The Temple of Ptah is a shrine located within the large
Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak, in Luxor, Egypt. It lies to the north of the
main Amun temple, just within the boundary wall. The building was erected by
the Pharaoh Thutmose III on the site of an earlier Middle Kingdom temple.
The great temple of Ptah was one of the city’s most
prominent structures. According to an Egyptian document known as the “Memphite
Theology,”
Ptah created humans through the power of his heart and
speech; the concept, having been shaped in the heart of the creator,
Ipy appear as a benevolent guardian and wet nurse to the pharaoh.
She is perceived to exert a benign influence on amulet.
Opet was usually depicted as some sort of combination of
hippopotamus, crocodile, human and lion, though her hippopotamus aspect is
dominant. She was represented as a female hippopotamus, usually standing
upright on legs which have the feet of a lion.
The Hippo itself is associated with the protective nature of
mother as is reflected in the neter Taweret.
First reference to her comes from the Pyramid Texts, where
the king asks that he may nurse at her breast so that he would "neither
thirst nor hunger...forever".
Afterwards, she is
called "mistress of magical protection" in funerary papyri. Under the
epithet 'the great Opet',
She appears to have had a very strong connection with the
Theban area and might have even been considered a personification of that city.
In the theology of Thebes, she was thought to be the mother of Ausar.
Title
Author
Date
Publisher
Reference Number
Ancient Gods Speak, The: A Guide to Egyptian Religion
Redford, Donald B.
2002
Oxford University Press
ISBN 0-19-515401-0
Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, The
Wilkinson, Richard H.
2003
Thames & Hudson, LTD
ISBN 0-500-05120-8
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many
Hornung, Erik
1971
Cornell University Press
ISBN 0-8014-8384-0
Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, A
Hart, George
1986
Routledge
ISBN 0-415-05909-7
Egyptian Religion
Morenz, Siegfried
1973
Cornell University Press
ISBN 0-8014-8029-9
Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt
Armour, Robert A.
1986
American University in Cairo Press, The
ISBN 977 424 669 1
Gods of Ancient Egypt, The
Vernus, Pascal
1998
George Braziller Publisher
ISBN 0-8076-1435-1
Gods of the Egyptians, The (Studies in Egyptian Mythology)
The
Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet.[2] She was one of the earliest
Egyptian deities and was often depicted as a cobra, as she is the serpent
goddess. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the
Greeks.[3] She became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all
of Lower Egypt.[4] The pharaohs wore the uraeus as a head ornament: either with
the body of Wadjet atop the head, or as a crown encircling the head; this
indicated Wadjet's protection and reinforced the pharaoh's claim over the land.
In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the pharaoh's head, it
was, in effect, part of the pharaoh's crown. The pharaoh was recognized only by
wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler. There is evidence
for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE.[5]
Several goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet are
depicted wearing the uraeus as well.
At
the time of the unification of Egypt, the image of Nekhbet, the goddess who was
represented as a white vulture and held the same position as the patron of
Upper Egypt, joined the image of Wadjet on the Uraeus that would encircle the
crown of the pharaohs who ruled the unified Egypt. The importance of their
separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities.
Together, they were known as the Nebty or the Two Ladies, who became the joint
protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt.[2]
Later,
the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, and so it also was
believed that the Uraeus protected them by spitting fire on their enemies from
the fiery eye of the goddess.[citation needed] In some mythological works, the
eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. Wadjets existed long before the rise of this
cult when they originated as the eye of Wadjet as a cobra. Wadjets are also the
name of the symbols called the Eye of the Moon, Eye of Hathor, the Eye of
Horus, and the Eye of Ra—depending upon the dates of the references to the
symbols.[citation needed]
As
the Uraeus was seen as a royal symbol, the deities Horus and Set were also
depicted wearing the symbol on their crowns. In early ancient Egyptian
mythology, Horus would have been the name given to any king as part of the many
titles taken, being identified as the son of the goddess Isis. According to the
later mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to have been created by the
goddess Isis, who formed it from the dust of the earth and the spittle of the
then-current sun deity.[citation needed] In this version of the mythology, the
Uraeus was the instrument with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for
Osiris. Isis is associated with and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet.[2]
