Pataikos
Picture (right): The
dwarf god called Pataikos was
associated with Ptah of Memphis but also had
an independent existence as an
apotropaic deity. Glazed amulet, British
Museum.
Mythology of
Pataikos
Pataikos represents a type of minor amuletic
deity named from a passage in Herodotus which the
Phoenicians adorned the prows of their triremes. Herodotus
thought that these dwarfish figures represented pygmies and
wrote that they were similar to the statue of Hephaistos
(Ptah) in Memphis. The Egyptian images so named may well
have originated with the craftsman god Ptah as the epithet
'Ptah the dwarf' is known and dwarfs seem to be always
present in Old Kingdom scenes of metal workshops.
Iconography of
Pataikos
The Egyptian pataikoi are
similar to the god Bes in appearance buthave some
distinctive differences. Like Bes they usually represent a
small, short (and usually bow-legged) male with hands
resting on his hips. They may also brandish knives and hold
or bite snakes, but their overly large heads are without
facial hair, and they do not have the enlarged eyes and
prominent tongue associated with Bes. The figures have bald
or closely-cropped human heads or sometimes the head of a
falcon or a ram upon which they may wear a sidelock, a
scarab beetle or an Atef Crown. In some cases Pataikoi are
two-headed or they may be represented back to back with
other gods, notably Bes and Harpokrates (see Horus). The
pataikoi themselves also often show affinities with
Harpokrates, as when they are shown standing on crocodiles
in the manner of that god.
Worship of
Pataikos
Crudely produced amulets of
Pataikos seem to appear in the late Old Kingdom, but it is
not until New Kingdom times that clearly detailed examples
are found and they then continue throughout the later
dynastic periods.
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