Peaceful and Reconciling Ptah Line drawing and colored pencil on acid free paper, 17.8 x 25.3 cm (7 x 10 in.)      Spiral rings removed after the scan, but otherwise unedited, except for some repositioning and removal of spiral rings. And just because I can, a reversed version! © Joan Ann Lansberry, March 2013

I took many influences for this. The chief one is the line drawing I did of a detail from the stela of Penbuwy. But I also consulted a photo from Horemhab's tomb, and other photos. As with Thoth, Ptah also has a Reconciling Reputation. "Horus and Seth 'were reconciled and united...their quarreling ceased...being joined in the House of Ptah...'" (from the Shabako Stone, quoted by Simson Najovits in "Egypt, Trunk of the Tree", (Algora Publishing, 2003), page 191) "And so all the gods and their kas assembled together for him (the god Ptah). The Peaceful and Reconciling One (a name of Ptah) was lord of the two lands." (Memphite Theology as quoted by John Gwyn Griffiths in The Origins of Osiris and His Cult, (Brill, 1980), page 160) I had an epiphany about the name of Ptah: Ptah! (F-TAH!) Creator god, patron of craftsmen.. His name is like the sound of the hammer hitting the anvil! I said it in my mind like that, (even imagining the swing of the arm as the hammer comes down.) Ancient Egyptians knew so well the power of names, and the magical capacities of sound, and as we study more, we learn some of these at first hidden properties