Category: History & Society
- Also spelled:
- Phthah
Ptah, in Egyptian religion, creator-god and maker of things, a patron of craftsmen, especially sculptors; his high priest was called “chief controller of craftsmen.” The Greeks identified Ptah with Hephaestus (Vulcan), the divine blacksmith. Ptah was originally the local deity of Memphis, capital of Egypt from the 1st dynasty onward; the political importance of Memphis caused Ptah’s cult to expand over the whole of Egypt. With his companion Sekhmet and the youthful god Nefertem, he was one of the Memphite Triad of deities. He was represented as a man in mummy form, wearing a skullcap and a short, straight false beard. As a mortuary god, Ptah was often fused with Seker (or Soker) and Osiris to form Ptah-Seker-Osiris. The sacred bull Apis had his stall in the great temple of Ptah at Memphis and was called a manifestation of the god who gave oracles.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Laura Etheredge.
