Ptiris
Beja · deity · Beja traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Ptiris was a crocodile-shaped god of the Nubian frontier known almost entirely from the graffiti and priestly titles of late Philae. Among the religious officers installed by priests acting for the Blemmyan kings were the 'prophets of Ptiris', and one of the last pagan hands at Philae scratched an image of the crocodile-god into the colonnade beside the temple of Isis. He belongs to the twilight of the Blemmyan cult, when the desert people of the Red Sea Hills were the final custodians of the ancient rites. Sources preserve little beyond his crocodilian form and his priesthood, and the exact reading of his name remains debated.
Domains
- water
Powers
- embody the river crocodile
Sources
- Ptiris was a crocodile-like Nubian god whose 'prophets' are named among the religious officials appointed by priests representing the kings of the Blemmyes; a figure of him was scratched into the colonnade of the Isis temple by the last practitioners of the old religion at Philae.: Solange Ashby, Calling Out to Isis: The Enduring Nubian Presence at Philae (Gorgias Press, 2020). (secondary); 'When Isis Was Queen', Archaeology Magazine, Nov/Dec 2021. (secondary)