Temple of the Ka of Ptah
Dawn of the Golden Egypt
Some interesting facts related to this central Egyptian God and a small format work I created inspired by it entitled “Frequency”.
The main characteristic of the god Ptah can be noticed thanks to the Memphite Theology Treaty, according to which he created the world through the Logos, the “word”.
His main iconography is connected to this role of “creator”, in particular of “Creator of forms” and “sculptor of the earth”, which portrays him in a mummified state with his head covered by a blue cap, the same worn by craftsmen, of which he was the main protector.
Ptah was worshiped throughout the entire Egypt and even in Nubia.
Among the various cult centers are that of Deir el-Medina, where the craftsmen dedicated a rock temple to him, and that of Memphis, where the largest temple complex named after him, is located.
It was a center of extreme importance, so much so that it hosted the coronation of the pharaoh.
Egypt and Greece touch each other within Ptah.
The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Memphis cult center in the 5th century BC, speaks of it in his Histories (II, 99) and thanks to some anthropological findings, some modern researchers argue that the same name “Aegyptos/Egypt” is a Greek transposition of the toponym Hut-Ka-Ptah, “The temple of the ka of Ptah”, which referred precisely to this place.
Ptah did not acquire particular funerary connotations, except in the syncretic version of Ptah-Sokar and Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, which promoted the widespread diffusion of a new cult.
Other known syncretic developments are Ptah-Tatenen, creator of primordial energy, and the apotropaic Ptah-Pateco.
Among the various associations of Ptah with other divinities, moreover, the one with the sacred bull Apis, raised in the precinct of his temple, and with Sekhmet and Nefertum also stand out.
With these last two, Ptah formed the Memphite triad. For the Greeks, Ptah was the god Hephaestus, not surprisingly the patron god of blacksmiths, as well as Vulcan for the Romans.
