Ptah

Ptah ( " the creator " ) is one of the gods of Ancient Egyptian religion. His main cult was Memphis, a city just south of the present-day Cairo, which was a royal residence for long periods of pharaonic history. Despite this central position in the most important royal residence of Ancient Egypt never brought to the supreme state god Ptah and therefore usually stood in the second row behind the major gods Re, Osiris and Amun. This prevented the priests in Memphis but not about designing their own theological edifice, was declared in the Ptah the supreme creation of God and the Lord of all the gods. The monument memphitischer theology is still one of the most important theological texts of ancient Egypt to the cosmogony and theogony topics, ie the creation of the world and the gods.

Representation

Importance

Ptah was the Memphite Theology as after the main creator god. He was a chthonic deity, ie a earth god, whatever hid the aspect of death and fertility deity in principle. As an earth deity he formed man out of clay using the potter's wheel, which also made ​​him the patron god of craftsmen.

The main god of Memphis, a city that served as a royal residence in much of the ancient Egyptian history, he made the lion goddess Sekhmet and his son, the Lotus Nefertem God, the Trinity ( triad) of Memphis. Here was the Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, as the incarnation of the god worshiped. Ptah was also regarded as the " very old", in which the essence of Now and Naunet united. Imhotep, architect of Djoser and builder of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, was often regarded as the son of Ptah. In the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasty Amun and Ptah formed with Re the " kingdom triad".

Creator God

Ptah was considered one of the most powerful creator gods. He has created of himself and was known as the "father of the gods, proceeds from which all life ." The assigned Creator organs are the heart and tongue. According to the " creation myth of Memphis ," he spoke the thoughts formed with the heart of loud and so created the universe, the cosmos, the world. He led Memphis to an Ennead, consisting of the Ennead of Heliopolis was the rest: Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. This Ennead, however, was not created by Atum, but as the universe, merely by his thoughts and his words, with his creative organs heart and tongue. After that he created on this very way places, gods and places of worship as well as the legal system. Among all other creator gods so he stepped forward rather than " mental " creator. Because the main aspect of the creation myth of Memphis was that Ptah solely by the power of words, the fact that he uttered the names of people and animals loud, has created the world.

Patron god of artisans

As a patron god of craftsmen of Ptah came specifically in Karnak and Deir el -Medina, the craft village in the valley of the kings, of particular importance, by which he was known and revered throughout the country. In Memphis, the High Priest of Ptah has held the title of " Chief of the master craftsman ."

Religious development

A merger during the Old Kingdom with the falcon -faceted Sokar, another deity of Memphis is referred to as Ptah - Sokar. The far more profound union with the god of the dead Osiris developed in the Middle Kingdom to the deity Ptah - Sokar - Osiris, who then stood for creation, death and resurrection, and their image was often found on grave goods from individuals. In the New Kingdom, the time of Ramses II, was a further merger with the god Ptah - Tatenen to Tatenen.

In his capacity as an artist and " creator " Ptah in the Hellenistic period was equated under the rule of the Greek Ptolemies makedonischstämmigen with the Greek god Hephaestus.

In the modern literature

In the modern literature Ptah plays under the name of Petach in the fantastic novel The Prophecy of Wolfgang and Heike hollow leg a central role as God in human form. In addition, the character Robert Wells in Tad Williams' Otherland novel represents the god Ptah.

Opera

At the end of the first act of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida Ptah is called the " volcano temple at Memphis " as a creator god under the name " PhtA ".