acclaimed for ingenuity and inventiveness, was
embraced by influential guilds of the professional
class such as scribes, stonemasons, metallurgists,
shipbuilders, physicians, pharmacists, and archi-
tects. The credo of Ptah is illustrated by his
relationship with Imhotep, the celebrated multital-
ented genius and 4th-dynasty prime minister, who
was eventually deified and added to the Ptah-
trinity as Ptah’s son. The Old Kingdom of Kmt
was the era of Ptah’s preeminence, and it would
not be until the reign of the Late Period, specifi-
cally under the Kushitic dynasty, that Ptah would
shine again in such prominence within the religious
order of Kmt.
Ptah was the declared God of original creation
and the first official godhead of ancient Egypt
(Kmt). The priests of Ptah, following the dictates
of Kmt’s leaders, established Ptah throughout Kmt
as a unifying concept linking all regional and func-
tional deities and subdeities. This initiative was
launched sometime around the year 3400, more
than 5,000 years ago, within the Early Dynastic
period of the nation, and remained through the
period of Kmt’s Old Kingdom (circa 3100 through
2160), for a period of almost 1,300 years.
The other powerful priesthoods during the
Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods were
encouraged to adjust their creation stories to see
Ptah as the overall creator. Compromise and com-
pensation, as can be seen by Mn-nfr’s trinity, were
twin concepts employed between priesthoods
throughout Kmt. The other two components of
Ptah’s trinity, Skmt and Nfrtm, were firmly rooted
with other priesthoods.
After this time, Ptah remained an important
deity, albeit demoted before other declared primo-
genitors. Besides being the creator god, Ptah was
known as the overarching patron of the crafts and
skilled professions. Kmt’s 3,000-plus years as a
nation included geographic location shifts of its
capital along with shifts in the designation of its
principal priesthoods. These changes impacted
Ptah’s primogeniture role in Kmt’s belief system.
With the ascension of the Kushitic dynasty, Kmt’s
oldest prime deity experienced a resurrection.
Throughout Kmt’s long history, Ptah’s description
went through inevitable modifications.
Ptah’s physical representation also underwent
modifications as his description as a deity was
modified. One of the most symbolic transformations
that Ptah’s image would undergo was the straight-
ening of his beard after the Old Kingdom. The
curved beard was the preserve of principle deities
while the straight beard usually indicated royalty
(kings and queens). His most consistent glyphic and
painted presentations show him as a male figure
wrapped in burial linen and standing on a dais that
is shaped in the same form as the shorthand glyph
for Maa ̄t the concept encompassing truth, justice,
reciprocity, right ordering, balance, harmony, and
precision. Ptah holds three symbols before him,
often combined into one scepter, representing life,
stability, and dominion. Ptah also wears a pectoral
around his neck with a visibly profiled tassel. In
painted presentations, Ptah is often displayed with
the blue skullcap common to craftspersons. Ptah
was also incarnated as the sacred Apis bull.
Ptah, like other deities throughout Kmt’s his-
tory, was known to be part of a familiar triad.
His triad included his wife, Skhmt (called
Sakhmisby the Greeks), whose name literally
meant the powerful, and his son, Nfrtum (called
Iphtimisby the Greeks and later identified with
Prometheus), a deity affiliated with both the
solar deity, Ra, and the primeval lotus. It is sig-
nificant that Nfrtum was originally popular in
Lower Kmt as Ptah was a gift to Kmt from a
southern-based priesthood and unity through
absorption was a theme of Kmt. Also significant
was Nfrtum’s symbolic representation of Atum,
the acclaimed primogenitor according to the
priesthood based in Iwnw (calledHeliopolisby
the Greeks). This latter point is significant
because the Ptah priesthood relegate Atum to a
descendant of Ptah along with Hrw (called
Horusby the Greeks). All deities were said to be
manifestations of Ptah.
Much of what is currently known about Ptah
has been learned from the glyphic presentations in
temples and an engraved tablet commissioned by
King Shabaka of Kmt’s 25th dynasty. The tablet
was to be a more permanent replica of an earlier
papyrus that was decaying. In its more permanent
form, this important literary piece, often referred
to as the Shabaka Stone, is housed in the British
Museum. The text on the tablet makes clear that
Ptah was considered by Kmt’s earliest rulers as the
embodiment and the first to emerge from the Nun
(the watery voidless form). He was declared the
uncreated self-conscious creator of all.544 Ptah