TYPE: Creator god and god of craftsmen.
ORIGIN: Egyptian
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: circa 3000 BCE, possibly earlier, until the end of Egyptian history circa 400 CE
SYNONYMS: Ptah-Nun; Ptah-Naunet; Khery-bakef
CENTER(S) OF CULT: chiefly at Memphis, but with sanctuaries throughout the Nile valley.
ART REFERENCES: Sculptures, relief carvings, wall paintings, papyrus illustrations.
LITERARY SOURCES: Pyramid Texts, etc.; the Shabaka Stone.
INFORMATION: Ptah is the patron deity of Memphis in Lower Egypt at the southerly approach to the Nile delta. With Atum, the sun god of Heliopolis, he is the main rival claimant to seniority as a creator god in the Egyptian pantheon. His consort is the lion goddess Sakhmet and , by implication only, his son is Nefertum, the god of the primeval lotus flower. Ptah is depicted in human form wearing a closely fitting robe with only his arms free. His most distinctive features are the invariable skull-cap exposing only his face and ears, and the was or rod of dominion that he holds, consisting of a staff surmounted by the ankh symbol of life. He is otherwise symbolized by his sacred animal, the bull.
According to the genealogy laid down by the Memphis priests, Ptah upstaged Atum as the "father of the gods". He generated not only Atum but the whole Heliopolis pantheon (see Ennead) by thinking and speaking the cosmos into existence. All life and matter was generated by the heart and the tongue of Ptah. In this cosmogony, Nun represents the amorphous primeval matter out of which Ptah generated himself as a bisexual entity, the maleness of which is Ptah-Nun and the femaleness Ptah-Naunet. Ptah is occasionally known by the title Khery-bakef, meaning "he who is under his tree", suggesting that he was syncretized with an older local tree god at Memphis whose symbol is the moringa tree.
In addition to his role as a creator god, Ptah is also the patron deity of craftsmen and his presence is often denoted in art by dwarfish craftsmen who work at various trades including jewellery. Ptah is envisaged as molding mankind out of base materials. In Greco-Roman times he became identified with the Greek god of Smithies, Hephaistos.