Ptah is female, and the
regularly found representations of “Ptah” bears this out (even in those aspects
which seem most paradoxical, e.g., the artificial beard); Ptah is “Isis” (she
also has other epithets of wide usage and familiarity.), and this places Ptah-Isis-Neith,
etc., at the forefront (and dawn) of recorded Egyptian history and, of course,
permits us to study scriptural history involving Mizraim, Egyptus, etc., in relation
to the materials available in the Egyptian records (the parallels being so
striking and voluminous that it becomes slightly ridiculous to attempt to
explain them away on the basis of “coincidence”; the brother and sister, Osiris—Mizraim—so
of Ham and Isis—Neith—Zeptah—Egyptus (who in historic importance are first of
all husbands and wife), and their relationship are the keys to an
understanding of much which has remained obscure in Egyptian history and
religion. . . . This relationship involved (in addition to the better-known
aspects—such as the premature death of the husband and the subsequent—according
to a large body of materials—birth of Horus) a profoundly-moving and profoundly-important-historically
attempt of the widow to perpetuate the name and honor of her beloved mate, mainly
by attributing to him some of her own accomplishments and honors,
including what is historically her greatest achievement—the discovery of Egypt.
How well she succeeded in this ambitious program can be read on almost every
page of Egyptian history! . . . In the light of what must be the making of history—in
this most intimate sense—it seems almost indecent to listen to the recital of
the grief-stricken widow as she announces her program for accomplishing the
immortalization of her husband! “O Osiris, an der Spitze der Westlichen, ich
bin deine Schwester Isis. Es gibt keinen Gott der Art, was ich getan habe, noch
eine Göttin; ich machte mich zum Manne, obwohl ich eine Frau war, um deinen
Namen auf Erden leben zu lassen.” [RB: O Osiris, at the head of the western
ones, I am your sister Isis. There is no god like what I have done, nor
goddess; I made myself a man although I was a woman to let your name live on
earth] (Herman Kees, Aegypten [Tübingen, 1928], 30) A coalescence of
the husband and one wife is going to take place in the artificial creation—Ptah!
(A. Richards Durham, "Some Additional Notes on Ptah," January 1960,
in Durham, "Antiquity, Scholarship, and the Prophet Joseph Smith," in
Papers of the Fifteenth Annual Symposium on the Archaeology of the
Scriptures, ed. Ross T. Christensen [Provo, UT: Brigham Young University,
1964], 16)
