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| Ptah's Oscar-like statue, British Museum |
Ptah, pronounced Pi-tah, gave us ancient Egypt.
He gave us the name of Egypt, scholars believe.
Hwt-kA-Ptah (from which came 'Aegyptus', a Greek corruption).
Hwt-kA-Ptah, The Temple of the Ka of Ptah, referred to a great
temple in ancient Egypt.
Ptah, the creator god, was the great
artificer, the god behind creation, craftsmen, sculptors and architects.
He made the universe concrete by first
thinking it into existence and then naming each piece.
Which is not so removed from the modern
quantum physics idea that the universe only exists when we see it (and name
it?)
Pyramids, statues, all the lavish jewellery
of Egypt, the monumental architecture of temples and tombs and coffins, all
inspired by Ptah. Basically everything you see and admire in Egypt and in an
Egyptian museum comes from him.
The mysterious Oscar-like figure in a
skullcap was said to be the father of Egypt’s other great artificer, the genius
Imhotep, who was way ahead of his age and dreamed up the first pyramid, the
step pyramid and invented Egyptian medicine.
Imhotep was usually depicted as a small, alien-like
little figure in a skull cap. His name means ‘He who comes in peace’, (don’t sci-fi aliens always say 'we come in peace?').
You can meet echoes of Ptah in my novels EGYPT EYES, THE
GOD DIG and also ANCIENT VISITORS: The Egypt Enigma (On Amazon Kindle).
