Inv. Scu 24

The crocodile, resting on a plinth, is carved from a single block of pink granite and is depicted with great naturalism.

The crocodile is the incarnation of Sobek, the Egyptian god associated with the waters and floods of the Nile River; in Roman times, sculptures depicting crocodiles were used to decorate fountains and gardens in luxurious villas with the explicit intention of evoking “exotic” and Egyptianizing settings.

The Romans, however, were also fully aware of the symbolic, religious and magical implications of the animal.

The work has been dated to the Ptolemaic or early Imperial period.

The sculpture was found in 1883 in Via di Sant’Ignazio (now Via del Beato Angelico) in the area of the Iseum in Campus Martius. According to contemporary documents, the crocodile was discovered in a “canal completely paved with marble”, thus suggesting that it had been decorating the euripus flowing through the sanctuary. The irregularity of the plinth and the worn surface of the sculpture appear to suggest that the crocodile had been under water for a long time.