Statuette of Sobek
Late Period, Dynasty 26–30 (664–332 BCE)
Ancient Egyptian
Copper alloy; 16.7 × 4.5 × 5 cm (6 5/8 × 1 7/8 × 2 in.)
The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Robert H. Fleming, 1894.260
This statuette represents the crocodile-headed god Sobek. He is shown with well-defined pectoral muscles and a slender, athletic body. He strides with his left foot advanced, his arms at his sides, and his hands curled into fists. He has large, almond-shaped eyes. The ridges on his brow and muzzle are well detailed, as are the zigzag lines that indicate his teeth. His tripartite wig, the back of which is represented as inverted “U”s that radiate from just below the crown of his head, has bands at the ends. His small, almond-shaped ears with medial lines emerge from the wig at his temples. A large uraeus rears above his forehead. His atef crown, flanked by plumes, has corkscrew horns of the then-archaic ram.[1] A disk is incised in the middle of the crown and another rises from atop its central bundle. The elements of the front of his crown are detailed with incised lines, while the back surface is undecorated. The pleats and belt on the front and back of Sobek’s shendyt kilt are clearly indicated. Incised lines on his chest represent a beaded collar. His navel is clearly shown.1
The figure was cast in a single piece. A 1.9 cm long, rectangular tang, which would have attached it to a larger base (now lost), emerges from the underside of the rectangular base. The base is not inscribed.2
Additional Views of Cat. 31
Side of cat. 31.
Front of cat. 31.
Side of cat. 31.
Sobek was associated with the waters of the Nile, and his cult centers were close to areas where crocodiles presented a threat to local inhabitants. One of his main places of worship was the temple at Kom Ombo in southern Egypt. Many mummified adult crocodiles were donated to the shrine at that temple. Cemeteries for crocodiles are known at numerous sites in southern Egypt and the Fayum in the north.[2] Although crocodiles were greatly feared, in Egyptian mythology they had a positive aspect because they ate fish that were a symbol of chaos.[3]3
For more on copper alloy statuettes, see About Copper Alloy Statuettes.
4
Provenance
The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1894.5
Publication History
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 105.
6
- The corkscrew horns are those of a type of ram that had been extinct in Egypt since the Middle Kingdom. At that time, a new breed with curved horns was introduced. For more on this breed of ram and curved horns, see cat. 15. See also Patrick F. Houlihan, The Animal World of the Pharaohs (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996), 23–24, 176–77.
- On crocodile mummies and the cult of Sobek, see Edda Bresciani, “Sobek, Lord of the Land of the Lake,” in Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, ed. Salima Ikram (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005), 199–206.
- Geraldine Pinch, Handbook of Egyptian Mythology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002), 201.
Emily Teeter, “Cat. 31 Statuette of Sobek,” in Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago by Emily Teeter and Ashley F. Arico, ed. Ashley F. Arico (Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593213/46.
© 2025 by The Art Institute of Chicago. This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
