Ptah (ptä), in Egyptian religion, great god of Memphis. He was one of the important gods of ancient Egypt and, according to Memphite theology, created the universe through the thought of his heart and the utterance of his tongue. As master craftsman, he was a patron of metalworkers and artisans. The Greeks identified him with Hephaestus.
In Egyptian religion, the creator god. The patron of craftsmen, especially sculptors, Ptah was identified by the Greeks with Hephaestus, the divine blacksmith. He was represented as a man in mummy form, wearing a skullcap and a short, straight false beard. He 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 spread across Egypt. With Sekhmet and Nefertem, he was one of the Memphite Triad of deities.
Ptah
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Ptah, holding the emblems of life and power, bronze statuette, Memphis, c. 600–100 …
(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum)
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