Creator

Tatenen

tꜣ-ṯnn

The risen earthCreationMineral wealth

How it changed

The first mound of earth to break the surface of Nun, personified, and so the ground the whole world stands on. He was absorbed into Ptah as Ptah-Tatenen, which gave the Memphite creator a body made of the emerging land itself and made Ptah answerable for everything that comes out of the ground, metals and stone included.

Cult centre

Memphis

Best attested

Old Kingdom onward

Family

Merged with Ptah as Ptah-Tatenen.

Epithets

“The risen land”
“Father of the gods”

How to recognise the figure

A man with a twisted ram's horn and a plumed crown, his skin sometimes green for vegetation.

Others in this group

Thoth

Hermopolis

Amun

Thebes

Ptah

Memphis

Maat

Worshipped throughout Egypt rather than centred anywhere