In Egyptian mythology, Ptah (also spelt Peteh) was the deification of the primordial mound in the
Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen (also spelt Tathenen), meaning
'risen land', or as 'Tanen', meaning 'submerged land'. The importance Ptah was given in history can readily be understood since the name
Egypt derives from a Greek spelling of the phrase 'Ḥ.wt-k3-Ptḥ', (sometimes
transcribed Hat-ka-Ptah), meaning temple of the Ka of Ptah, the name of a temple at
Memphis.
It was said (in the
Shabaka Stone) that it was Ptah who called the world into being, having dreamt creation in his heart, and speaking it, his name meaning
'opener', in the sense of 'opener of the mouth'. Indeed the 'opening of the
mouth' ceremony, performed by priests at funerals to release souls from their corpses, was said to have been created by Ptah.
Atum was said to have been created by Ptah to rule over the creation, sitting upon the primordial mound.
In art, he is portrayed as a bearded mummified man, often wearing a skull cap, with his hands holding an
ankh, was, and djed, the symbols of life, power and stability, respectively. It was also considered that Ptah manifested himself in the
Apis bull.
In Memphis, Ptah was worshipped in his own right, and was seen as Atum's father, or rather, the father of
Nefertum, the younger form of Atum. When the beliefs about the Ennead and Ogdoad were later merged, and Atum was identified as
Ra (Atum-Ra), himself seen as Heru (Horus) (Ra-Herakhty), this led to Ptah being said to be married to
Sekhmet, at the time considered the earlier form of Hathor, Horus', thus Atum's,
mother.
Since Ptah was the primordial mound, and had called creation into being, he was considered the god of craftsmen, and in particular
stone-based crafts. Eventually, due to the connection of these things to tombs, and that at
Thebes, the craftsmen regarded him so highly as to say that he controlled their destiny. Consequently, first amongst the craftsmen, then the population as a whole, Ptah also became a god of
reincarnation. Since Seker was also god of craftsmen, and of re-incarnation, Seker was later assimilated with Ptah becoming
Ptah-Seker.
Ptah-Seker gradually became seen as the personification of the sun during the night, since the sun appears to be
re-incarnated at this time, and Ptah was the primordial mound, which lay beneath the earth. Consequently, Ptah-Seker became considered an
underworld deity, and eventually, by the Middle Kingdom, become assimilated by
Ausar (Osiris), the lord of the underworld, occasionally being known as Ptah-Seker-Ausar
(Osiris).