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The multiplicity of gods in the Ancient Egyptian
pantheon frequently resulted in the merger of
the identities of the different gods into one
composite deity. Ptah-Sokar-Osiris is one such
syncretic deity, combining the attributes of the
three gods after whom he is named. Ptah, the
creator god, is regarded as one of the greatest
deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Ancient
inscriptions describe him as “creator of the earth,
father of the gods and all the being of this earth,
father of beginnings.” He was regarded as the
patron of metalworkers and artisans and as a
mighty healer and is usually represented as a
mummy. The main centre of his worship was in
Memphis. Sokar, the “Adorned One,” was
depicted in the form of a hawk-headed
mummified man. Lord of darkness and death (in
the sense of inertia), he presided over the
Memphis necropolis and was sometimes viewed
as an alternate form of Ptah before their
identities were combined. By the end of the New
Kingdom, the composite Ptah-Sokar had merged
with yet another deity, Osiris, god of fertility,
king of the dead, and ruler of eternity. The
legend of Osiris states that his brother Seth,
overcome by jealousy, murdered him and tore
his body into fourteen parts, scattering them
across Egypt. Isis, the faithful wife of Osiris,
traversed the land and gathered all the parts of
his body. She then cast a spell that resurrected
her deceased husband for one night, during
which their child, Horus, was conceived. Thus,
Osiris was the central figure of Egyptian religion,
the god who had triumphed over death and
therefore offered the hope of rebirth and
resurrection to all men.
In this magnificent wooden polychrome
sculpture, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris is depicted in the
form of a mummified man standing upon a
rectangular base. Such sculptures have been
found in numerous tombs dating from the Late
Dynastic Period to the Ptolemaic era. Inside their
rectangular bases, they often contained either a
papyrus scroll or a miniature mummy composed
of clay and grains of barley, known as “corn
mummies,” that were symbolic of rebirth in the
next world. There are two vertical columns of
hieroglyphs on the lower half of the figure. Such
inscriptions usually contain the name of the
deceased and prayers invoking the blessings of
Osiris.
Above the text is a winged scarab pushing a sun
disk and flanked by udjat eyes. The god wears a
broad collar and a latticed mummy netting
around the body with a winged scarab on the
feet. His arms are crossed over the chest and he
wears a tripartite wig with gilding on the wig tips
and the face. The headdress was made
separately and consists of ram horns, a sun disk
and double plumes. An attachment on the
underside of the feet fits into the rectangular
plinth which is painted with hieroglyphs in black
on an ochre ground.
This piece would have formed part of the tomb
furnishings of a wealthy individual during the
Ptolemaic period, when Egypt was ruled by a
Greek dynasty. It is an eloquent visual expression
of Egyptian religious beliefs and continues to
impress us with the quality of its execution. (AM)
- (SK.003)
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