In praise of Sobek (priests, Creator, divine, Greek, Roman)

[Solon]

It is said that in Greco-Roman times, the priests of these periods wished to make the texts they were responsible for, more and more difficult to read. Perhaps this was so, although considering the Greeks rulers and adminstrators couldn't read the texts, and neither could the majority of Eyptian people, would there be any point in creating complicated texts?

Cryptic texts, occur mainly on prominent places, such Temple facades, architraves , windows etc. Cryptic texts rely on doouble meanings of signs which represent what they stand for.

AT Esna, there are hymns To Sobek-Re and Khnum to be seen on the Roman pronaos. When illuminated, the texts are written almost entirely with crocodile and ram hieroglyphs.

The Sobek text does offer a clue though, it begins with the words ' Praise to Sobek and continues in crocodiles. From other texts, the crocodile sign has a wide range of meanings such as ' Lord', 'power of attack', ' divine, 'appearing in Glory', ' time', ' one who seizes' etc.

This is very clever stuff, the writer has used the whole hymn as a symbolic message. Sobek and Khnum were thought of as creator Gods here, so the hymns suggest the Gods are present in everything through meaning, sound value, writing and representations. Surely a triumph of the greatness of the Hieroglyphic text itself.

Solon