According to Memphite theology, Ptah was the main Creator God. He created himself from himself and was named “father of the gods, from whom all life emanates”.
In the “Creation Myth of Memphis”, his thoughts were shaped in his heart and then uttered with his tongue, and thus he created the universe and the world. Memphitic theology is the earliest known theology based on the principle of the “logos”, the creation through the Word and speech.
The Egyptian word ptḥ means “creator”, “former”, “builder”.
Ptah was also a chthonic deity (earth god) and comprised the aspects of a god of the dead and a fertility god. As a chthonic deity, he created humans from clay using the potter’s wheel, which made him the patron god of craftsmen. In his capacity as creator/sculptor, Ptah was equated with the Greek god Hephaistos in Ptolemaic times.
In addition to the “Ennead of Heliopolis” and to the “Ogdoad of Hermopolis”, the Memphite theology represented a third cosmogony and theogony of ancient Egypt, modifying the Heliopolitan theology to the effect that the Creator God and the father of all deities was not the sun god Atum, but instead Ptah.
In Memphis, Ptah also formed a triad with the lion goddess Sekhmet and their son Nefertem. Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, was worshipped here as the incarnation of the god.
Ptah is commonly depicted as a human-shaped mummy in a tight-fitting robe, with a shaved head, a yellow or green face and a blue cap. He holds a long scepter in his hands, with the Djed- and the Ankh-hieroglyphs – the symbols for durability/stability and life – at the top, and the Was-hieroglyph representing dominion at the bottom.
Egypt, ca. 1.070–712 B.C., Bronze, gold leaf, glass, 30 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.175
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