107-399: B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Ptah ( / t ɑː / TAH ; Ancient Egyptian : ptḥ , reconstructed [piˈtaħ] ; Ancient Greek : Φθά , romanized : Phthá ; Coptic : ⲡⲧⲁϩ , romanized: Ptah ; Phoenician : 𐤐𐤕𐤇 , romanized: ptḥ ) is an ancient Egyptian deity ,
214-493: A creator god and patron deity of craftsmen and architects . In the triad of Memphis , he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem . He was also regarded as the father of the sage Imhotep . Ptah is an Egyptian creator god who conceived the world and brought it into being through the creative power of speech. A hymn to Ptah dating to the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt says Ptah "crafted
321-773: A literary language , and was also the language of the New Kingdom administration. Texts written wholly in Late Egyptian date to the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt and later. Late Egyptian is represented by a large body of religious and secular literature , comprising such examples as the Story of Wenamun , the love poems of the Chester–Beatty I papyrus, and the Instruction of Any . Instructions became
428-576: A synthetic language , Egyptian by the Late Egyptian phase had become an analytic language . The relationship between Middle Egyptian and Late Egyptian has been described as being similar to that between Latin and Italian. The Late Egyptian stage is taken to have ended around the 8th century BC, giving rise to Demotic. Demotic is a later development of the Egyptian language written in the Demotic script , following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic ,
535-543: A "☥" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and funerary rites . The supremacy of Re in the Egyptian pantheon was at its highest with the Fifth Dynasty , when open-air solar temples became common. In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , Ra lost some of his preeminence to Osiris , lord of
642-568: A bow and arrow to save the people of the Earth. In another myth, a solar eclipse was said to be caused by a magical dog or dragon biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2136 BC; two royal astronomers, Ho and Hi, were executed for failing to predict the eclipse. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare
749-558: A few have survived that were written in hieratic and (later) demotic. There was also a form of cursive hieroglyphs , used for religious documents on papyrus, such as the Book of the Dead of the Twentieth Dynasty ; it was simpler to write than the hieroglyphs in stone inscriptions, but it was not as cursive as hieratic and lacked the wide use of ligatures . Additionally, there was a variety of stone-cut hieratic, known as "lapidary hieratic". In
856-495: A few specialists in the language. For all other purposes, the Egyptological pronunciation is used, but it often bears little resemblance to what is known of how Egyptian was pronounced. The following consonants are reconstructed for Archaic (before 2600 BC) and Old Egyptian (2686–2181 BC), with IPA equivalents in square brackets if they differ from the usual transcription scheme: / l / has no independent representation in
963-589: 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. The cult of the god Ptah quickly spread throughout Egypt. With the major royal projects of the Old Kingdom, the high priests of Ptah were particularly sought after and worked in concert with the vizier , filling
1070-550: A monotheistic one, Atenism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including Amun-Ra , the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the Sun. Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amen-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted
1177-442: A popular literary genre of the New Kingdom, which took the form of advice on proper behavior. Late Egyptian was also the language of New Kingdom administration. Late Egyptian is not completely distinct from Middle Egyptian, as many "classicisms" appear in historical and literary documents of this phase. However, the difference between Middle and Late Egyptian is greater than the difference between Middle and Old Egyptian. Originally
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#17327760120971284-520: A sacred symbol in Bakongo culture, depicts these moments of the sun. The Sun ( Albanian : Diell-i ) holds the primary role in Albanian pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths, and legends. Albanian major traditional festivities and calendar rites are based on the Sun, worshiped as the god of light , sky and weather , giver of life, health and energy, and all-seeing eye. In Albanian tradition
1391-444: A scribe jokes that his colleague's writing is incoherent like "the speech of a Delta man with a man of Elephantine ." Recently, some evidence of internal dialects has been found in pairs of similar words in Egyptian that, based on similarities with later dialects of Coptic, may be derived from northern and southern dialects of Egyptian. Written Coptic has five major dialects, which differ mainly in graphic conventions, most notably
1498-543: A solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light. In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi , honored to this day, shot down nine of them with
1605-503: A stressed vowel (⟨ bjn ⟩ = */ˈbaːjin/ 'bad') and as ⟨ jj ⟩ word-medially immediately before a stressed vowel ( ⟨ḫꜥjjk⟩ = */χaʕˈjak/ 'you will appear') and are unmarked word-finally (⟨ jt ⟩ = /ˈjaːtVj/ 'father'). In Middle Egyptian (2055–1650 BC), a number of consonantal shifts take place. By the beginning of the Middle Kingdom period, / z / and / s / had merged, and
1712-510: A stressed vowel in syllables that had been closed in earlier Egyptian (compare ⲛⲟⲩⲃ < */ˈnaːbaw/ 'gold' and ⲧⲁⲡ < * /dib/ 'horn'). The phonemes /d g z/ occur only in Greek loanwords, with rare exceptions triggered by a nearby /n/ : ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃⲉ/ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ < ꜥ.t n.t sbꜣ.w 'school'. Earlier *d ḏ g q are preserved as ejective t' c' k' k ' before vowels in Coptic. Although
1819-484: A struggle between the pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the god of chaos, Apep . The "solarisation" of several local gods (Hnum-Re, Min-Re, Amon-Re) reached its peak in the period of the Fifth Dynasty. Rituals to the god Amun, who became identified with the sun god Ra, were often carried out on the top of temple pylons . A pylon mirrored
1926-644: A transliteration of the corresponding Demotic "alphabetical" sign(s) in angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ . More changes occur in the 1st millennium BC and the first centuries AD, leading to Coptic (1st or 3rd – c. 19th centuries AD). In Sahidic ẖ ḫ ḥ had merged into ϣ š (most often from ḫ ) and ϩ / h / (most often ẖ ḥ ). Bohairic and Akhmimic are more conservative and have a velar fricative / x / ( ϧ in Bohairic, ⳉ in Akhmimic). Pharyngeal *ꜥ had merged into glottal / ʔ / after it had affected
2033-465: A uniliteral hieroglyph. Egyptian scholar Gamal Mokhtar noted that the inventory of hieroglyphic symbols derived from "fauna and flora used in the signs [which] are essentially African", reflecting the local wildlife of North Africa, the Levant and southern Mediterranean. In "regards to writing, we have seen that a purely Nilotic, hence [North] African origin not only is not excluded, but probably reflects
2140-511: Is Sunna . In the Norse traditions, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot every day, pulled by two horses named Arvak and Alsvid. Sól also was called Sunna and Frau Sunne. First century historian Tacitus , in his book Germania , mentioned that "beyond the Suiones [tribe]" a sea was located where the sun maintained its brilliance from its rising to its sunset, and that "[the] popular belief"
2247-479: Is a deity who represents the Sun or an aspect thereof. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name Sol or by its Greek name Helios . The English word sun derives from Proto-Germanic * sunnǭ . Predynasty Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as
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#17327760120972354-421: Is assumed to have been feminine, and several goddesses have been proposed as possibly solar in character. In Continental Celtic culture , the sun gods, like Belenus , Grannus , and Lugus , were masculine. In Irish , the name of the Sun, Grian , is feminine. The figure known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of Summer Sun while Grian
2461-474: Is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, including a finite verb , which has been found. Discovered in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen (dated c. 2690 BC ), the seal impression reads: Extensive texts appear from about 2600 BC. An early example is the Diary of Merer . The Pyramid Texts are the largest body of literature written in this phase of the language. One of its distinguishing characteristics
2568-452: Is not a contrastive feature; all obstruents are voiceless and all sonorants are voiced. Stops may be either aspirated or tenuis (unaspirated), although there is evidence that aspirates merged with their tenuis counterparts in certain environments. The following table presents the consonants of Demotic Egyptian. The reconstructed value of a phoneme is given in IPA transcription, followed by
2675-547: Is probably more conservative, and Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern. Although Egyptian is the oldest Afroasiatic language documented in written form, its morphological repertoire is very different from that of the rest of the Afroasiatic languages in general, and Semitic languages in particular. There are multiple possibilities: perhaps Egyptian had already undergone radical changes from Proto-Afroasiatic before it
2782-399: Is sometimes reserved for the earliest use of hieroglyphs, from the late fourth through the early third millennia BC. At the earliest stage, around 3300 BC, hieroglyphs were not a fully developed writing system , being at a transitional stage of proto-writing ; over the time leading up to the 27th century BC, grammatical features such as nisba formation can be seen to occur. Old Egyptian
2889-424: Is the best-documented variety of the language, and has attracted the most attention by far from Egyptology . While most Middle Egyptian is seen written on monuments by hieroglyphs, it was also written using a cursive variant , and the related hieratic . Middle Egyptian first became available to modern scholarship with the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the early 19th century. The first grammar of Middle Egyptian
2996-406: Is the tripling of ideograms , phonograms, and determinatives to indicate the plural. Overall, it does not differ significantly from Middle Egyptian, the classical stage of the language, though it is based on a different dialect. In the period of the 3rd dynasty ( c. 2650 – c. 2575 BC ), many of the principles of hieroglyphic writing were regularized. From that time on, until
3103-690: The neuere Komparatistik , founded by Semiticist Otto Rössler. According to the neuere Komparatistik , in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/ : Egyptian ꜥr.t 'portal', Semitic dalt 'door'. The traditional theory instead disputes the values given to those consonants by the neuere Komparatistik , instead connecting ⟨ꜥ⟩ with Semitic /ʕ/ and /ɣ/ . Both schools agree that Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨ꜣ⟩ , and ⟨j⟩ in
3210-444: The Afroasiatic language family . Among the typological features of Egyptian that are typically Afroasiatic are its fusional morphology, nonconcatenative morphology , a series of emphatic consonants , a three-vowel system /a i u/ , a nominal feminine suffix * -at , a nominal prefix m- , an adjectival suffix -ī and characteristic personal verbal affixes. Of the other Afroasiatic branches, linguists have variously suggested that
3317-766: The Bronze Age in Europe. Possible solar boat depictions have also been identified in Neolithic petroglyphs from the Megalithic culture in western Europe, and in Mesolithic petroglyphs from northern Europe. Examples of solar vessels include: The concept of the "solar chariot" is younger than that of the solar barge and is typically Indo-European , corresponding with the Indo-European expansion after
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3424-565: The Coptic Catholic Church . Most hieroglyphic Egyptian texts are written in a literary prestige register rather than the vernacular speech variety of their author. As a result, dialectical differences are not apparent in written Egyptian until the adoption of the Coptic alphabet . Nevertheless, it is clear that these differences existed before the Coptic period. In one Late Egyptian letter (dated c. 1200 BC ),
3531-618: The Incan Inti . In Germanic mythology, the solar deity is Sol ; in Vedic , Surya ; and in Greek, Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan ) and (sometimes) as Apollo . In Proto-Indo-European mythology the sun appears to be a multilayered figure manifested as a deity but also perceived as the eye of the sky father Dyeus . Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography. The theories were
3638-484: The Japanese ( Amaterasu ). The cobra (of Pharaoh, son of Ra), the lioness (daughter of Ra), and the cow (daughter of Ra), are the dominant symbols of the most ancient Egyptian deities. They were female and carried their relationship to the sun atop their heads, and their cults remained active throughout the history of the culture. Later another sun god ( Aten ) was established in the eighteenth dynasty on top of
3745-709: The Sabines at the times of Titus Tatius . Copernicus describing the Sun mythologically, drawing from Greco-Roman examples: In the middle of all sits the Sun on his throne. In this loveliest of temples, could we place the luminary in any more appropriate place so that he may light the whole simultaneously. Rightly is he called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Universe: Hermes Trismegistus entitles him
3852-601: The cosmic renewal. The most famous representation of it is the constant battle between drangue and kulshedra , which is seen as a mythological extension of the cult of the Sun and the Moon, widely observed in Albanian traditional art. In Albanian traditions, kulshedra is also fought by the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun, who uses her light power against pride and evil, or by other heroic characters marked in their bodies by
3959-406: The crescent Moon , is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing , grave art, jewellery, embroidery, and house carvings. Solemn oaths ( Besa ), good omens, and curse formulas, involve and are addressed to, or taken by, the Sun. Prayers to the Sun, ritual bonfires , and animal sacrifices have been common practices performed by Albanians during
4066-439: The decipherment of the ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century. Egyptian is one of the earliest known written languages , first recorded in the hieroglyphic script in the late 4th millennium BC . It is also the longest-attested human language, with a written record spanning over 4,000 years. Its classical form, known as " Middle Egyptian ," served as the vernacular of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and remained
4173-413: The fire – zjarri , evidently also called with the theonym Enji – worship and rituals are particularly related to the cult of the Sun. Ritual calendar fires or bonfires are traditionally kindled before sunrise in order to give strength to the Sun and to ward off evil . Many rituals are practiced before and during sunrise , honoring this moment of the day as it is believed to give energy and health to
4280-503: The hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet , which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set", associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae , the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus, and Hathor. In the Eighteenth Dynasty , the earliest-known monotheistic head of state, Akhenaten , changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to
4387-588: The hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Demotic is the name of the script derived from the hieratic beginning in the 7th century BC. The Coptic alphabet was derived from the Greek alphabet , with adaptations for Egyptian phonology. It was first developed in the Ptolemaic period , and gradually replaced the Demotic script in about the 4th to 5th centuries of the Christian era. The term "Archaic Egyptian"
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4494-456: The moon goddess Chang'e and her festivals are very popular among followers of Chinese folk religion and Taoism . The goddess and her holy days are ingrained in Chinese popular culture . In Germanic mythology , the sun is personified by Sol . The corresponding Old English name is Siȝel [ˈsijel] , continuing Proto-Germanic *Sôwilô or *Saewelô. The Old High German Sun goddess
4601-687: The "solar mythology" of Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Max Müller , the tree worship of Mannhardt , and the totemism of J. F. McLennan . Müller's "solar mythology" was born from the study of Indo-European languages . Of them, Müller believed Archaic Sanskrit was the closest to the language spoken by the Aryans . Using the Sanskrit names for deities as a base, he applied Grimm's law to names for similar deities from different Indo-European groups to compare their etymological relationships to one another. In
4708-575: The Aten during the reign of Akhenaten. In Kongo religion , Nzambi Mpungu is the Sky Father and god of the Sun, while that his female counterpart, Nzambici , is Sky Mother and the god of the Moon and Earth. The Sun is very significant to Bakongo people , who believe that the position of the sun marks the different seasons of a Kongo person's life as they transition between the four moments of life: conception ( musoni ), birth ( kala ), maturity ( tukula ), and death ( luvemba ). The Kongo cosmogram ,
4815-472: The Egyptian god. [REDACTED] Media related to Ptah at Wikimedia Commons Ancient Egyptian language The Egyptian language , or Ancient Egyptian ( r n kmt ; "speech of Egypt") is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt . It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world following
4922-475: The Egyptian language shares its greatest affinities with Berber and Semitic languages, particularly Arabic (which is spoken in Egypt today) and Hebrew . However, other scholars have argued that the Egyptian language shared closer linguistic ties with northeastern African regions. There are two theories that seek to establish the cognate sets between Egyptian and Afroasiatic, the traditional theory and
5029-531: 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
5136-651: 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
5243-495: The Moon and the Sun"); in others the Sun and the Moon are regarded as brother and sister, but in this case they are never considered consorts. Nëna e Diellit ("the Mother of the Sun" or "the Sun's Mother") also appears as a personified deity in Albanian folk beliefs and tales. Albanian beliefs, myths and legends are organized around the dualistic struggle between good and evil , light and darkness , which cyclically produces
5350-610: The Sun "God Visible". The Minotaur has been interpreted as a solar deity (as Moloch or Chronos ), including by Arthur Bernard Cook , who considers both Minos and Minotaur as aspects of the sun god of the Cretans , who depicted the sun as a bull. During the Roman Empire , a festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun (or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti ) was celebrated on the winter solstice —the "rebirth" of
5457-515: The Sun god and Horus as a god of the sky and Sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained influence, early beliefs were incorporated into the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris - Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting Sun. Osiris became the divine heir to Atum's power on Earth and passed his divine authority to his son, Horus. Other early Egyptian myths imply that
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#17327760120975564-406: The Sun is incorporated with the lioness Sekhmet at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that the Sun is found within the cow Hathor during the night and reborn each morning as her son ( bull ). Mesopotamian Shamash played an important role during the Bronze Age , and "my Sun" was eventually used to address royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of Sun worship as with
5671-527: The Sun was the chief cult object of the Illyrian religion . Finding correspondences with Albanian folk beliefs and practices, the Illyrian Sun-deity is figuratively represented on Iron Age plaques from Lake Shkodra as the god of the sky and lightning , also associated with the fire altar where he throws lightning bolts. The symbolization of the cult of the Sun, which is often combined with
5778-593: The Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian calendar . In late antiquity , the theological centrality of the Sun in some Imperial religious systems suggests a form of a "solar monotheism ". The religious commemorations on 25 December were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ. Much more ancient was the cult of Sol Indiges , supposed to have been introduced among Roman deities by
5885-471: The beginning of the New Kingdom ( c. 1550 BC ), was mounted on four-spoked chariot wheels. Similarities have been noted with the Trundholm Sun Chariot from Denmark, dating from c. 1500 –1400 BC, which was also mounted on four-spoked wheels. Examples of solar chariots include: In Chinese culture, the sun chariot is associated with the passage of time. For instance, in
5992-681: The body. As the wide set of cultic traditions dedicated to him indicates, the Albanian Sun-god appears to be an expression of the Proto-Indo-European Sky-god ( Zot or Zojz in Albanian). Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534, but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity. Illyrian material culture shows that
6099-462: The comparison, Müller saw the similarities between the names and used these etymological similarities to explain the similarities between their roles as deities. Through the study, Müller concluded that the Sun having many different names led to the creation of multiple solar deities and their mythologies that were passed down from one group to another. R. F. Littledale criticized the Sun myth theory, pointing out that by his own principles, Max Müller
6206-630: The definite article ⲡ is unaspirated when the next word begins with a glottal stop: Bohairic ⲡ + ⲱⲡ > ⲡⲱⲡ 'the account'. The consonant system of Coptic is as follows: Here is the vowel system reconstructed for earlier Egyptian: Vowels are always short in unstressed syllables ( ⟨tpj⟩ = */taˈpij/ 'first') and long in open stressed syllables ( ⟨rmṯ⟩ = */ˈraːmac/ 'man'), but they can be either short or long in closed stressed syllables ( ⟨jnn⟩ = */jaˈnan/ 'we', ⟨mn⟩ = */maːn/ 'to stay'). Sun deities A solar deity or sun deity
6313-458: The dialect on which the written language was based, but it was preserved in other Egyptian varieties. They also agree that original */k g ḳ/ palatalise to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others. The Egyptian language has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to the Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian
6420-637: The emphatic consonants were realised is unknown. Early research had assumed that the opposition in stops was one of voicing, but it is now thought to be either one of tenuis and emphatic consonants , as in many Semitic languages, or one of aspirated and ejective consonants , as in many Cushitic languages . Since vowels were not written until Coptic, reconstructions of the Egyptian vowel system are much more uncertain and rely mainly on evidence from Coptic and records of Egyptian words, especially proper nouns, in other languages/writing systems. The actual pronunciations reconstructed by such means are used only by
6527-527: The empire of Ramesses. He was worshipped at Pi-Ramesses as master of ceremonies and coronations. With the Third Intermediate Period , Ptah returned to the centre of the monarchy where the coronation of the pharaoh was held again in his temple. The Ptolemies continued this tradition, and the high priests of Ptah were then increasingly associated with the royal family, with some even marrying princesses of royal blood, clearly indicating
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#17327760120976634-439: The end of a stressed syllable and eventually null word-finally: ⟨pḏ.t⟩ */ˈpiːɟat/ > Akkadian transcription -pi-ta 'bow'. The most important source of information about Demotic phonology is Coptic. The consonant inventory of Demotic can be reconstructed on the basis of evidence from the Coptic dialects. Demotic orthography is relatively opaque . The Demotic "alphabetical" signs are mostly inherited from
6741-452: The eye as well as epithets associated with light. The theonym Sulevia , which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis, is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess. The Welsh Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological association with the wheel and the colors gold, white and red. Brighid has at times been argued as having had
6848-547: The first known Coptic text, still pagan ( Old Coptic ), from the 1st century AD. Coptic survived into the medieval period, but by the 16th century was dwindling rapidly due to the persecution of Coptic Christians under the Mamluks . It probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Coptic survives as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and
6955-655: The graphemes ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ are used interchangeably. In addition, / j / had become / ʔ / word-initially in an unstressed syllable (⟨ jwn ⟩ /jaˈwin/ > */ʔaˈwin/ "colour") and after a stressed vowel ( ⟨ḥjpw⟩ */ˈħujpVw/ > /ˈħeʔp(Vw)/ '[the god] Apis'). In Late Egyptian (1069–700 BC), the phonemes d ḏ g gradually merge with their counterparts t ṯ k ( ⟨dbn⟩ */ˈdiːban/ > Akkadian transcription ti-ba-an 'dbn-weight'). Also, ṯ ḏ often become /t d/ , but they are retained in many lexemes ; ꜣ becomes / ʔ / ; and /t r j w/ become / ʔ / at
7062-420: 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: These three combined symbols indicate the three creative powers of the god: power (was), life (ankh) and stability (djed). From the Old Kingdom , he quickly absorbs the appearance of Sokar and Tatenen , ancient deities of
7169-435: The hieroglyphic orthography, and it is frequently written as if it were / n / or / r / . That is probably because the standard for written Egyptian is based on a dialect in which / l / had merged with other sonorants. Also, the rare cases of / ʔ / occurring are not represented. The phoneme / j / is written as ⟨ j ⟩ in the initial position (⟨ jt ⟩ = */ˈjaːtVj/ 'father') and immediately after
7276-519: The hieroglyphic script, and due to historical sound changes they do not always map neatly onto Demotic phonemes . However, the Demotic script does feature certain orthographic innovations, such as the use of the sign h̭ for / ç /, which allow it to represent sounds that were not present in earlier forms of Egyptian. The Demotic consonants can be divided into two primary classes: obstruents ( stops , affricates and fricatives ) and sonorants ( approximants , nasals , and semivowels ). Voice
7383-426: The horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus. From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt , the Sun was worshiped as the deity Ra (pronounced probably as Riya, meaning simply ' the sun ' ), and portrayed as a falcon -headed god surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Re supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolized as an ankh :
7490-544: The invention of the chariot in the 2nd millennium BC. The reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European religion features a "solar chariot " or "sun chariot" with which the Sun traverses the sky. Chariots were introduced to Egypt in the Hyksos period , and seen as solar vehicles associated with the sun god in the subsequent New Kingdom period. A gold solar boat model from the tomb of Queen Ahhotep , dating from
7597-464: The language's final stage of development, the Coptic alphabet replaced the older writing system. Hieroglyphs are employed in two ways in Egyptian texts: as ideograms to represent the idea depicted by the pictures and, more commonly, as phonograms to represent their phonetic value. As the phonetic realization of Egyptian cannot be known with certainty, Egyptologists use a system of transliteration to denote each sound that could be represented by
7704-406: The latter of which it shares much with. In the earlier stages of Demotic, such as those texts written in the early Demotic script, it probably represented the spoken idiom of the time. However, as its use became increasingly confined to literary and religious purposes, the written language diverged more and more from the spoken form, leading to significant diglossia between the late Demotic texts and
7811-598: The literary language of Egypt until the Roman period . By the time of classical antiquity , the spoken language had evolved into Demotic , and by the Roman era , diversified into various Coptic dialects . These were eventually supplanted by Arabic after the Muslim conquest of Egypt , although Bohairic Coptic remains in use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church . The Egyptian language branch belongs to
7918-599: The other solar deities, before the "aberration" was stamped out and the old pantheon re-established. When male deities became associated with the sun in that culture, they began as the offspring of a mother (except Ra, King of the Gods who gave birth to himself). Sun worship was prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion . The earliest deities associated with the Sun are all goddesses: Wadjet , Sekhmet , Hathor , Nut , Bast , Bat , and Menhit . First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra , respectively. Hathor
8025-517: The poem Suffering from the Shortness of Days , Li He of the Tang dynasty is hostile towards the legendary dragons that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the continuous progress of time. The following is an excerpt from the poem: I will cut off the dragon's feet, chew the dragon's flesh, so that they can't turn back in the morning or lie down at night. Left to themselves the old won't die;
8132-475: The prominent role they played in the Ptolemaic court. Memphis was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah (meaning "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah"), was one of the most prominent structures in the city. This word entered Ancient Greek as Αἴγυπτος ( Aiguptos ), which entered Latin as Aegyptus , which developed into Middle French Egypte and
8239-474: 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
8346-512: The quality of the surrounding vowels. / ʔ / is not indicated orthographically unless it follows a stressed vowel; then, it is marked by doubling the vowel letter (except in Bohairic): Akhmimic ⳉⲟⲟⲡ /xoʔp/ , Sahidic and Lycopolitan ϣⲟⲟⲡ šoʔp , Bohairic ϣⲟⲡ šoʔp 'to be' < ḫpr.w * /ˈχapraw/ 'has become'. The phoneme ⲃ / b / was probably pronounced as a fricative [ β ] , becoming ⲡ / p / after
8453-870: The reality" that the geographical location of Egypt is, of course, in Africa. While the consonantal phonology of the Egyptian language may be reconstructed, the exact phonetics is unknown, and there are varying opinions on how to classify the individual phonemes. In addition, because Egyptian is recorded over a full 2,000 years, the Archaic and Late stages being separated by the amount of time that separates Old Latin from Modern Italian , significant phonetic changes must have occurred during that lengthy time frame. Phonologically, Egyptian contrasted labial, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal consonants. Egyptian also contrasted voiceless and emphatic consonants, as with other Afroasiatic languages, but exactly how
8560-461: The ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops. In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Sun is a personified male deity, and the Moon ( Hëna ) is his female counterpart. In pagan beliefs the fire hearth ( vatra e zjarrit ) is the symbol of fire as the offspring of the Sun. In some folk tales, myths and legends the Sun and the Moon are regarded as husband and wife, also appearing as the parents of E Bija e Hënës dhe e Diellit ("the Daughter of
8667-506: The role of chief architects and master craftsmen, responsible for the decoration of the royal funerary complexes. In the New Kingdom, the cult of the god would develop in different ways, especially in Memphis, his homeland, but also in Thebes , where the workers of the royal tombs honoured him as patron of craftsmen. For this reason, the oratory of Ptah who listens to prayers was built near
8774-783: The sacred beast away. The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong/Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi. Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang/Lady Tai Yin). Worship of
8881-599: The same graphemes are used for the pulmonic stops ( ⟨ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ ⟩ ), the existence of the former may be inferred because the stops ⟨ ⲡ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ ⟩ /p t c k/ are allophonically aspirated [pʰ tʰ cʰ kʰ] before stressed vowels and sonorant consonants. In Bohairic, the allophones are written with the special graphemes ⟨ ⲫ ⲑ ϭ ⲭ ⟩ , but other dialects did not mark aspiration: Sahidic ⲡⲣⲏ , Bohairic ⲫⲣⲏ 'the sun'. Thus, Bohairic does not mark aspiration for reflexes of older *d ḏ g q : Sahidic and Bohairic ⲧⲁⲡ */dib/ 'horn'. Also,
8988-433: The script was supplanted by an early version of Coptic (about the third and fourth centuries), the system remained virtually unchanged. Even the number of signs used remained constant at about 700 for more than 2,000 years. Middle Egyptian was spoken for about 700 years, beginning around 2000 BC, during the Middle Kingdom and the subsequent Second Intermediate Period . As the classical variant of Egyptian, Middle Egyptian
9095-490: The site of Deir el-Medina , the village where the workers and craftsmen were housed. At Memphis, the role of intercessor with humans was particularly visible in the appearance of the enclosure that protected the sanctuary of the god . Large ears were carved on the walls, symbolizing his role as god who listens to prayers . With the Nineteenth Dynasty , his cult grew and he became one of the four great deities of
9202-434: The sky in a boat. A prominent example is the solar barque used by Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology . The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat ) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt , with Ra and Horus . Several Egyptian kings were buried with ships that may have been intended to symbolize
9309-683: The solar barque, including the Khufu ship that was buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza . Solar boats and similar vessels also appear in Indo-European mythologies, such as a 'hundred-oared ship' of Surya in the Rig Veda , the golden boat of Saulė in Baltic mythology , and the golden bowl of Helios in Greek mythology . Numerous depictions of solar boats are known from
9416-480: The southern Saidic dialect, the main classical dialect, and the northern Bohairic dialect, currently used in Coptic Church services. Most surviving texts in the Egyptian language are written on stone in hieroglyphs . The native name for Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is zẖꜣ n mdw-nṯr ("writing of the gods' words"). In antiquity, most texts were written on the quite perishable medium of papyrus though
9523-567: The spoken language of the time, similar to the use of classical Middle Egyptian during the Ptolemaic Period. Coptic is the name given to the late Egyptian vernacular when it was written in a Greek-based alphabet, the Coptic alphabet; it flourished from the time of Early Christianity (c. 31/33–324) , but Egyptian phrases written in the Greek alphabet first appeared during the Hellenistic period c. 3rd century BC , with
9630-461: The stones still standing were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes. ) Those who practice Dievturība , beliefs of traditional Latvian culture , worship the Sun goddess Saule , known in traditional Lithuanian beliefs as Saulė. Saule is among the most important deities in Baltic mythology and traditions. The sun in Insular Celtic culture
9737-547: The symbols of celestial objects, such as Zjermi (lit. "the Fire"), who notably is born with the Sun on his forehead. In Armenian mythology and in the vicinity of Carahunge , the ancient site of interest in the field of archaeoastronomy , people worshiped a powerful deity or intelligence called Ara, embodied as the sun (Ar or Arev). The ancient Armenians called themselves "children of the sun". (Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen of
9844-476: 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
9951-522: The west, and judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle , whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten , the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the pharaoh , Akhenaton . The Sun's movement across the sky represents
10058-852: The world in Australia ( Bila , Wala ); in Indian tribal religions (Bisal- Mariamma , Bomong , 'Ka Sgni ) and Sri Lanka ( Pattini ); among the Hittites ( Wurusemu ), Berbers ( Tafukt ), Egyptians ( Hathor , Sekhmet ), and Canaanites ( Shapash ); in the Canary Islands ( Chaxiraxi , Magec ); in Native America, among the Cherokee ( Unelanuhi ), Natchez (Oüa Chill/Uwahci∙ł), Inuit ( Siqiniq ), and Miwok ( He'-koo-lās ); and in Asia among
10165-596: The world in the design of his heart," and the Shabaka Stone , from the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty , says Ptah "gave life to all the gods and their kas as well, through this heart and this tongue." He bears many epithets that describe his role in ancient Egyptian religion and its importance in society at the time: Like many deities of ancient Egypt he takes many forms, through one of his particular aspects or through syncretism of ancient deities of
10272-525: The young won't cry. Solar deities are often thought of as male (and lunar deities as being female) but the opposite has also been the case. In Germanic mythology , the Sun is female, and the Moon is male. Other European cultures that have sun goddesses include the Lithuanians ( Saulė ) and Latvians (Saule), the Finns ( Päivätär , Beiwe ) and the related Hungarians . Sun goddesses are found around
10379-457: 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
10486-484: 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
10593-599: Was finally borrowed into English first as Egipte in Middle English and ultimately as Egypt . Ptah is one of the deities mentioned in Giuseppe Verdi 's opera Aida . He is invoked in a chorus, "Possente Fthà" ("O Mighty Ptah"), in Act 1, scene 2; this chorus is reprised as "Immenso Fthà" ("Immense Ptah"), at the end of the opera as the protagonists Aida and Radamès die. 5011 Ptah is an asteroid named after
10700-469: Was himself only a solar myth. Alfred Lyall delivered another attack on the same theory's assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer , were only reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans were actual warriors who founded the clans a few centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains. The Sun was sometimes envisioned as traveling through
10807-428: Was published by Adolf Erman in 1894, surpassed in 1927 by Alan Gardiner 's work. Middle Egyptian has been well-understood since then, although certain points of the verbal inflection remained open to revision until the mid-20th century, notably due to the contributions of Hans Jakob Polotsky . The Middle Egyptian stage is taken to have ended around the 14th century BC, giving rise to Late Egyptian. This transition
10914-479: Was recorded; or the Afroasiatic family has so far been studied with an excessively Semitocentric approach; or, as G. W. Tsereteli suggests, Afroasiatic is a sprachbund , rather than a true genetic language family. The Egyptian language can be grouped thus: The Egyptian language is conventionally grouped into six major chronological divisions: Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using both
11021-439: Was sometimes depicted as driving a fiery chariot. The Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus described the scientific properties of the Sun and Moon, making their godship unnecessary. Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity. The titular character of Sophocles ' Electra refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermetic author Hermes Trismegistus calls
11128-400: Was taking place in the later period of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (known as the Amarna Period ). Original Old Egyptian and Middle Egyptian texts were still used after the 14th century BCE. And an emulation of predominately Middle Egyptian, but also with characteristics of Old Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Demotic, called " Égyptien de tradition " or "Neo-Middle Egyptian" by scholars,
11235-427: Was that "the sound of its emergence was audible" and "the form of its horses visible". In Greek mythology , Helios , a Titan , was the personification of the Sun ; however, with the notable exception of the island of Rhodes and nearby parts of southwestern Anatolia , he was a relatively minor deity. The Ancient Greeks also associated the Sun with Apollo , the god of enlightenment. Apollo (along with Helios)
11342-526: Was the Winter Sun. Similarly, Étaín has at times been considered to be another theonym associated with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might also have been originally solar in nature. The British Sulis has a name cognate with that of other Indo-European solar deities such as the Greek Helios and Indic Surya , and bears some solar traits like the association with
11449-547: Was used as a literary language for new texts since the later New Kingdom in official and religious hieroglyphic and hieratic texts in preference to Late Egyptian or Demotic. Égyptien de tradition as a religious language survived until the Christianisation of Roman Egypt in the 4th century. Late Egyptian was spoken for about 650 years, beginning around 1350 BC, during the New Kingdom of Egypt . Late Egyptian succeeded but did not fully supplant Middle Egyptian as
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