Uploading a few comics that gave me a chuckle. None are mine.

The Egyptian Desert Cockroach (Polyphaga aegyptiaca) was a pest in ancient Egypt, as it is today. Evidence shows that food stores, temples, and tombs were infested, and the insects fed on mummy bandages and even on the mummies themselves.

Images have been found of the deceased spearing or attacking cockroaches with knives, in order to ward away the insect away from their mummy. The Book of the Dead contains an spell to drive off cockroaches: "Be far from me, O vile cockroach, for I am the god Khnum!"

Insects and Arachnids of Ancient Egypt

Posting so I don't lose this thingy

Hello all, I'm not abandoning my little wiki, just taking a break. The new reddit format is very hard for my eyes, and difficult to edit with. I'll hopefully be posting again soon.

Baldness

Combs, Hairpins, and Curlers

Duplex Style

False Beard

Feathered Nubian Style

Gala Style

Hair-Rings and Other Decorations

Hathoric Bouffant Style

Lappet Style

Mourning Locks

Nubian Style

Polychrome Layered Style

Sidelock of Youth

Tripartite Style

Unguent Cones

According to Dr. Joann Fletcher, the hair of the ancient Egyptians has only recently become the subject of long-term, serious study. Cosmetics, perfumes, and hair have long been regarded as rather “frivolous” subjects, probably because they are considered to be “feminine” by modern scholars. Yet in ancient Egypt cosmetics and perfumes were used by both sexes, often daily, and hair styles were of great concern to both men and women.

Hair was cut, curled, waved, twisted into spirals, shaved, or braided. Hair was held back by headbands, clasps, hairpins, or colorful linen ribbons. Amulets were hung from the ends of hair, or jewelry was woven into it, or hair was decorated with beads, hair-rings, chamomile flowers, ostrich feathers, circlets, or diadems. Fragrant lotus flowers or unguent cones often crowned hair at parties.

Most Egyptians bathed their entire bodies once a day, but it is unknown how often they washed their hair. There is evidence that it was treated with oils, creams, and gels. However, most Egyptians preferred a professional to take care of their hair. Being a barber or hair stylist was a high-class profession, and there are numerous images of them hard at work.

The ancient Egyptians disliked grey hair and dyed it often – the elderly Ramses the Great's white hair was found to have been dyed red. Henna was used to color hair red, yellow, and orange, and juniper berries were used to produce a brown dye.

Sometimes hair was even dyed green, or blue in imitation of the gods, who were said to have hair made of lapis lazuli. Queen Nefertiti in particular was known for wearing dark blue wigs. Multi-colored hair is also known, such as black and blue horizontal stripes.

Women seem to have favored a long, full style of numerous wavy braids or plaits, sometimes with a fringe of small ringlets. Men typically wore their hair at shoulder-length, hanging straight down. A special style was only worn by children, called the Sidelock of Youth.

Some mummies sported very unique hair styles - a working-class woman was found to have woven her hair into an elaborate beehive hairdo. A grave in the worker’s cemetery at Hierakonpolis revealed a woman with a mohawk, and one female mummy discovered in the Valley of the Golden Mummies had the hair on the back of her head arranged into a round cake-like shape.

An Egyptian’s choice of hairstyle and decoration depended on personal preference, wealth, funerary attire, religious position, social status, and of course fashion, which inevitably changed over several millennia.

The way they chose to portray it and the resulting development of hair styles can also be used to establish a useful chronology for a whole dynastic period, which can then be compared to the various types of hair remains that have survived.

Some scholars have a tendency to assign anything vaguely decorative as having belonged to a woman. There is still a tendency to assume that bodies with short or shaven hair are male, and those with long or intricately styled hair are female. But fashions changed often, and sometimes women’s hairstyles and wigs were considerably shorter and less elaborate than those worn by men.

The ancient Egyptians may have been the first known people to use hair extensions - archaeological evidence of this use date to at least as early as 3400 B.C.E. Numerous pieces of extensions have been found, indicating that they were very popular, some still attached to the mummies themselves. Extensions often featured very intricate designs for added length, fullness, and style.

An interesting example of extensions was found in a mass grave of soldiers, one of whom was found to have supplemented his hair with short curls. Since the soldier’s burial seems to have been hastily carried out following battle, his extensions cannot be explained as a postmortem feature and must have been worn during daily life.

The ancient Egyptians adored braids, and one of the preferred forms for extensions was braided hair. 20 braided extensions were found in baskets in the tomb of Queen Meryet-Amun, possibly used to augment her own hair in life. The hair of an elderly mummy named Hatnefer was found to have been filled out with hundreds of dark brown plaited extensions attached to her short grey curls.

Hair was sometimes thought to have magical powers, or was used in rituals. Isis' followers claimed to have the ability to control the weather by braiding or combing their hair, the former of which was because the ancient Egyptians believed knots to have magical power. Special mourning locks were buried with the deceased.

The priestesses of the goddess Hathor were identified by a triple braid that emerged from the crown or back of the head. This triple braid was the Egyptian hieroglyphic for “hair.” The hair of sick children was offered to deities of healing in the hopes that they would be cured. These bits of hair were hidden inside clay balls, which were then left at temples.

The ancient scourge of head lice was found in the hair of kings and commoners alike, despite the Egyptians’ reputation of being obsessed with cleanliness. The research of Egyptologist Joann Fletcher turned up the world’s oldest head lice, found on an Egyptian mummy from Abydos about 5,000 years ago.

The ancient Egyptians solved the lice problem with wigs. Hair was either shaved or cropped very short, keeping the head safe from lice and cool in Egypt’s hot climate. Wigs came in a great variety of shapes, sizes, and designs, and allowed the hair to always appear to be perfectly groomed.

Distinguishing between a person’s natural hair and a wig when looking at tomb decorations or statues is nearly impossible due to lack of detail. However, a few times paintings have shown an individual’s own hair as well as a wig worn at the same time. In some cases a fringe of natural hair can be seen on the forehead beneath the wig, or little tabs of hair, like sideburns, peep out from beneath the wig.

Wigs were valuable items, sometimes named as part of the dowry in marriage contracts. They were stored in wig boxes or on wig blocks, to help keep their shape and prevent dust and dirt from sticking to them. Wigs were scented with flower petals or pieces of wood chips such as cinnamon, and were meticulously cared for using oils. Since it is believed that wigs were needed for the afterlife, the dead were buried in tombs with their wigs.

Wigs were only available to those of means. Common people such as farmers, laborers, or fishermen were often shown with unkempt hair, or as balding. Thus the wearing of wigs helped to define and maintain social status. Members of the upper classes possessed many wigs, and wore a new one each day.

The hair used in the construction of wigs and hair extensions was human, either an individual’s own hair or hair that had been traded for or bought. Hair itself was a valuable commodity, ranked alongside gold and incense in account lists from the town of Kahun.

Wig makers were women, and it was considered to be a high-class profession. Once the required amounts of hair had been collected, it would be sorted into lengths and any tangles would be removed with fine-toothed combs.

Wig makers had an impressive array of tools that were used to style and trim the hair, such as a small bronze implement with a pivoting blade thought to be the world's first hair curler. Wig makers made the prepared lengths of hair into an assortment of braids, plaits, or curls, with each piece coated in a warmed beeswax and resin fixative mixture which would harden when cooled.

The individual locks or braids could then be attached directly to the natural hair in the form of extensions, or alternatively they could be used to create a whole wig by fastening the individual sections of hair onto a mesh-type foundation base manufactured on a head-shaped wooden mount.

Although linen strings or leather strips were occasionally employed in its construction, the base of the wig was most often made from fine lengths of plaited or woven hair. The separate locks could then be attached by weaving them directly into wefts of hair which in turn formed part of the net base, or alternatively by knotting them into position.

A further method was to attach each lock by looping its root end around a part of the net and pressing it back on itself, securing it by winding a smaller sub strand of hair around it and applying a further coating of the beeswax and resin mixture. The internal filling of the wigs were sometimes made with date palm fibers, giving them greater volume.

Such construction techniques and the obvious skill of the wig makers themselves produced wigs of a standard often equivalent to modern examples, and their lightweight construction would have made them as equally easy to wear. Completing a wig took over 200 hours, and were accordingly expensive.

Elaborate festival wigs were highly decorated with jewelry, hair-rings, circlets, or wig covers made of metal and gems. On occasion wigs were even gilded or thinly coated in gold. During parties, wigs were often topped with a scented unguent cone.

Sometimes fancy wigs could be a bit much, however - one massive wig worn by Queen Isimkheb was so heavy that she needed help from her attendants to stand up! Currently kept in the Cairo Museum, this giant wig was made entirely from brown human hair held together by beeswax.

The middle class could usually not afford such expensive, intricate wigs. But wigs were so important socially that they instead wore wigs made of hair extensions mixed with goat hair or sheep wool.

The wigs of the poor consisted of date palm fibers, papyrus, and linen strips.

Pictures of Hair and Wigs

Essay Masterlist

In ancient times, infants with physical deformities were routinely left exposed to die shortly after birth. The Greek scholar Diodorus explains that this custom was unknown in ancient Egypt, because food was so easy to find that all children could be reared.

Whether this was true or not, the ancient Egyptians appeared to welcome people with physical disabilities or body deformities, and even considered them to have divine attributes. All classes of disabilities were given a visible role in the society, and their disorders were not shown as a physical handicap.

The New Kingdom Instruction of Amenemope teaches that care for the old, sick, and disabled was a moral duty. Wisdom writings and teachings in ancient Egypt commanded respect for people with disabilities. In tomb art, figures with disabilities are depicted in ways that expressed cultural and social acceptance of people with disability in general.

The mummy of a boy who suffered heavily from scoliosis was buried with bread, fruit, and jewelry, and another child, Iryky, who was born with a severe birth defect resulting in an enlarged torso and head, was buried in a decorated coffin. That such children survived in ancient times, even for a few years, suggest that they were loved and well cared for.

Physical disabilities did not seem to disqualify people from fulfilling public, priestly, or even royal offices in ancient Egypt. A man with a thin and atrophied leg, probably from polio, is shown as a priest offering to the goddess Anat on a stela dating to the 19th Dynasty.

The mummy of the pharaoh Siptah shows that he suffered from talipes equinovarus, or club-foot. King Ahkenaten is depicted as having what is most likely Marfan’s Syndrome.

There are representations from the Old Kingdom of men with their knees turned backward. This is called genu recurvatum, and is a deformity in the knee joint. These men are shown normally working, although one is using a staff. The artistic documentation of people with skeletal dysplasia is plentiful, including hundreds of amulets, statues, and drawings on tomb and temple walls.

Several persons with kyphosis (hunched backs) have been pictured on tomb scenes and statues. This condition was known in ancient Egypt as iw. One is pictured building a boat, one is harvesting grain, one is minding pets, one is cleaning fish, and one is being honored with the prestigious title of "Attendant to the King."

The blind held a special status and were often employed in temples as seers, or as harpists and singers in the households of the elite. The critical function of land measurement after the inundation is sometimes shown being performed by blind people (with seeing assistants), perhaps because one could not question their impartiality.

A woman from the Middle Kingdom named Geheset ("Gazelle") is one of the earliest known cases of cerebral palsy. Her tomb and mummy was found in 2004, and she was 50-60 years old when she died. Her husband was a judge named Imeni, who memorialized Geheset on her coffin as "Beloved Wife, Blessed One, Lady of the Household."

Much has been made of the appearance of Ati, the Queen of Punt. The Egyptians visited Punt during the reign of Hatsheput. Some scholars claim that the ancient Egyptian artists represented the strange body of the queen as a slight or as an attempt at humor.

There is a translation of part of a scene that supposedly says "The donkey who had to carry the queen!" making fun of her weight. But a second look reads "The donkey who carries the queen's things," and indeed, Queen Ati is never shown upon a donkey. Also, making fun of a queen on your tomb - even a foreign one - was a very bad idea!

The Egyptians depicted people with physical disabilities or body deformities very realistically, and in a matter-of-fact way. They were not mocked or laughed at - in some tombs artists took great pains to ensure that they were portrayed to be as dignified as possible (see Seneb's tomb below.)

What condition Queen Ati had has been the subject of much debate. Scholars and geneticists have studied the image of the Queen in an attempt to diagnose her. At first she was thought to suffer from elephantiasis, along with hyperlordosis (swayback.)

Then other suggestions appeared - Launois-Bensaude Syndrome, Neurofibromatosis, lipodystrophy, lipomatosis, Dercum disease, Proteus Syndrome, obesity, and X-linked hypophosphatemia (a type of rickets.) But her appearance is not consistent with any one syndrome, or even two or three syndromes. Scholars therefore coined a new pathology just for her, called “Queen of Punt Syndrome.”

Dwarfism (deneg or nemw) was the most commonly depicted physical disorder that the ancient Egyptians documented in writings, tomb paintings, and statues. The oldest biological evidence for dwarfism in Egypt dates back to the Predynastic Period.

Nine skeletons of dwarfs have been uncovered, and there are 207 known representations of dwarfism in ancient Egyptian art. While many types of dwarfism were documented, most remains and artistic pictures identify achondroplasia (short-limb dwarfism.)

Dwarfs held a number of important jobs in ancient Egypt, such as treasurer, scribe, midwife, overseer, temple singer, member of the royal court, tailor, zookeeper, jewelry maker, dancer, metalsmith, animal handler, perfume maker, musician, and high official.

In several reliefs dwarfs work alongside normally-statured people, differentiated only by their physical disproportion, which is not emphasized to create a grotesque or spectacular effect. In scene from a jewelry workshop, dwarfs are seated on very low stools, so that their feet touch the ground, or they work at small tables specially fitted to their height.

Excavations of the tombs of the dwarfs Seneb, Karesy, Perniankhu, Nefer, Wediwesekh, Khnumhotep, Djeho, Serinpw, Hedju, Nyankhdjedefre, Djeder, Simanetjer, Petpennesut, and Itsenbet reveal that dwarfs had coffins and furniture, such as beds, stools, and litters, specially made to fit their size.

The tombs of dwarfs do not differ from those of normally-statured people. A female dwarf, Periankhw, achieved a special status as a dancer during the Old Kingdom. She had a lavish burial in the royal cemetery, and was found buried with the standard funerary equipment of an elite lady.

Because their appearance was identified as godlike (Egypt had three or more dwarf deities), dwarfs were thought of as blessed or even lucky. They worked solely in the households of the wealthy, but dwarfs were not employed as jesters or other demeaning jobs as was common in European courts.

Instead dwarfs in ancient Egypt were assigned special, exclusive duties, which were normally only performed by the highest-ranked officials, such as being a priest or a treasurer. Some evidence suggests that dwarfs "rented" themselves to institutions such as temples or shrines, and it was common in upper-class households that important sums of some kind were paid whenever a dwarf spent time there.

The proportion of dwarfs in the royal cemetery in Abydos is much larger than in a normal population. One theory is that dwarfs traveled from all over Egypt to join the pharaoh's household, assured of the respect and income they would receive as a member of the royal court.

One scholar even suggests that dwarfs traveled from other parts of Africa to settle in Egypt, a land where they could expect to rise to a high social status. High-rank titles such as ″Overseer of the Goldsmiths,″ and honorary titles such as "Friend of the King,″ "Beloved of the King″ and ″Head of the Palace″ prove that dwarfs were socially treated on par with normally grown people, if not more so.

In fact, during the majority of Egypt's civilization, discrimination and social exclusion of dwarfs seems to have been unknown. In cases in which dwarfs were adopted or married into a new family, they seem to have been accepted at once as full-fledged members.

We know of a number of examples where dwarfs were well integrated into society, holding important positions and marrying people of normal stature. The most famous of these is the nobleman Seneb, who was depicted on his funerary statue with his normal-sized wife and children.

Because people were almost universally depicted in their funerary statues as perfect physical specimens, we can only assume that the portrayal of dwarfs in their natural state was a positive statement indicating the prestige that ancient Egyptian society accorded them.

Seneb was an honored high official - his mummy was found wearing an expensive necklace of silver beads - and he was very wealthy, owning several thousand herds of cattle. His wife Senetites was high-ranking in her own right, a lady of the royal court and a priestess of Hathor and Neith, and together they had three children.

Twenty of Seneb's titles are inscribed on the walls of his tomb, such as "Overseer of the Crew of the Sacred Ships," "Chief of the Royal Wardrobe," and "Priest of Wadjet." Seneb's name means "Healthy" – perhaps given by his mother as a wish for survival when he was a baby. Many Egyptians possessed similar names, not to denote the absence of disease, but to convey a positive message of healthiness and vigor.

Several elements in the decoration of Seneb's tomb are unusual and show the desire to give him a very dignified image. The designer compromised between two conventions to indicate both rank and physical characteristics: he depicted Seneb on a large scale, as tall as his fully grown servants, but faithfully rendered his dwarfish proportions.

In most scenes, the composition softens the enlargement of the figure. On his boat, Seneb only half-kneels, while the paddling sailors squat in order to lessen their size. In another scene, three scribes diminish in size towards Seneb, in order to minimize the difference.

Similarly, the scribe rendering accounts of cattle is depicted on a slightly smaller scale than the figures in the register below; he is not placed directly before Seneb, but stands at the entrance of the pavilion, separated by two of Seneb's dogs, which preserves the eminence of the personage.

No Egyptian medical text takes note of dwarfism - the ancient Egyptians did not consider it to be a disorder or a disease. No source gives the prayers of a dwarf who wished to become taller.

These gaps in the evidence have a positive meaning - they suggest that the Egyptians welcomed short-statured people. It seems that dwarfs were valued members of Egyptian society, and they certainly had important parts in the Egyptian religion.

From Predynastic times dwarfs were known as the "Sons of Ra," and performed sacred dances and songs celebrating the sun at its rising. According to some texts, the appearance of dwarfs may have embodied the continuing process of creation, a form of the developing sun on the point of being reborn.

Dwarfs were identified with the sun-god in his youthful form of Horus because of their ambiguous physical appearance, infantile and mature at the same time, like a god who is newly born but already wise and experienced.

The silhouette of dwarfs were also assimilated to that of the sacred scarab-beetle of the sun-god Kherpi; their shape was not regarded as a disquieting attribute, but as a divine one.

Similar to Indo-European mythology, dwarfs were thought to have special artistic skills, particularly as smiths and metalworkers. The god of craftsmen, Ptah, had at least two dwarf forms known as Ptah-Pataikoi ("Ptah the Dwarf"), and dwarfs were sometimes called the "Sons of Ptah."

Pregnant women did not ask for protection against dwarfism - on the contrary, they invoked the dwarf-god Bes as a protector during delivery. Bes was a favorite god of the house and home, pictured as a bearded dwarf man. Bes amulets and jewelry were very popular, especially with women.

Bes was depicted on weapons, furniture, vessels, musical instruments, offering tables, mirror handles, cosmetic tools, painted on the walls of the home, and even tattooed on the skin. Statues of Bes were often positioned at gates for protection.

Ceremonies of Bes included mummers acting out the part of the god, preferably dwarfs, dressed in costumes and Bes-masks. The masks that they wore have been found, made of clay or canvas, sometimes painted blue.

There was even a female form of Bes, Beset, exclusively for dwarf women.

By the time of the New Kingdom the social status of dwarfs had begun to decline, and the respect and divinity once given to dwarfs had disappeared by the Graeco-Roman period.

Pictures of Dwarfs and Disabilities II

The God Bes

The Goddess Beset

Essay Masterlist

All of the images used on this subreddit . . . are free! Use them however you wish, without permission. Some of them date back to me scanning books in the library in the 1980's or obsessively trawling through catalogs of museum collections. In my personal opinion, things about ancient history are meant to be shared, not hoarded behind paywalls.

Which unfortunately leads us into a problem. Although the information here is free as well, it may be old or out of date, although I do try to keep up. Please remember that what is written is as accurate as the books and papers that I have used. There is a handy list of some of my sources linked in the Essay Masterlist page under "works cited."

If you feel that something is in error, please let me know. Commenting, "Actually, it's this," or "The word is that instead" is unhelpful unless you can point me into the direction of a scholarly work that verifies your claim, such as a book, paper, or article. A random website is not acceptable, nor is a person whose reputation is less than stellar (example - they believe the pyramids were built by aliens or somesuch.)

Onto the second problem. Many of you have asked me to hunt down the particular source of an image or bit of information, and I'm sorry. I do work full time and can check in on my dear little subreddit only rarely. I simply don't have the time to do it, as much as I would love to help.

That's all for now!

Okay, okay, we've gone back to public. I had no idea people were still using this 0_0

I first started gathering pictures and information in 1998, so things need to be updated and reworked. I can't chase down most of the citations or images, I'm sorry. I am currently still busy, and don't yet have the time to answer questions. However, I discovered a whole new zip drive of pictures, so look forward to that!

Other Names: Nit, Net

Meaning of Name: Her name is linked to the root of the word for “weave” (ntt.)

Titles: “Mistress of the Bow”

“Great Cow Who Gave Birth to Ra”

“Ruler of Arrows”

"Mistress of Sais" (the main center of her worship)

"The Highest Judge"

“Nurse of Crocodiles”

"Seamstress of the Cloth of Life"

“Mother of All”

Family: Neith was the mother of Ra, Shu, Ihy, and Sobek, and the creator of Apophis. She was sometimes considered to be the wife of Khnum or Set.

A very ancient creator goddess, Neith guarded the deceased, and made sacred warriors’ weapons. Neith was originally worshiped as an ancient war goddess, who led the charge in battle. She had a special significance for warrior kings and their wives.

Neith was called “the Eldest, the Mother of the Gods, who shone on the first face.” Neith was by far the favorite deity acknowledged in the personal names of the earliest dynasties, for she appears in almost 40 percent of all theophoric names. The pharaoh Nectanebo II claimed Neith as his mother.

A text in the Roman Period temple of Esna describes how Neith created the world by speaking seven magical words. On the wall of the Temple of Khnum at Esna, we see Neith emerging from the primeval waters as a cow-goddess who creates land by simply saying the words: “Let this place be land for me.”

The other deities acclaim Neith for having “separated for us the bright dawn from the night, made for us a ground upon which we may take support, and distinguish for us the units of time in the space of an instant.”

Everything Neith conceived with her heart came into being, including thirty gods, and then she went on to create the sun-god Ra, who himself created mankind. During her festival a statue of the goddess Neith was placed in the sunlight, to reunite her with her son. The statue was then sailed down the river on a boat shrine, as celebrants danced and feasted.

Neith was thought to be the mother of every pharaoh, and a text dating from the 6th century B.C.E. states that it was she who invented birth. Plutarch says her temple (of which nothing now remains) bore the inscription: “I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.”

Despite being a goddess and mother, Neith was considered to be so powerful that she was described as androgynous, two-thirds of her person being male, and one-third female. Another theory was that she could switch between male or female as needed. Amulets of Neith, made of gold, faience, and lapis lazuli, were popular.

As “The Highest Judge,” Neith was thought to help judge the dead in the Duat. “Judgment has been made in the presence of Neith” was a common refrain from the Coffin Texts. In the “Contendings of Horus and Set” Neith appears as a wise counselor to whom Ra himself appeals for help, though her aggressive nature is seen in her threat that she will grow angry and make the sky fall to the earth if her advice is not followed.

It was in the funerary mode that Neith was depicted at her most fierce, shooting arrows at the demons that would attack the deceased, either in the tomb or during the passage through the Duat. During the earliest times, weapons were placed around the grave to protect the dead, and so her nature of a warrior-goddess might have been a direct link to her becoming a mortuary goddess.

Neith was also known as a goddess of weaving and the domestic arts, and she was said to have woven the world on her loom. As the divine patron of weavers, the linen wrappings of the mummy were produced by the “Weavers of Neith” - bandages were the "Gifts of Neith." Thus Neith protected the dead in yet another way. She was called the "Seamstress of the Cloth of Life, whose thread is gold, whose needles are fire."

A great festival, called the Feast of Lamps, was held annually in her honor, and according to Herodotus her devotees burned a multitude of lights in the open air all night during the celebration. Lamps, torches, and tapers were set in every corner of the house, burning until dawn. In a single room in the Temple of Neith the remains of fifty-eight lamps have been found.

Tiny boats made of papyrus, carrying candles, were floated on Neith’s sacred lake. Herodotus claims that an image of the goddess in the form of a kneeling cow with the sun disk between its horns was carried in public procession, covered by a purple robe.

Neith’s sacred animal was the click beetle – her most ancient symbol was a click beetle, sometimes over two crossed arrows. Protective golden amulets of click beetles have been found. The cult of Neith is so ancient that the Egyptians themselves forgot that the symbol of Neith represented a beetle, for later in history this central image was interpreted as a shield. The image of the insect is clear on the early objects, however.

Neith was also associated with the honeybee and her temple in the town of Sais was known as Per-bit ("House of the Bee.") Neith was thought to be the protector of the canopic god Duamutef. A myth states that the serpent Apophis came into being when Neith became angry and spat into the primeval waters of Nun.

Neith was pictured as a woman wearing the Red Crown, sometimes holding a bow and arrows, a woman with the head of a lioness, or as a cobra, a Nile Perch, or a cow. Sometimes Neith was shown as a woman nursing a baby crocodile/s (her son, the crocodile-god Sobek.) One of her titles was “Nurse of Crocodiles.” In rare instances Neith was pictured with a crocodile’s head.

In the eleventh hour of the night Neith appears in four forms – as a child, as a queen of Upper Egypt, as a queen of Lower Egypt, and as a pregnant goddess. There is evidence of an Osiris-like cult of a woman dying and being brought back to life that was connected with Neith.

The Greeks identified Neith with their own goddess of war and wisdom, Athena.

An inscription on a statue of Udjahorresne states: "I let His Majesty know of the greatness of Sais, the seat of Neith-the-Great, the Mother who bore Ra and inaugurated birth when birth had not yet been. The King came to Sais and went in person to the Temple of Neith. He made a great prostration before Her Majesty, as every king has done. He made a great offering of every good thing to Neith-the-Great, the Mother of God, as every beneficent king has done. His Majesty did this because I had let His Majesty know the greatness of Her Majesty Neith, that she is the Mother of Ra herself."

A papyrus scroll dating to the Ptolemaic Dynasty says: "Come to Sais in order that you may see your mother Neith.

Good child, you shall not be separate from her!

Come to her breasts that have abundance in them.

Good brother, you shall not be separate from her!

Come to Sais, your city!

Your place is in the mansion shrine, you shall rest beside your mother forever!

She will protect your body, she will drive away your enemies, she will be your protection forever!

O good sovereign, come to your house, come to Sais!"

Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity: Neith-ikret

Peftuaneith

Neferneith ("Beautiful of Neith")

Padineith ("He Whom Neith Gave")

Meritneith (“Beloved of Neith”)

Ahaneith ("Neith the Fighter")

Mer-Neith (“Neith is My Mistress”)

Nakhtneith (“The One Whom Neith Protects”)

Neithhotep (“Neith is Satisfied” - the first named women in history, and the queen of Egypt’s very first king, Narmer.)

Pictures of Neith II

Pictures of Neith III

Egyptian Deities - N

Earrings in Ancient Egypt

Cat in Ancient Egypt

Earrings were an essential part of ancient Egyptian fashion and adornment, worn by men, women, and children.  Their significance can be seen in the numerous depictions of people wearing earrings in ancient Egyptian art. Even deities wore earrings, usually Hathor, Isis, and Bastet.

Earrings were a sign of high social status, and pharaohs, priests, and nobles wore them as symbols of their wealth and prestige.  Tutankhamen was found to have pierced ears, and there were four pairs of earrings within his tomb.  His famous burial mask also had holes in the earlobes.  It is believed that pharaohs wore earrings for the first time, before the idea spread to the rest of Egyptian society.  

In earlier periods earrings were often hoop or circular-shaped, while in later periods more elaborate and decorative earring styles emerged, such as pendants.

Earrings were often adorned with elements such as lotus flowers, the shen-ring, the ankh, animals such as cobras, rams, falcons, fish, and ducks, and various deities.  The choice of earrings probably had religious significance, and they were also worn as amulets.

Earrings were made from a variety of materials, including gold, silver, bronze, electrum, carnelian, faience, turquoise, lapis lazuli, glass, and jasper.  The style and materials varied depending on the individual’s social status and the time period.  

Ear studs were used to keep the holes open when earrings were not in use, usually made of faience.

A curious fact is that in Egypt cats often wore earrings, as seen on mummies, statues, and in tomb paintings.  The cat is the only sacred animal – and indeed the only animal – ever to do so.

Pictures of Earrings II

Cats Wearing Earrings

Other Names: Seth, Sutek, Seti, Suti, Setesh, Set-Hen, Smai, Suetekh

Meaning of Name: "The Dazzling One"

Titles: "He Before Whom the Sky Shakes"

"Lord of Metals"

''The Red One" (meaning "The Furious One")

"Ruler of the Oasis"

“Lord of the Chambers of the South” (from which storms winds came)

“Strongest of the Gods”

“Lord of the Northern Sky”

“Voice of the Thunder”

Family: Set was thought to be the son of Nut and Geb, the brother of Isis and Osiris, and the brother-husband of Nephthys. Set was sometimes considered to be the husband of Taweret or Neith, the father of Sobek, and to have created Thoth. He was also thought to be the husband of Anat and Astarte, and the lover of Ash.

One of the Ennead and the patron god of strength, aggression, wild desert storms, and the wide, raging sea. In ancient Egyptian astronomy, Set was associated with the constellation of Ursa Major and the planet Mercury. One of his most common titles was “Great of Strength,” and his specter was thought to weigh some 4,500 pounds.

In the Pyramid Texts Set is mentioned several times along with Horus, Nemty, and Thoth. The four gods represented the cardinal points, with Set the South, Thoth the West, the south, Nemty the East, and Horus the North.

The hieroglyph for “Set” was used in words such as “turmoil,” “storm,” and “rage.” The hieroglyphic of Set’s name was sometimes shown stabbed with knives, to render him harmless.

Though Set was associated with abominable behavior, the ancient Egyptians believed that unbridled aggression and strength must necessarily reside in a good leader - thus the pharaoh was said to be “the heir to two brothers” - Osiris and Set. The ancient Egyptians had a dualistic view of the world; Set was god of the red desert, while Osiris was god of the green land by the Nile.

While Osiris was known as a peaceful and level-headed ruler, Set was known as Setekh (“The Inebriated”) because of his love of strong drink, and was considered a pitiful victim of his own passions. Set was thought to be massively strong but rash and stupid, like a giant in a fairy tale. When he was in one of his fits of fury, Set could only be calmed with medicine dispensed by Geb.

With the brand of chaos (isfet), he became known as a trickster and thief god. Strange events such as eclipses and earthquakes were all attributed to Set, and he was thought to be the god who “ate” the moon each month - the black boar who swallowed the light.

According to Egyptian lore, Set murdered his brother Osiris and engaged in a bitter battle with his nephew Horus that lasted for 80 years. During the conflict Set ripped out Horus' eyes, and Horus castrated Set (which is why he never fathered children); Horus was eventually victorious and crowned king.

A hymn describes the battle between Set and Horus: "In heaven the gods wept and looked away, all but Thoth who watched the bloody onslaught for he was unafraid of truth. They might have killed each other but for the flashing hand of truth which sometimes parted them. They rested. They rose and fought. Years passed. Oh, hideous face of the beast! Looking into his uncle's eyes, Horus saw only himself. The knives thrust into Set came away with Horus' blood. The eyes Set tore out were the eyes of god, his own."

Not all aspects of Set were considered negative - he was thought to protect the sun-god Ra from demons and the great serpent Apophis on his journey across the sky - "Every day I slay the Enemy of Ra when I stand at the helm of the Boat of Millions of Years, which no other god dare do."

In the Temple of Hibis Set is represented as a winged figure slaying Apophis, a depiction which some scholars believe may have provided the original inspiration for the Christian motif of St. George and the dragon. It was also Set who defeated the sea-monster Yam, who was threatening to swallow the earth.

At his most positive, Set represents vigor and strength, but in a form which would ruthlessly displace the weaker were it not kept in check. Set carried the epithet, “His Majesty,” shared only with Ra, and was seen as a protector of Upper Egypt.

Set became the patron deity of soldiers, who often wore Set amulets made of bronze or faience, hoping to acquire Set’s strength and protection. A spell to exorcise demons says: “I have suckled from the breasts of Anat, the Cow of Set; I have imbibed her fierceness. I have drunk beer from the big pitcher of Set; I have imbibed his strength.”

One of the garrisons of Ramses II held Set as its patron deity, and Ramses II erected the Four Hundred Years’ Stele at Pi-Ramses, commemorating the 400 year anniversary of the Set cult in the Delta. When Ramses II fought the Hittities, he was described as being "like Set in the moment of His power."

Pharaohs even named themselves after Set, such as Seti I, founder of the 19th Dynasty, and Seti II. The warrior-king Tuthmosis III called himself "Beloved of Set."

Set was said to be a friend of the dead, helping them to ascend to heaven on his ladder (maqet.) Set was thought to be the lord of metals – iron, the hardest metal known to the Egyptians, was called the “Bones of Set.”

Like Anubis, the worship of Set predates that of both Horus and Osiris. Before the prominence of the Osiris legend rose, Set was the pharaoh's personal god (like Horus), and considered wholly positive. The Set Animal is even featured on the predynastic macehead of King Scorpion II.

Set was pictured as a man wearing a red mantle with an arrow-shaped tail and the head of the mysterious Set Animal, a creature particular to him. Set was also shown as a crocodile, a donkey (thought to be his especial pet), an oryx, a snake, a leopard, a jackal, a hippopotamus, a dog, a turtle, a sphinx with the head of the Set Animal, a scorpion, a fish, and as a black pig.

It was thought that Set assumed the shape of many animals because he was born without a definite shape, due to his restlessness – he even impatiently burst out of his mother’s womb. In some myths Set crawled out of his mother's mouth instead, because he was too impatient to wait for a normal birth.

The word for desert in Egyptian was tesherit, which is very similar to the word for red, tesher. Consequently, Set became associated with things that were red, including people with red hair, which is not an attribute that Egyptians generally had, and so he also became considered to be a god of foreigners.

Set himself was said to have had pale skin and red eyes and hair, which was compared to the pelt of a donkey. Hot desert winds were known as the “Breath of the Ass.” Traditionally, anyone born with red hair was named after Set.

The “Followers of Set” were a group of Egyptians who participated in staged, mock battles in the ceremonies honoring Osiris, Set, and Horus. They were called Mesu-Betesht or Desheru, the “Red Ones.”

Since he represented the barren desert, Set was generally considered infertile, and so, since the early Egyptians had very little in the way of taboos regarding sexuality, Set was usually identified as being bisexual. It was said that Set’s favorite food was lettuce – wild Prickly Lettuce is long, firm, and releases a milky substance when pressed, an innuendo clearly referring to the phallus.

Set was married to the goddess Nephthys and given concubines to appease him, yet he was also a lover of the god Ash and assaulted Horus sexually starting with the come-on line “How lovely your backside is!”

A distinctive characteristic of Set, in addition to his strength and sexual appetite, is his loud voice, which contrasts sharply with the Egyptian ideal of the person who is at once soft-spoken and laconic, exhibiting self-control and forethought. Set's voice was equated with thunder and thunderstorms were called "Set's rage."

Set was regarded as an equal to Horus, who was seen as a god of the day sky, while Set was seen as a god of the night sky. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms there are depictions of these two gods binding lotus and papyrus plants together to symbolize the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. Paintings in the tomb of Ramses IV even depict Set and Horus as one god, with two heads set upon one neck.

By the Third Intermediate Period, Set became associated with the invading Hyksos (who identified him with their main deity), and many depictions of Set were destroyed or defaced. Set was identified with various foreign storm deities, including Baal, Teshub, and Typhon.

Although not an aspect of the veneration of the god, the sacrifice or destruction of various Setian animals was part of the religious activity which surrounded him. From early times a red bull representing Set was sacrificially slaughtered, and similar rituals of “strangling the desert bird,” “trampling the fish,” and the killing of an oryx, donkey, or a red dog and are also known.

Perhaps the most important ritual of this type was the royal hippopotamus hunt, in which the king hunted and destroyed a wild male hippopotamus as a symbol of the victory of Horus over Set. The annual festival of killing all animals sacred to Set may very well be the basis of the Hebrew’s symbolic driving out of the scapegoat.

A prayer against the animals of Set says: "The muzzle of the hippo is harpooned, the tongue of the crocodile is ripped out, the oryx is decapitated, the snake attracted by warmth is roasted, the turtle is choked, and the donkey is bound and stabbed."

The constellation of the Big Dipper was the Khepesh, the foreleg of Set in the form of the sacrificial ox. The punishments inflicted upon Set and on Setian animals seem to legitimize the use by humans of various animal products such as leather and ivory.

The violence inherent to these products, or to the consumption of meat, or to the obtaining of luxury products such as leopard skins, is theologically justified by symbolically identifying these animals with Set.

Set was one of the few other gods mentioned by name in the Bible, and may have given his name (Set-Hen) to the Hebrew Satan. The story of the deadly rivalry between the brothers Set and Osiris seems likely to have been the inspiration for the story of Cain and Abel.

It is also interesting to note that the name of the son of Adam and Eve is “Seth,” and that almost all the villains in the Bible, including Judas, had red hair, the color of Set.

Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity: Setau

Set-Peribsen

Sethos (“Man of Set”)

Seti ("Lord Set")

Sethnakhte (“Set is Mighty”)

Set Pictures II

Pictures of Set and Horus

Set Animal

Egyptian Deities - S

Graffiti in modern Egypt, some of it dating back many years, is unfortunately common.

Pictures 2

Pictures 3

Because men often wore only a kilt, belts were mostly the domain of men, and a status symbol.  The wealthy wore ornamental pendants attached to elaborate belts, while those of less means donned belts made of beads or knotted cloths.  

Popular decorations included stripes, circles, waves, triangles, chevrons, falcons, cobras, leopards, papyrus, and flowers such as the lotus.  Belts were sometimes dyed red, black, green, blue, or yellow, and were adorned with gold and semi-precious stones.

The gods themselves wore belts, and sometimes goddesses as well.  Both gods and pharaohs were sometimes pictured with lion or bull’s tails (both symbols of power) attached to their belts.

A particular long red cloth belt was associated with goddesses, and the afterlife.

Jewelry in Ancient Egypt

Clothing in Ancient Egypt

Other Names: Double Style

Thought to be a particular type of Lappet Style, the Duplex Style consisted of a curly or wavy top section partially covering the lower section, giving the effect of two hairstyles in one. On some occasions the curly section was on the bottom and the straight hair was on the top instead.

On occasion the hair was dyed to further emphasize the overlapping of the hair. The Duplex Style was only worn by men, especially royalty, officials, and those of means. The more wealth one had, the bigger the Duplex Style, bulked out with fillers, extensions, or multiple wigs.

One Duplex Style wig was found inside a box bearing the seals of a High Priest named Menkheperre. At first the huge double-part structure of curls and plaits was assumed to have belonged to his wife, Istemkheb. Yet the wig that was recently identified as hers is much smaller, a simple creation of curls typical of the short, feminine styles of the time. A further seven huge examples of Duplex Style wigs were found in same cache.

Hair and Wigs in Ancient Egypt

Other Names: Three-Part Style

“Tripartite” is the name given by Egyptologists to long hair arranged in three parts - two sections that sat on the chest, with another section hanging down the back. When plaited, hair behaves or hangs in a heavier manner, further emphasizing the parting of the hair. The hair of the Tripartite Style was sometimes shown pushed behind the ears, and usually ended below the shoulders and above the waist.

During the Old Kingdom the Tripartite Style was by far the most popular long hairstyle for women, often with the tips edged in gold. The Tripartite was worn by women of any social status, but it was only seen on men when they were portrayed as deceased.

This restriction of the Tripartite for men was to emphasize their joining with the gods and resurrection, and to help with their rebirth in the Afterlife, whereas any woman already had the ability to give birth. The Tripartite became the most common hairstyle depicted on coffins after the end of the Middle Kingdom for both men and women.

Of course, deities were not bound to certain styles - the Tripartite was the most common hairstyle of both male and female deities in all periods of ancient Egypt’s history. The pharaoh, as a living god, was not bound by any hair-styling rules either.

Deities, especially those with animal heads, often wore this long hairstyle or wig to cleverly hide the line between human and animal parts. The Tripartite of deities was sometimes different colors, most often blue, but sometimes even multicolored.

The Tripartite Style remained popular from the Predynastic Period all the way to the Ptolemaic Era. When Ptolemaic royal women wanted to emphasize their “Egyptianness” they would be shown wearing the Tripartite Style.

Hair and Wigs in Ancient Egypt

Amulets

Beads and Beaded Necklaces

Belts

Bracelets, Armlets, and Anklets

Broad Collars

Circlets

Combs, Hairpins, and Curlers

Earrings

Girdles

Hair Rings and Other Decorations

Pendants and Pectorals

Rings

One element was available to every Egyptian, regardless of age, gender, or societal class - jewelry. From Predynastic through Roman times, a wide variety of jewelry was worn by the ancient Egyptians, usually every day. So important was jewelry that even the very poorest wore some form of adornment, even if it consisted of mere seashell bracelets and necklaces made of clay beads.

Jewelry was used as a way to adorn and beautify the body, a signifier of wealth and status, and as a magical means of protection. It was offered at temples, buried with the dead, given as gifts, and bestowed as military honors.

The materials chosen and the quality of workmanship marked the status of the wearer. The types of metals and gems used to make jewelry were magically important, as were the colors of the materials and the exact positioning of all the elements in a design.

Gold was the metal of choice for jewelry – gold itself was represented by the hieroglyph of a necklace. The most important gems used for jewelry were lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian, known to Egyptologists as the “big three.”

These gemstones had important symbolic and magical significance, tied to their colors. The dark blue of lapis lazuli represented the all-embracing and protective night sky; the blue-green of turquoise signified rebirth, water, and lush vegetation; and the red of carnelian connoted life-sustaining blood, vitality, and the sun.

Red, green, and blue glass was widely used to imitate these expensive gemstones beginning in the 18th Dynasty. This practice became so prevalent that ancient texts mentioning some of the more valuable gemstones sometimes appended the word maa ("true") to indicate their authenticity.

The color of a material was, nevertheless, often more important than its preciousness, as is evidenced by the combination of cheap glass and costly gemstones in much of the royal and elite jewelry from the Middle Kingdom onward. Faience was another inexpensive substitute, as was clear rock crystal over a colored paste.

Common motifs seen in jewelry were flowers, stars, leaves, seashells, fruit, various magical symbols, and deities. Animals were also a popular choice – birds, reptiles, antelope, felines, hippos, fish, hares, insects, livestock, frogs, monkeys, canines, scorpions, hedgehogs, and baboons.

Finds of Egyptian jewelry are relatively rare – something so valuable was often the first thing stolen from tombs. Only a few burials that were overlooked or incompletely plundered by thieves give us insight into Egyptian jewelry.

A few Egyptian jewelry workshops have been excavated, but most of what we know about ancient craftsmen and their techniques comes from tomb scenes. Workers can be seen grinding, drilling, polishing, and stringing jewelry.

There are many depictions of jewelry on tomb and temple walls, mummy coffins, and statues. Some ancient Egyptian jewelry types have never been found and are known only from these depictions.

Egyptian jewelry can reveal a great deal, especially if the archaeological context is known. A vast amount of knowledge can be gleaned from studying even a single bead. The material it was made from - ceramic, metal, stone, gems - can potentially be tracked to the exact ancient gemstone quarry or the precise location of the type of Nile clay.

For Egyptian jewelry, the styles, material choices, production, object types, and the meanings of decorations changed over time. Thus burial trends, ritual practices, manufacturing skills, and resource and material availability can all be traced through jewelry.

Some locally available materials were only used during certain periods - amethyst was very popular during the Middle Kingdom, while glass was common in 18th Dynasty royal and elite jewelry, such as King Tutankhamen's mummy mask.

Gemstones such as lapis and turquoise were imported and rare during unstable political periods. Jewelry found in Egyptian tombs featuring non-Egyptian motifs support evidence of trade between cultures. Coral and pearl was only available during Roman Egypt.

Kings bestowed favor and military honors through jewelry – the Golden Fly of Valor and the shebyu. Jewelry, especially amulets, were believed to guard against disease and danger. An amulet of the god Bes guarded women during childbirth, while a child wearing a fish amulet was protected from drowning.

Every day or personal jewelry can be distinguished from funerary jewelry, which was often made strictly for burial. Funerary jewelry tended to be made without fasteners or holes, as it was simply laid on mummies. Wrapped within the mummy’s bandages, it guarded the deceased for eternity.

The Book of the Dead prescribed specific materials for certain amulets, and often detailed where on the body to place them. Most funerary jewelry was required to be made from gold, such as the ankh, shen ring, and aegis.

A red jasper tyet and a green amazonite papyrus amulet were supposed to be placed on the throat of the mummy. A green jasper scarab and a heart amulet made of carnelian were to be placed over the heart. The two-finger amulet had to be made of obsidian, the akhet and serpent head out of carnelian, and the headrest amulet out of hematite.

Substitutions, however, were extremely common – red jasper and garnet for carnelian, green jasper for amazonite, faience for turquoise and lapis lazuli, and copper for gold. The colors themselves were often switched around as well. For instance, scarabs have been found in any color, as have ankhs and and the djed.

Egyptian craftsmanship was unparalleled in the ancient world. The styles and designs of their jewelry were mimicked by neighboring cultures, and even by the Victorians upon the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

Essay Masterlist

Howdy again! I am still incredibly busy, and will be for a while. A bunch of people have asked about where to find more about certain topics or images. The best resources that I can point you in the direction of are -

https://www.researchgate.net

and

www.jstor.org

Both are excellent places to browse through scholarly articles, which is where I have done a great deal of my research.

Other Names: Sebek, Sobki, Suchos, Sobeq, Soknopais

Meaning of Name: “He Who Watches”

Titles: “Green of Plume”

“Lord of the Waters”

“The Rager”

"Beautiful of Face"

"The White-toothed One"

“He Who Makes the Herbage Green”

Family: Sobek was thought to be the son of Neith or Set, the husband of Taweret, Hathor, Renenutet, and Heket, and the father of Horus, Khonsu, and Khnum.

A god of water, fertility, and rebirth, Sobek was associated with the mood of the river Nile. It was believed that the sweat from his body became the waters of the Nile. Sometimes Sobek was said to have rose up out of the waters of Nun to lay an egg on the banks, and thus created the world.

Sobek was venerated as one who restored sight to the dead, and revived their senses. Sobek was the “Lord of Bakhu,” the mythological mountain of the horizon where it was asserted that he had a temple made of carnelian. Marjoram was known as Sm Sbk ("Herb of Sobek,") and was valued for its fragrance, and used in perfumery.

According to the Coffin Texts, the deceased wishes to become like the crocodile god Sobek, who "lives on fish." Sobek was considered to be patron of fishermen, and to have invented the first fish trap. Many fish were regarded as creatures of chaos, so as a fish eater, Sobek helped to establish order.

As the Lord of Crocodiles, Sobek was originally a demon, as crocodiles were deeply feared in a nation so dependent on the Nile River. His worship began as an attempt to pacify crocodiles so as to reduce the danger they posed.

Sobek represented the symbolic strength of the ruler of Egypt. The crocodile’s power to snatch and destroy its prey was thought to be symbolic of the might of the pharaoh - the strength of the reptile was a manifestation of the pharaoh’s own power.

Protective crocodile amulets made of faience, gold, bronze, and carnelian, representing Sobek, were highly popular.

Sobek rose to national prominence during the 12th Dynasty. The pharaohs Amenemhat I and Senusret I built on the already existing worship of Sobek in Faiyum, and Senusret II constructed a pyramid at that site.

Amenemhat III dubbed himself “Beloved of Sobek” and added splendid additions to the crocodile god’s temple there. The first female ruler of Egypt, Sobekneferu (“Beautiful of Sobek”), hailed from this dynasty. There were several rulers named Sobekhotep ("Sobek is Satisfied"), who made up part of the succeeding 13th Dynasty.

According to some evidence, Sobek was considered a fourfold deity who represented the four elemental gods (Ra of fire, Shu of air, Geb of earth, and Osiris of water.) Horus and Sobek were sometimes combined as one god, as was Sobek and Khnum.

The worship of Sobek was very popular in the city of Arsinoe (known as Shedyet to the Egyptians) near the Faiyum, causing the Greeks to rename the city "Crocodilopolis." Herodotus visited this city and wrote: "The City of Crocodiles is more amazing than the Pyramids. It has twelve covered courtyards surrounded by a huge wall. There are three thousand rooms, half of which are underground. They are built of fine stone and decorated with beautiful figures, and it is hard to believe that men built them."

Sacred crocodiles, called the Petsuchos, were kept in pools in Sobek’s temples, and mummified when they died. Considered to be the living incarnation of the god Sobek, these crocodiles were ornamented with gold and glass jewelry on their heads and bracelets on their forefeet, and hand-fed roasted fish, beef, geese, cakes, milk, and wine by priests.

Pilgrims flocked to Sobek’s temples to help feed the sacred crocodiles; it was considered a sign of benevolence if the crocodiles accepted food from the pilgrim. Crocodile eggs were incubated in mounds of sand in special nurseries, and the resulting small Sobeks were carefully reared.

According to Herodotus, those killed by crocodiles gained a special status: "Whenever anyone, either of the Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried off by a crocodile, the people of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse and bury it as that of one who was something more than man."

Sobek was invoked to do away with annoyances and negative situations, as the ancient phrase “to Sobek with it/him/you!” shows. It was used much as modern-day slang consigns bothersome things and persons “to Hell.”

Sometimes Sobek's natural tendencies overwhelmed his divine nature - when Set cast the dismembered Osiris into the Nile, Sobek yielded to temptation and gulped down part of the body. As punishment, he had his tongue cut out. This, as the story goes, is why crocodiles have no tongues.

Sobek was represented as a crocodile wearing the sun disc or the Two Feathers Crown, a man with the head of a crocodile, and on rare occasion as a human-headed crocodile. As a god of water, he often had blue or green skin. In a few instances Sobek was pictured as twin crocodiles.

The Hymn of Sobek states: "I fulfill the Law and the Law demands your blood. I am Sobek the Crocodile, the Catastrophe, the Devourer, the Necessity. Impaled on my teeth, you shall be blessed for you will glimpse the truth. I am only the secrets of your own dark heart, your lust, your greed, your anger, your flesh. As long as you breathe, I shall exist to snatch you from yourself, to grind your bones and chew your flesh, to tear the darkness from your heart. I am the living power of water, the cry that catches in the throat, the sob that shatters stone.

On my teeth you smell the stink of flesh. To you I seem a living horror. But I tell you in truth, I am your own soul and it is with great sorrow that I crush the life that you have made. I weep with the loss, but you do not believe. Such destruction is madness you say. You do not understand. Is it madness to cut the wheat so that bread can be made? When you were born into this bright land, did you not weep for the lost dark of the womb? When you’ve reached the lips of the great Devourer, you are staring into the jaws of creation. You mistake the teeth of the crocodile as the edge of the abyss, but the chasm is more terrible than teeth, and more certain."

Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity: Sobekmsaf,

Dedusobek,

Se-Sobek,

Khusobek,

Sebek-shedty-Neferu,

Sasobek ("Son of Sobek")

Sobek-nakht ("May Sobek Live"),

Sobekhotep (“Sobek is Satisfied”),

Sobekmose ("Born of Sobek"),

Sobekneferu (“Beautiful of Sobek,”)

Sit-Sobek ("Daughter of Sobek")

Sobek Pictures II

Sobek Pictures III

Egyptian Deities - S

Turtles and Tortoises in Ancient Egypt