Sia or Saa, an ancient Egyptian god, was the

deification Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The origina ...

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

in the Heliopolitan Ennead

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in ref ...

and is probably equivalent to the "intellectual energies of the heart of

Ptah Ptah ( ; , ; ; ; ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god, and a patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem. He was also regarded as the father of the ...

in the Memphite theology." He also had a connection with writing and was often shown in anthropomorphic form holding a

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

scroll. This papyrus was thought to embody intellectual achievements. The god personifies the perceptive mind. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Sia was believed to have been created from blood that dripped from the phallus of Ra. In the Old Kingdom, Sia was often depicted on the right side of Ra, holding his sacred papyrus. In the New Kingdom, Sia is depicted in the

solar barque thumb Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet () or the Boat of Millions of Years (), and the vessel he used during the night was known ...

in the underworld texts and tomb decorations, together with Hu, the "creative utterance," and Heka, the god of magic. These gods were seen as special powers helping the creator, and although Heka had his own cult Sia did not.

Hieroglyph: Sia

The Sia (hieroglyph) was also used to represent "to perceive", "to know" or "to be cognizant".

References

Death gods Egyptian gods Wisdom gods Egyptian hieroglyphs {{Egyptian-myth-stub