PTAH
Unlike most Egyptian creator gods, Ptah himself is uncreated, having existed before anyone or anything. He willed the world into existence with the power of his mind, like a great conjuror of celestial proportions. Not satisfied there, he uses his speech (literally “word”) to give life to his creation. In Memphite texts, the present tense is used, indicating the ongoing act of sustaining life.
So firm is the association of Ptah with the role of creator that a pillar in Memphis bears an inscription describing him as: “the only unbegotten begetter in the heaven and on the earth…the god who made himself to be God, who exists by himself, the double being, the begetter of the first beginning.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that!
Outside of his home city of Memphis, creation was attributed to other gods. Yet Ptah was seen as the ultimate source of the world – and the gods – in Heliopolis. Here Atum, after being thought into being by Ptah, used other components left by his creator to fashion the world and everything in it. Thus, much of Lower Egypt recognized Ptah as the great origin of all things. [anon]
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