December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

Introduction

Tying Minoan (Cretan) Phaistos and Greek Hephaestus in to this family is speculative, but not as wild a reach as it first looks like.

Hephaestus and Phaistos, Crete:

We usually represent the name as Hephaestus in the Roman alphabet, after Roman transliteration traditions, but (as shown above) Hephaistos is a more accurate transliteration. At that point Phaistos and Hephaistos look nearly identical. Especially considering that ho/he is a definite arcticle/determiner in Greek (Hellenic debuccalization of PIE *só: "this, that"). Hephaestus is of pre-Greek origin, following morphological patterns that tie it to the same source language as various other pre-Greek names of places and gods (obviously including Phaistos).

Further support for the connection between Hephaestus and Crete is provided by Roman Vulcanus, who is idenitified with Hephaestus in the interpratio graeca. Roman Vulcanus is though to be connected to "Zeus Velchanos", an aspect of Zeus worshipped on Crete and representing an absorption of a Cretan deity. Velchanos appears on coins from Phaistos, though from the Classical or Hellenistic era, not, as far as I know, the Mycenaean or Minoan eras.

Daedalus I think should also be considered an aspect or avatar of Hephaestus, and is born in Crete and worked for King Minos before fleeing to Sicily (the location of Hephaestus' forge, under Mount Etna).

Hephaestus and Ptah:

There are also a number of reasons to associate Hephaestus and Ptah, starting with Herodotus, The Histories (Book 3; Macaulay translation):

"Many such acts of madness did he both to Persians and allies, remaining at Memphis and opening ancient tombs and examining the dead bodies. Likewise also he entered into the temple of Hephaistos and very much derided the image of the god: for the image of Hephaistos very nearly resembles the Phenician Pataicoi, which the Phenicians carry about on the prows of their triremes; and for him who has not seen these, I will indicate its nature,—it is the likeness of a dwarfish man."

Herodotus talks about a temple of Hephaistos in Memphis, but this is before the Hellenic era, so there is clearly not a Greek temple in Memphis. But Memphis is the center of the worship of Ptah, general consensus is he's talking about a temple of Ptah.

"Phoenician Pataicoi" is also almost certainly a version of "Ptah". If we accept a connection between Semitic *ptḥ: "beginning, development, opening" and Ptah the self-creator, it is highly likely a Phoenician noun cognate to Hebrew patákh would be represented in Greek as παταικος pataicos (plural pataicoi). Indeed, scholars have been refering to "Ptah-Patek" to represent a single divinity with Egyptian and Phoenician varieties since at least 1881 (Dictionnaire général de l'archéologie et des antiquités chez les divers peuples, Bosc 1881).

Ptah was also syncretized as far back as the Old Kingdom period with another Memphite creator god, Tatenen the Risen Earth, god of underground fire, particularly revered by metalsmiths. The Tatenen aspect also connects with the attested cult of Zeus Velchanos in Crete, which represents Zeus as a god of plant life and fertility.

Why not just interpratio graeca?

Okay so we've proved the Greeks associated Ptah with Hephaestus, but they were perfectly happy to associate gods based on parallel development, it doesn't prove shared origin.

Hephaestus and Ptah are both frequently represented as deformed. The Classical Greeks seemed uncomfortable with gods that did not represent physical perfection and gradually minimized this, but some of the oldest depictions of Hephaestus are even more similar to the representations of Ptah as a dwarfish and deformed figure.

There is an alternative to Ptah being the source of this imagery in Hephaestus, which is that it could represent a broader Bronze Age image of the Lame Smith, possibly with a basis in peripheral neuropathy from chronic arsenic poisoning which was an occupational hazard of Bronze Age metalworkers. (Though honestly, I'm not sure that Germanic Weyland Smith can be considered entirely separately from Hellenic Daedalus, and Daedalus certainly can't be considered separate from Hephaestus, and I'm arguing that Hephaestus can't be considered separate from Ptah, so is there really a broader image?.)

Putting it all together:

1. The name "Hephaestus" has a non-Indo-European origin, apparently coming north across the Mediterranean from or through Minoan Crete.

2. Minoan Crete and Egpyt had been in long and close contact. Some of our best information about Minoan language comes from Egyptian sources (not indecipherable like Linear A or as phonologically strained as Linear B).

3. Both Crete and Egypt are sources of advanced technology/knowledge to Archaic Greece, both historically and in Greek symbolism.

4. We already see ai-ku-pi-ti-jo: "Egyptian" in Mycenaean Linear B, based on ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ: "Temple of the Soul of Ptah (Memphis)"

5. Ptah and Hephaestus are both crafter gods.

6. Some of the oldest representations of Hephaestus have the form of the dwarfish man also seen in representations of Ptah, gradually becoming minimized in later depictions.

Conclusion: It is very plausible that Hephaestus is not only syncretized with Ptah, but actually derived from Ptah. If not, the syncretization may have been in the Mycenaean period, not the Hellenic period.

Teaser

Egypt, Ptah, Hephaestus

Full Text

• Afro-Asiatic *ptḥ to create?, to begin?

  • Egyptian 𓊪𓏏𓎛𓀭 ptḥ Ptah, self-created divinity of craft and creation

    • Coptic ⲡⲧⲁϩ ptah
    • Classical Greek Φθά Phtha
    • English Ptah
    • Egyptian mry-n-ptḥ personal name: Beloved of Ptah, Merenptah
    • Egyptian 𓉗𓏏𓉐𓂓𓏤𓊪𓏏𓎛𓀭 ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ Temple of the Soul of Ptah, Memphis

      • Akkadian 𒄭𒆪𒌒𒋫𒀪 ḫi-ku-up-ta-aḫ
      • Ugaritic 𐎈𐎋𐎔𐎚 ḥkpt
      • Mycenaean Greek *ai-ku-pi-to

        • Classical Greek Αἴγυπτος Aíguptos Egypt, the Nile

          • Coptic ⲧⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲥ tguptios Egyptian

            • Arabic قُبْطِيّ qubṭiyy Coptic, Egyptian

              • Arabic قُبْط qubṭ Copt, non-Arabic Egyptian, Christian Egyptians back-formed from the adjective

                • French Copte

                  • English Copt

                    • English Coptic

                      • Translingual cop ISO 639 code for Coptic
                      • Translingual Copt ISO 15924 code for the Coptic alphabet
                • Persian قبطی qebti Copt

                  • Armenian ղպտի łpti Copt
          • Latin Aegyptus Egypt

            • Western Romance

              • French Égypte Egypt

                • English Egypt
        • Mycenaean Greek 𐁁𐀓𐀠𐀴𐀍 ai-ku-pi-ti-jo Egyptian? Memphite?

          • Classical Greek Αἰγύπτιος Aigúptios Egyptian

            • Byzantine Greek Γύφτος Gúphtos Egyptian

              • Greek γύφτος gýftos gypsy
            • Latin aegyptius Egyptian

              • Latin aegyptianus

                • Western Romance

                  • Old French egyptien

                    • Middle French egyptien

                      • French égyptien
                    • Middle English Egipcian

                      • English Egyptian

                        • Translingual egy ISO 639 code for Ancient Egyptian
                        • Translingual Egyp ISO 15924 code for Egyptian hieroglyphs
                        • Translingual Egyh ISO 15924 code for Hieratic script
                      • English gypsy
    • Minoan

      • Mycenaean Greek Pa-i-to Phaistos site of the an early Minoan monumental palace

        • Classical Greek Φαιστός Phaistós Phaistos
        • Mycenaean Greek *pa-i-ti-jo Phaistian

          • Classical Greek Φαιστιος Phaistios Phaistian

            • Latin Phaestum
            • English Phaistos
          • Mycenaean Greek 𐀀𐀞𐀂𐀴𐀍 A-pa-i-ti-jo The Phaistian?, Hephaestus?

            • Classical Greek Ἥφαιστος Hḗphaistos divinity of craft, metalworking, fire, and volcanoes

              • Latin Hephaestus

                • English Hephaestus
    • Classical Mandaic ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ Ptahil
  • Semitic *ptḥ beginning, development, opening

    • Central Semitic

      • Arabic فَتَحَ fataḥa to open, to explain, to assist, to begin

        • Maltese fetaħ to open
      • Northwest Semitic

        • Aramaic פתח pəṯaḥ to open

          • Classical Mandaic ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ Ptahil
        • Canaanite

          • Hebrew פָּתַח patákh to open
    • East Semitic

      • Akkadian 𒉿𒌅𒌑 petû to open, open, distant
    • South Semitic

      • Ethiopic

        • Amharic ክፈት kifeti to open

Visual

Collected English words

Ptah, Copt, Coptic, cop, Copt, Egypt, Egyptian, egy, Egyp, Egyh, gypsy, Phaistos, Hephaestus