kingdom, the most common way
of denoting the main temple of Shedet43, being preferred to other
expressions such as Hwt-ntr sbk Sdty, Hwt Sdt, Hwt sbk or aH wr.
During the reign of Sety I, the name of Sobek of the Fayyum
occurs also in the list of deities worshipped in the territory of
Memphis engraved in the temple of Abydos (doc. 137). Here, four
forms of Sobek, very likely all of them connected to the Fayyum,
are mentioned: ‘Sobek in the great city’ (sbk m niwt aAt), ‘Sobek in

32
HABACHI 1965, 79-84. See also PETRIE 1891, 20, pl. XXIV.10 for a block of sculpture
found resused in a tomb at el-Lahun.
33
GRIFFITH 1898, 91-92, pl. XXXVIII; GARDINER 1906, 28-40.
34
CHASSINAT 1901, pl. II.4.
35
PETRIE 1890, pls. X.76; XXIII.16-19.
36
Lintel of Thutmose III: PETRIE 1891, 20, pl. XXIV.3.
37
pBerlin 1913, 139.
38
DONADONI 1952, 7.
39
Fragment of a vase, with the names of the king and queen Ankhesenpaaten, from
Gurob: PETRIE 1890, pl. XVIII.25; wooden cubit-rod, from Gurob: PETRIE 1891m pl.
XXIV.12; scarabs: PETRIE 1890, pl. XXIII.21-25; PETRIE 1891, pl. XXIII.23-26. See also
the scarabs with the name of Ankhesenpaaten: PETRIE 1890, pl. XXIII.26, and PETRIE
1891, pl. XXIII.28-30.
40
Scarabs: PETRIE 1890, pl. XXIII.27; PETRIE 1891, XXIII.28-30.
41
Base of a statuette (Berlin 19651), from Gurob: Berlin 1924, 253; scarabs: PETRIE
1890, pl. XXIII.28-31; PETRIE 1891, pl. XXIII.31-31; BRUNTON, ENGELBACH 1927, pl.
XLI.67.
42
For a similar monument, see the stela Brooklyn 69.116.1, dated to year 1 and set up
in Kom el-Lui, near Minya: KRI I, 231.
43
See also doc. 145, 146 and 163.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

Shedet’ (sbk m Sdt), ‘Sobek in bndyt’44 and ‘Sobek in tp-inr’45. A

similar list occurs in an altar of the Museum of Turin (doc. 140),
very likely dated to the reign of Sety II, whose name seems to
have been erased and replaced with that of Pepy II.
The Ramesside Period was the most momentous time
of Sobek’s life since the Twelfth Dynasty. Even though our
information on the temple of Sobek in the New Kingdom is
very scanty, Petrie showed that in the Ramesside age it knew a
new building phase. Very likely, it was Ramesse II who ordered
new works in the temple, possibly conined to its entrance,
with the construction of a new gate46. Surviving monuments
of Ramesse II from the area of the temple of Shedet are indeed
rather numerous. A most interesting item was found in 1981 in
the Kiman area. It is a black granite block, part of the upper
left corner of a monumental ‘marriage stela’ (doc. 138). Its
surviving scene has a strong parallel in the stela of Abu Simbel,
commemorating Ramesse II’s marriage, which took place in year
34, with the Hittite princess Maathorneferura, daughter of king
Hattusilis III. The Fayyum version preserves just the igure of a
woman, very likely the princess, wearing a long and transparent
robe, with wide sleeves, and with a wig surmounted by a vulture
with outstretched wings and crowned with the sun disk. The
woman is followed by a man, very likely her father, who wears
a long garment and a pointed cap. The event of the marriage
was recorded on at least other ive stelae47. Possibly, the stela
of Shedet was originally placed on a gate of the temple, more
precisely on its right side, according to the direction of the scene
and text48. The presence of this stela in the temple of Shedet is
a piece of evidence of the importance of the temple itself and
of its god during the reign of Ramesse II, an importance that
is increased by the fact that in the text of the monument the
king presents himself with a Fayyumic title. In the inscription on
two columns on the left side of the scene, Ramesse II is ‘Horus,
strong bull, beloved of Maat, king [of Upper and Lower Egypt]
[…] lord of the diadems, beloved of Sobek Shedety (sbk Sdty
mry) […]’. So, in the Fayyum, on a stela celebrating an event
which had a great signiicance on a national scale, Ramesse II

44
On this place-name, see: YOYOTTE 1962a, 121-129; ZECCHI 2001, 175-177, and,
especially, RONDOT 1998, 241-253; RONDOT 2004, 88-90.
45
YOYOTTE 1962a, 122-124; ZECCHI 2001, 198-199.
46
PETRIE 1889, 58. See also GASPERINI 2008, 26-29.
47
Besides the Abu Simbel stela, which has the best preserved scenes of the marriage,
the other four surviving stelae were on the south face of the east court of the IX pylon
at Karnak, on the south wall of the outer court of Amarah West temple and on some
blocks from Elephantine and Serra West: KUENTZ 1925, 181-238; KRI II, 233-256, § 66.
48
DAVOLI, NAHLA MOHAMMED AHMED 2006, 84.

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 The New Kingdom

decided to opt for a more distinctive and ‘provincial’ title, which

had had a great fortune among the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty,
strongly involved in the regional history, and which had been
used in the New Kingdom only by Thutmose III at Gurob and by
Thutmose IV’s mother. It is possible that, on the opposite side of
the marriage stela, there was the so-called ‘Blessing of Ptah’ stela.
The last lines of this text have been recognised by Donadoni on
a granite fragment seen by him in 1964 in Kiman Fares near
the columns of the temple49. In the Kiman Fares another black
granite block of Ramesse II was found50. It bears the irst two
lines of a text dated to regnal year 35, irst month of Peret, of the
king’s reign, a date close to that of the ‘Blessing of Ptah’ stela51.
Ramesse II not only worked at the entrance of the main
temple of Shedet, but he ordered also that it be embellished with
some sculptures. Two statues in red granite, representing the
king seated on a throne, with nemes and shendyt-kilt, were found
in 1964 south of the great temple of Sobek52. Their inscriptions
preserve the name and titles of Ramesse II, but there is no
mention of the god Sobek. To these, a very badly damaged statue
in red granite of a sitting king, probably of Ramesse II, should
be added53. Moreover, even though the king very likely did not
intervene within the temple with the construction of new halls,
he added his names to some columns of the hall erected by king
Amenemhat III54.
The relevance of Sobek of Shedet was acknowledged also
outside the territory of the Fayyum. The god appears among
the images of seated double-statues represented on blocks
belonging to the tomb of a man who lived during Ramesse II’s
time and which were discovered in 1947 during the clearance of
the causeway of Unas at Saqqara (doc. 139). Two blocks show

49
DONADONI 2001, 99-102.
50
Cairo JdE 42783: KRI II, 398; SCHMIDT 1973, 46-47.
51
DONADONI 2001, 101, has suggested that this block is connected with that with the
text of the ‘Blessing of Ptah’. See also: RITANC II, 258; DAVOLI, NAHLA MOHAMMED
AHMED 2006, 84; GASPERINI 2008, 32. It should be added that HABACHI 1955, 107 said to
have seen ‘two fragments of a stela of Ramses II in grey granite’ near the columns of
Amenemhat III. It is possibile that one of these two blocks should be identiied with
that seen by Donadoni.
52
HERBIN 1974, 145; DAVOLI, NAHLA MOHAMMED AHMED 2006, 82-83, pls. XIV-XXI. See
also: GASPERINI 2008, 32-33. The statues are today kept in Karanis.
53
DAVOLI, NAHLA MOHAMMED AHMED 2006, 83, pl. XXII.
54
HABACHI 1937, 90. In 1983, during some excavations carried out by the Egyptian
Antiquities Organisation a fragment of a limestone column with the name of Ramesse
II was brought to light: LECLANT 1984, 369. In 2007 I saw in the area of Karanis, where
it was likely moved from Medinet el-Fayyum, a reused fragmentary architectonic
element in granite with the names of Ramesse II. See also GASPERINI 2008, 28. It should
be added that at Tebtynis a block mentioning a king Ramesse, very likely Ramesse II,
‘beloved of Anat’ was discovered: RONDOT 2004, 96.

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Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period

each a part of two rows of royal dyads, each composed by twin

statues of the king himself and of an important deity of the
Egyptian pantheon, such as Amon-Ra of Thebes, Geb and Maat,
Horus protector of his father, Isis, Nephtys, Hathor (?), Shepsy
of Hermopolis, Neith of Sais, Anat, Sobek-Horus of Shedet and
three other gods whose identity is no longer recognisable. In
the inscriptions of the dyad, the crocodile god is called ‘Sobek
of Shedet – Horus who resides (in the land of the lake?)’ (sbk Sdt
Hr Hry-ib) and the king is ‘beloved of Wadjet’ and, for the second
time in his reign, ‘beloved of’ the main god of the Fayyum (sbk
Sdt Hr Hry-ib <Sdt> mry). All these deities have been interpreted as
participating in a jubilee of Ramesse II and indeed almost all of
them appear centuries later in the jubilee-festival hall of Osorkon
II at Bubastis55. The presence of Sobek-Horus in this context is
very remarkable. Evidently, the strong connection with kingship
promoted and emphasised by king Amenemhat III, and based
on the syncretism with Horus, was an unforgettable heritage
and the crocodile god had still a certain allurement, so that his
permanent presence had still to be ensured in a festival aiming at
the renewal of the royal power.
The presence of Ramesse II’s son Khaemwaset is also well
attested in the Fayyum. In a stela from the region56, dated to
regnal year 32 of his father, the prince addresses his words to
the gods wAd wr, the ‘Great Green’, here a personiication of
the Fayyum, and the Osirian local form ‘Osiris ity who resides
in the lake and the gods and goddesses who are after him’57.
Khaemwaset’s names also occurs together with that of queen
Isetneferet on a block in granite58 and on a fragmentary statuette59
discovered at Medinet Madi. Within the local temple, Vogliano
brought to light a granite statue of Merenptah, dedicated by his
son Sety-Merenptah, future Sety II60. It is worth noting that in
the inscriptions on the back-pillar, the king is called ‘beloved of
Amon’, in contrast with the custom adopted by the late Twelfth
Dynasty kings, who never forgot to mention the crocodile Sobek
or other local deities within the territory of the Fayyum.
At Medinet Madi, Ramesse III added a pair of cartouches with
his name on the west wall of the pronaos of the Middle Kingdom
temple61. According to the pHarris I, the same king contributed

55
NAVILLE 1892, pls. VII, VIII, XII.
56
Cairo JdE 89060: KRI II, 886-887.
57
ZECCHI 2006, 127.
58
Milano 1059: DONADONI 1952, 7-9; KRI II, 887; LISE 1988, 135.
59
Milano 917: DONADONI 1952, 9-10; KRI II, 887; LISE 1988, 125.
60
Statue Cairo JdE 66571: VOGLIANO 1937, 39-42; KRI IV, 56; SOUROUZIAN 1989, 107-
109, pl. 19.
61
VOGLIANO 1937, 19, 24; DONADONI 1952, 12.

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 The New Kingdom

146 workmen to the ‘temple of Sobek Shedety – Horus who

resides in the land of the lake’ (pr sbk Sdty Hr Hry-ib tA-S) (doc.
145)62. A papyrus from Gurob mentions a local production of
fabrics for the ‘House of User-maat-ra mery-amon, beloved of
Sobek’ (pr wsr-mAat-ra mry-imn mry sbk) and the ‘House of Ramesse
heqa iwnw, beloved of Heryshef’63. It is not clear whether these
two ‘houses’, which are otherwise unknown, were two distinct
institutions or just a single one, located in Herakleopolis or, more
likely, in the Fayyum, in Gurob. The document, however, is of a
certain interest, since Ramesse III appears here as the last king
of the New Kingdom to have used the epithet ‘beloved of Sobek’,
to be understood as ‘Sobek of Shedet.’
During Ramesse III’s reign, Sobek of Shedet appears as the
beneiciary of a ritual in a scene on the walls of the temple of
Medinet Habu. The king, with the white crown, is represented
kneeling and offering two nw-vases of wine in front of the god.
The deity, called ‘Sobek of Shedet’ (sbk Sdt), is seated on a throne,
holding an was-sceptre and an ankh-sing and, for the irst time,
with the head of a ram, surmounted by the atef-crown (doc.
141). Behind him, there is a standing Hathor, with an arm raised
towards the shoulder of the god and labelled as ‘Hathor of Shedet’.
While Sobek gives the king ‘all the health’ (di.n n=k snb nb), the
goddess grants ‘eternity’. But why is Sobek represented ram-
headed here? It is due to a syncretistic association with the ram-
god Khnum? The assimilation between these two gods was indeed
deinitely established in the New Kingdom, very likely, as has been
suggested64, because both the deities were connected with water
and fertility and were already in a syncretistic relationship with Ra
in the Middle Kingdom. However, it could be due to other reasons.
For example, it could simply be a mistake of the workmen, who
misunderstood the crocodile for a ram. But this form of the god
could also be a dissimulation wanted by Sobek himself in order
to hide his true identity, a dissimulation which might have been
facilitated by the fact that Sobek of Shedet had already been
assimilated to a ram in the hymns of the pRamesseum VI of the
Middle Kingdom. Owing to the aggressive sexual power of Sobek,
its is possible that here the god showed a bit of originality by
inventing a new iconography, choosing the image of an animal with
the same sexual connotations, but free of negative implications,
and which might have been regarded as more appropriate in the
company of the goddess Hathor65. The presence of Hathor in this

62
CHRISTOPHE 1954, 229; CHRISTOPHE 1957, 371-372, 386, 388.
63
GARDINER 1948, 26.
64
BROVARSKI 1984, 1007.
65
On the sexual aspects of Sobek, see: ZECCHI 2004, 149-153, especially 151.

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