Like many deities of
ancient Egypt he takes many forms, through one of his particular aspects or through
syncretism of ancient deities of the Memphite region. Sometimes represented as a dwarf, naked and deformed, his popularity would continue to grow during the
Late Period. Frequently associated with the god
Bes, his worship then moved beyond the borders of Egypt and was exported throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean. Through dissemination by the
Phoenicians, we find figures of Ptah in
Carthage. Ptah is generally represented in the guise of a man with green skin, contained in a shroud sticking to the skin, wearing the divine beard, and holding a sceptre combining three powerful symbols of ancient Egyptian religion: • The
Was sceptre • The sign of life,
Ankh • The
Djed pillar These three combined symbols indicate the three creative powers of the god: power (was), life (ankh) and stability (djed). relief of Ptah holding a staff that bears the combined ankh and djed symbols,
Late Period or
Ptolemaic Dynasty, 4th to 3rd century BC From the
Old Kingdom, he quickly absorbs the appearance of
Sokar and
Tatenen, ancient deities of the Memphite region. His form of Sokar is found contained in its white shroud wearing the
Atef crown, an attribute of
Osiris. In this capacity, he represents the
patron deity of the
necropolis of
Saqqara and other famous sites where the royal pyramids were built. Gradually he formed with Osiris a new deity called Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. Statuettes representing the human form, the half-human, half-hawk form, or simply the pure falcon form of the new deity began to be systematically placed in tombs to accompany and protect the dead on their journey to the West. His Tatenen form is represented by a young and vigorous man wearing a crown with two tall plumes that surround the solar disk. He thus embodies the underground fire that rumbles and raises the earth. As such, he was particularly revered by metalworkers and blacksmiths, but he was equally feared because it was he who caused earthquakes and tremors of the Earth's crust. In this form also, Ptah is the
master of ceremonies for
Heb Sed, a ceremony traditionally attesting to the first thirty years of a pharaoh's reign. The god Ptah could correspond with the
sun deities Re or
Aten during the
Amarna period, where he embodied the divine essence with which the sun god was fed to come into existence, that is to say to be born, according to the Memphite mythological/theological texts. In the
holy of holies of his
temple in Memphis, as well as in his great sacred boat, he drove in procession to regularly visit the region during major holidays. Ptah was also symbolized by two birds with human heads adorned with solar disks, symbols of the souls of the god Re: the
Ba. The two Ba are identified as the twin gods
Shu and
Tefnut and are associated with the djed pillar of Memphis. Finally, Ptah is embodied in the sacred bull,
Apis. Frequently referred to as a
herald of Re, the sacred animal is the link with the god
Re from the
New Kingdom. He even received worship in Memphis, probably at the heart of the great temple of Ptah, and upon the death of the animal, was buried with all the honours due to a living deity in the
Serapeum of Saqqara. Scholars have also associated Ptah with the
Mandaean angel
Ptahil outside of Egypt, due to their somewhat similar features and closely related names. ==Development of the cult==