In Ancient Egyptian Religion,
Ptah (Egyptian
ptḥ, probably vocalized as
Pitaḥ in ancient Egyptian ) was the deification of the primordial mound in the
EnneadThe Ennead was a group ofnine deities in Egyptian mythology. The Ennead were worshipped at Heliopolis and consisted of the god Atum, his children Shu and Tefnut, their children Geb and Nut and their children Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set and Nephthys.-Terminology:Egyptian mythology established multiple...
cosmogonyCosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
, which was more literally referred to as
Ta-tenenTatenen was the god of the primordial mound in Egyptian Mythology. His name means risen land or exalted earth, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation...
(also spelled
Tathenen,
Tatjenen, etc.), meaning
risen land, or as
Tanen, meaning
submerged land, though
TatenenTatenen was the god of the primordial mound in Egyptian Mythology. His name means risen land or exalted earth, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation...
was a god in his own right, before being assimilated with Ptah. Ptah also is referred to as
the noble DjedThe djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet . Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris...
.
It was said (in the
Shabaka StoneThe Shabaka Stone is a relic from the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. It is a stone slab measuring 66 cm in height and 137 cm in width and was incised with the surviving hieroglyphs of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus...
) that it was Ptah who called the world into being, having dreamt creation in his heart, and speaking it, his name meaning
opener, in the sense of
opener of the mouth. Indeed the
opening of the mouth ceremonyThe opening of the mouth ceremony was an ancient Egyptian ritual described in funerary texts such as the Pyramid Texts.-Funerary magic:...
, performed by priests at funerals to release souls from their corpses, was said to have been created by Ptah.
AtumAtum, sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology.- Name :Atum's name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been interpreted as being the 'complete one' and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to...
was said to have been created by Ptah to rule over the creation, sitting upon the primordial mound.
In
artArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, he is portrayed as a bearded
mummifiedA mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
man, often wearing a skull cap, with his hands holding an
ankhThe ankh , also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ-n-ḫ...
,
wasThe was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
, and
djedThe djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet . Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris...
, the symbols of life, power and stability, respectively. It was also considered that Ptah manifested himself in the
ApisIn Egyptian mythology, Apis or Hapis , was a bull-deity worshipped in the Memphis region.According to Manetho, his worship was instituted by Kaiechos of the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom...
bull. He may have originally been a fertility god because of this.
Since Ptah was the primordial mound, and had called creation into being, he was considered the god of craftsmen, and in particular
stoneIn geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
-based
craftA craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...
s. Eventually, due to the connection of these things to
tombA tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
s, and that at
ThebesThebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
, the craftsmen regarded him so highly as to say that he controlled their destiny. Consequently, first amongst the craftsmen, then the population as a whole, Ptah also became a god of
regenerationRegeneration, while sometimes perceived to be a step in the Ordo salutis , is generally understood in Christian theology to be the objective work of God in a believer's life. Spiritually, it means that God brings Christians to new life from a previous state of subjection to the decay of death...
. Since
SekerSeker or Sokar is a falcon god of the Memphite necropolis. Although the meaning of his name remains uncertain the Egyptians themselves in the Pyramid Texts linked his name to the anguished cry of Osiris to Isis 'Sy-k-ri' , in the underworld. Seker is strongly linked with two other gods, Ptah the...
was also god of craftsmen, and of
regenerationRegeneration, while sometimes perceived to be a step in the Ordo salutis , is generally understood in Christian theology to be the objective work of God in a believer's life. Spiritually, it means that God brings Christians to new life from a previous state of subjection to the decay of death...
of the sun during the night, Seker was later assimilated with Ptah becoming
Ptah-Seker.
Consequently, Ptah-Seker became considered an
underworldIn Egyptian mythology, Duat is the underworld. The Duat is a vast area under the Earth, connected with Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. The Duat is the realm of the god Osiris and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings...
deity, and eventually, by the
Middle KingdomThe Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BC and 1650 BC, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate...
, become assimilated by
OsirisOsiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
, the lord of the underworld, occasionally being known as
Ptah-Seker-Osiris.
Legacy
The English name
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
derives from an ancient Egyptian name for
MemphisMemphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...
,
Hikuptah, which means "Home of the Soul of Ptah". This entered
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
as
Αιγυπτος (
Aiguptos), which entered
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
as
Ægyptus, which developed into English as
Egypt.
Literature