Introduction
This is Ptah in his role as the legendary first king of Egypt, as recorded in the Hellenistic-era historian Manetho's Aegyptiaca king-list tradition, which places a sequence of gods on Egypt's throne before human dynastic rule begins.
Family
- Children: Ra (as king)
First of the Divine Kings
Manetho's framework, known chiefly through later summaries by Josephus, Africanus, and Eusebius rather than a surviving original text, opens Egypt's king-list with a "Reign of the Gods," starting with Ptah and continuing through Ra, Shu, Geb, Osiris, Set, and Horus before passing to legendary demigods and finally to Menes, the first human pharaoh. This Ptah is the same figure as the Memphite creator-god recorded in the Egyptian Pantheon project, but this article specifically covers his role as Egypt's founding ruler in the historiographic king-list tradition.
This article records a specific literary or theological role — a king-list entry, a court tale, or a royal legitimation narrative — rather than the deity's or ruler's fuller religious identity, which (where applicable) is covered in the separate Egyptian Pantheon project.