Floodgates

Funny, now that I've written about DotM, and now that the house stuff is coasting (must call the insurance guys!) I'm - focused back on my studies a bit more.

So - I finally blended the conversion calendar and the festival lists. What I'm going to do (which is a good way to do it, and will prevent me from being overwhelmed by ALL those FESTIVALS!) is to research each festival on it's 'day', and try to grok an idea of what the heck was going on. So, today is 14 First Shemu or the 14th of Pachons, and today's festival is

Sobek: Represented as a crocodile headed man, or as a full crocodile, Sobek originially started out as a demon of the Nile, and was converted to a Netjer in order to propiate the crocodiles of the Nile. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, Sobek in these circumstances being considered the army's patron, as representative of their strength and power. When Neith (Nuit/Nut) took on the characteristics of a goddess of primal waters, Sobek became, as a watery creature, of both good and evil, to be considered her son.
Sobek's ambiguous nature lead some to say he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part. In this way, he was seen as a more primal god, eventually becoming regarded as an avatar of the primal god Amun, who at that time was considered the chief god. When his identity finally merged, Amun had become merged himself with Ra to become Amun-Ra, so Sobek, as an avatar of Amun-Ra, was known as Sobek-Ra. 
In myths that appear extremely late in Egyptian history, Sobek is credited with catching the four sons of Horus in a net, as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom. This motif derives from the birth of Ra in the Ogdoad cosmogony, and the fact that as a crocodile, Sobek is the best suited to collecting items upon the Nile.

Now, we have an idea of who Sobek is - so why was someone removing his TONGUE?? 

One possibility is that there is a version of the Osiris myth where after Set hacks up Osiris' body and throws the pieces in the river, Sobek eats his tongue. When Isis searches for the pieces she confronts Sobek,seeks revenge and cuts Sobeks tongue out (a tounge for a tounge). I have noticed that a lot of the festivals - at least from the list that I found - re-enacts the full Osiris cycle, so that makes sense..... 
(Sidebar: Figuring out which names to use - Wasir/Osiris Isis/Aset/Auset is half of the challenge, I think!!) 
Also - there is the concept that the tongue was the seat of personal magical power - so,  perhaps this reflects the understanding of Sobek as a 'demonic' entity, and the removal of the tongue is to tame him and make the Nile safer.

(Nother sidebar - ooohh!! Interesting links! http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~shagin/WLsummariesUNIT2FA03.html  and http://www.aelives.com/ael.htm) 



Hmmm - this will also expose me to more of the Netjer - this tis a good idea!!