Sokar
Egyptian · deity · old kingdom · deity
Sokar is the god of the ground the Memphite dead are buried in, and Saqqara appears to be named after him. He is a falcon, which is unexpected for an underworld god, and he travels on the henu barque — a boat with an oryx head on the prow that is carried on a sledge round the fields rather than floated, since the necropolis is desert. His festival is among the oldest in Egypt and it lasted to the end. Eventually he is absorbed into a compound: Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, the craftsman, the necropolis and the dead king in one figure, mass-produced in the Late Period as painted wooden statuettes with a hollow base for a papyrus.
Domains
- underworld
- craft
Relations
Sources
- Pyramid Texts on the henu barque of Sokar.
- Reference treatments of Sokar, his iconography, his barque and the composite Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.