Sobek’s Cult and Temple at Memphiscairo__2002

SOBEK’S CULT AND TEMPLE AT MEMPHIS * (Pap. BM 10184 verso & Pap. BM 9999)

BASEM SAMIR EL-SHARKAWY

This study is mainly based on two papyri preserved at the British Museum. The Egyptian deity Sobek occurs in both papyri, with reference to his cult and temple at Memphis. The first: Pap. Sallier IV

1

contains a letter from a chantress of the goddess

Hathor at Memphis to a chantress of god Amun in Thebes (verso 1, 1 to 4, 8) 2. The second: Pap. Harris I 3 (47, 1; 48, 9-10 & 49, 6-7) is known to have contained chronicles of king Ramses III 4. In addition to these two papyri, there occur mention of Sobek-R6’s adoration at Memphis, in a hymn in a papyrus (100 B.C.) preserved now at Strasbourg 5. ,

The Egyptian deity Sobek Egyptian *

,

or

,

,

or

Cbk, Cbk and in new

Cbjk 6, was certainly worshipped in

This Article is an extract from “The Memphite Priesthood till the beginnings of the Ptolemaic Times” a Master Thesis submitted by the author, to the History Department, Faculty of Arts, Ain-Shams University, Cairo-Egypt. I would like to acknowledge with deep appreciation the many pointed comments and suggestions made to me by Profs. Abd El-Halim Nour El-Din, and Farouk Hafez El-Qady. My sincere thanks are tendered also to Mrs. Carol Wichman, the library volunteer of The American Research Center in Egypt, who helped me to correct the manuscript of this article. 1 BM 10184 vs. (middle of Ramses II’s reign) ; Dimitri Meeks, “Une Fondation Memphite de Taharqa, Stèle du Caire JE 36861”, BdE 81, IFAO (Cairo, 1979), 231; LÄ IV (Wiesbaden, 1982), 691-2. 2 Ricardo A. Caminos, Late Egyptian Miscellanies, Brown Egyptological Studies I, Geoffre Cumberlege, Oxford University Press (London, 1954), 333-349 (a letter concerning the wonders of Memphis) . 3 BM 9999 (Ramses III and Ramses IV ’s reigns) . 4 Warren R. Dawson, “Anastasi, Sallier, Harris and their Papyri”, JEA 35 (1949), 161-6. 5 Maj Sandman-Holmberg, The god Ptah, C.W.K. Gleerup (Lund, 1946), 188 and 48* (Text no. 239). 6 Wb. IV, 95 [2]; VI, 246 [b.]; E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of The Egyptians, Studies in Egyptian Mythology, Dover Publications (New York, 1969), vol. 1, 78 ; E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead,

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EL-SHARKAWY

the Old Kingdom (Unas’s pyramid texts, no. 565) 7, and the crocodile was the sacred animal of this god 8. He had a huge number of sites for his cult in Middle Kingdom 9, may be Memphis was one of them. But according to Kess

10

, the cult of crocodile

(=Sobek) appeared at Memphis from the early times (Archaic Period).

Doc. 1 - Pap. Sallier IV, verso 1,1 to 4,8 (Invocations to the Memphite Gods and Goddess) 11: There is an important mention about Sobek’s adoration at the great temple of Memphis, from the middle of the 19th Dynasty, in the letter already quoted of %tj%tj-kA “Styka”, the chantress of the goddess Hathor at Memphis, to %xm.t%xm.t-nfr.t “Sakhmetnefret”, the chantress of god Amun in Thebes, “wife of the priest of of Amun and great lectorpriest of Thebes JmnJmn-m-HA.t” (vs. 1, 1) , blessing the Memphite Gods and Goddesses and offering them her prayers and invocations (Sallier IV, verso 1, 1 to 4, 8), in which “Styka”, the chantress of the goddess Hathor at Memphis mentions the “(temple of) the god Sobek” included in the “temples of the great Ptah”, describing it (vs. 1, 9) “Sobek the god of Mery-R'”

12

“Cbk Cbk n MrjMrj-Ra” Ra

13

… (vs. 1, 5) “... and the gods who are in the

The Hieroglyphic Transcript, English Translation of the Papyrus of Ani (New Jersey, 1996), 188 and 545. His name was written in Greek “Sochos” or “Suchus” ( ), Abbrev. “Sock-” ( ) or “Sek-“ ( ), and followed by any other word ; Wb. IV, 95 [2]; VI, 246 [b.] . 7 Budge considered this Pyr. Text as reference to Sobek’s worshipped in early archaic period, in his book: The Gods of The Egyptians, vol. 1, 78. 8 Budge, The Book of the Dead, pp. 188 and 545 . 9 For the Sobek’s cult sites in Middle Kingdom see : FarPk Gomac , “Der Krokodilgott Sobek und seine Kultorte im Mittleren Reich”, Studien zu Sprache und Religion Ägyptens, Band 2: Religion, zu Ehern von Wolfhart Westendorf, überreicht von seinen Freunen and Schülern (Göttingen, 1984), 787-803, specially p. 799. 10 Hermann Kess, Der Götterglaube im alten Ägypten, Zweite Ergänzte Auflage, Akademie - Verlag (Berlin, 1956), “Memphis”, 286; cf. H. Brugsch, Dictionnaire Géographique de L'Ancienne Égypte, Librairie J. C. Hinrichs. (Leipzig, 1877-1880, sp. 1879), 48; H. Kess, “Eine Liste memphitischer Götter im Tempel von Abydos”, Rec. Trav. 37 (1915), 68 (no. 28) and 73. 11 Caminos, LEM, 333-49. 12 Caminos, LEM, 333 and 340; see also: François Daumas, Les dieux de l’3gypte, Que sais-je ?, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, 1965), 82.

SOBEK’S CULT AND TEMPLE AT MEMPHIS

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temple of Ptah “pr prpsD.t imj.t Prpr-PtH”; PtH ... to the Ennead who are in the temple of Ptah “psD.t PrPtH”, PtH ...”

14

… (vs. 2,1) “to Ennead of the West ; ... to every god and goddess (vs. 2,2)

who is in the neighbourhood of Memphis” 15. While Caminos tells us about (vs. 1,9) Cbk n MrjMrj-Ra (read MrMr-wr) wr , that “ the wellattested name Meryr'c , variant Mir'c (cf. Ranke, PN, I, 157,8) yields no sense here, nor is Meryr'c the name of any known locality ” , he takes it “ to be a corruption of Mi-w'r, MrMr-wr, wr literally ‘the great channel’,

_`abc ”

16

in El-Fayum oasis

17

î

, modern K:m Med;net Ghur