Sebek

Egyptian god

Also known as: Sebeq, Sobek, Sobk, Suchos

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Also spelled:: Sobek

Greek:: Suchos

See all related content

Sebek, in ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyūm province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos (Greek: “He Who Belongs to Suchos”), in whom the god was believed to be incarnate.

Sebek may have been an early fertility god or associated with death and burial before becoming a major deity and patron of kings in the Middle Kingdom (c.1938–c. 1630 bce). He was merged with Re, the sun god, to constitute a crocodile form of that God known as Sebek-Re. The worship of Sebek continued into Ptolemaic and Roman times in the Fayyūm, at Kawm Umbū (Kom Ombo) in Upper Egypt, and elsewhere. Cemeteries of mummified crocodiles have been found in the Fayyūm and at Kawm Umbū.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer.