Imhotep Explained

Imhotep
Native Name:Egyptian (Ancient);: Jj m ḥtp
Other Names:Asclepius (name in Greek) Imouthes (also name in Greek)
Burial Place:Saqqara (probable)
Occupation:chancellor to the King Djoser and High Priest of Ra
Years Active: 2625 BC
Known For:Being the architect of Djoser's step pyramid
M18-G17-R4:X1*Q3
Name Transcription:Imhotep
Jj m ḥtp
Name Explanation:He who comes in peace
Name2:M18-G17-R4
Name2 Transcription:Jj m ḥtp
Name3:M17-M17-G17-R4
Name3 Transcription:Jj m ḥtp
Greek Expanded Title:Manetho variants:

Imhotep (;[1] Egyptian (Ancient);: ỉỉ-m-ḥtp "(the one who) comes in peace";[2]) was an Egyptian chancellor to the King Djoser, possible architect of Djoser's step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure, but in the 3,000 years following his death, he was gradually glorified and deified.

Traditions from long after Imhotep's death treated him as a great author of wisdom texts[3] and especially as a physician.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] No text from his lifetime mentions these capacities and no text mentions his name in the first 1,200 years following his death.[9] [10] Apart from the three short contemporary inscriptions that establish him as chancellor to the Pharaoh, the first text to reference Imhotep dates to the time of Amenhotep III . It is addressed to the owner of a tomb and reads:

It appears that this libation to Imhotep was done regularly, as they are attested on papyri associated with statues of Imhotep until the Late Period . Wildung (1977)[3] explains the origin of this cult as a slow evolution of intellectuals' memory of Imhotep, from his death onward. Gardiner finds the cult of Imhotep during the New Kingdom sufficiently distinct from the usual offerings made to other commoners that the epithet "demigod" is likely justified to describe his veneration.[11]

The first references to the healing abilities of Imhotep occur from the Thirtieth Dynasty onward, some 2,200 years after his death.[10] [3]

Imhotep is among under a dozen non-royal Egyptians who were deified after their deaths.[12] [13] The center of his cult was in Memphis. The location of his tomb remains unknown, despite efforts to find it.[14] The consensus is that it is hidden somewhere at Saqqara.

Historicity

Imhotep's historicity is confirmed by two contemporary inscriptions made during his lifetime on the base or pedestal of one of Djoser's statues and also by a graffito on the enclosure wall surrounding Sekhemkhet's unfinished step pyramid.[15] [16] The latter inscription suggests that Imhotep outlived Djoser by a few years and went on to serve in the construction of King Sekhemkhet's pyramid, which was abandoned due to this ruler's brief reign.[15]

Architecture and engineering

Imhotep was one of the chief officials of the Pharaoh Djoser. Concurring with much later legends, Egyptologists credit him with the design and construction of the Pyramid of Djoser, a step pyramid at Saqqara built during the 3rd Dynasty.[17] He may also have been responsible for the first known use of stone columns to support a building.[18] Despite these later attestations, the pharaonic Egyptians themselves never credited Imhotep as the designer of the stepped pyramid, nor with the invention of stone architecture.[19]

Deification

God of medicine

Two thousand years after his death, Imhotep's status had risen to that of a god of medicine and healing. Eventually, Imhotep was equated with Thoth, the god of architecture, mathematics, and medicine, and patron of scribes: Imhotep's cult was merged with that of his own former tutelary god.

He was revered in the region of Thebes as the "brother" of Amenhotep, son of Hapu – another deified architect – in the temples dedicated to Thoth.[20] [21] Because of his association with health, the Greeks equated Imhotep with Asklepios, their own god of health who also was a deified mortal.[22]

According to myth, Imhotep's mother was a mortal named Kheredu-ankh, she too being eventually revered as a demi-goddess as the daughter of Banebdjedet.[23] Alternatively, since Imhotep was known as the "Son of Ptah",[21] his mother was sometimes claimed to be Sekhmet, the patron of Upper Egypt whose consort was Ptah.

Post-Alexander period

The Upper Egyptian Famine Stela, which dates from the Ptolemaic period (305–30 BC), bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine lasting seven years during the reign of Djoser. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental in ending it. One of his priests explained the connection between the god Khnum and the rise of the Nile to the Pharaoh, who then had a dream in which the Nile god spoke to him, promising to end the drought.[24]

A demotic papyrus from the temple of Tebtunis, dating to the 2nd century AD, preserves a long story about Imhotep.[25] The Pharaoh Djoser plays a prominent role in the story, which also mentions Imhotep's family; his father the god Ptah, his mother Khereduankh, and his younger sister Renpetneferet. At one point Djoser desires Renpetneferet, and Imhotep disguises himself and tries to rescue her. The text also refers to the royal tomb of Djoser. Part of the legend includes an anachronistic battle between the Old Kingdom and the Assyrian armies where Imhotep fights an Assyrian sorceress in a duel of magic.[26]

As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep's idealized image lasted well into the Roman period. In the Ptolemaic period, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho credited him with inventing the method of a stone-dressed building during Djoser's reign, although he was not the first to actually build with stone. Stonewalling, flooring, lintels, and jambs had appeared sporadically during the Archaic Period, even though it is true that a building the size of the step pyramid made entirely out of stone had never before been constructed. Before Djoser, Kings were buried in mastaba tombs.

Medicine

Egyptologist James Peter Allen states that "The Greeks equated him with their own god of medicine, Asklepios, although ironically, there is no evidence that Imhotep himself was a physician."[27]

In his Pulitzer-prize winning “biography” of cancer – The Emperor of All MaladiesSiddhartha Mukherjee cites the oldest identified written diagnosis of cancer to Imhotep.[28] Unfortunately, the therapy Imhotep laconically prescribed for it would be equally recognizable for millennia: “There is none”.

In popular culture

Imhotep's name is shared by the antagonist of the 1932 film The Mummy,[29] its 1999 remake, and that film's 2001 sequel.[30]

See also

Further reading

Book: Hurry, Jamieson B. . 2014 . 1926 . Imhotep: The Egyptian god of medicine . reprint . Oxford, UK . Traffic Output . 978-0-404-13285-9.

Book: Wildung, Dietrich . 1977 . Imhotep und Amenhotep: Gottwerdung im alten Ägypten . Imhotep and Amenhotep: Deification in ancient Egypt . Deustcher Kunstverlag . 978-3-422-00829-8 . de.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Imhotep . September 25, 2014 . Collins Dictionary.
  2. Book: Ranke . Hermann . 1935 . Die Ägyptischen Personennamen . Egyptian Personal Names . 1: Verzeichnis der Namen . 9 . de . J. J. Augustin . Glückstadt . 24 July 2020.
  3. Book: Wildung, D. . 1977 . Egyptian Saints: Deification in pharaonic Egypt. New York University Press . 978-0-8147-9169-1 . 34.
  4. Book: Osler, William . 2004 . The Evolution of Modern Medicine. Kessinger . 12.
  5. Book: Musso, C. G. . 2005 . Imhotep: The dean among the ancient Egyptian physicians.
  6. Willerson . J. T. . Teaff . R. . 1995 . Egyptian Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine . Texas Heart Institute Journal . 194.
  7. News: Roger . Highfield . 10 May 2007 . How Imhotep gave us medicine . . London, UK . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html . 12 January 2022 . subscription . live.
  8. Herbowski . Leszek . 2013 . The maze of the cerebrospinal fluid discovery . Anatomy Research International . 2013 . 596027 . 5 . 733290677 . 2011243887 . 10.1155/2013/596027 . 24396600 . 3874314 . free .
  9. Book: Teeter, E. . 2011 . Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt . 96.
  10. Book: Baud, M. . 2002 . Djéser et la IIIe dynastie . Djoser and the Third Dynasty . 125 . French.
  11. Book: Hurry, Jamieson B. . 1926 . Imhotep: The Egyptian god of medicine . 2014 . reprint . Oxford, UK . Traffic Output . 978-0-404-13285-9 . 47–48.
  12. Troche, Julia (2021). Death, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  13. Book: Albrecht . Felix . Feldmeier . Reinhard . 2014 . The Divine Father: Religious and philosophical concepts of divine parenthood in antiquity . 29 . e-book . . Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, Massachusetts . 978-90-04-26477-9 .
  14. Web site: Lay of the Harper . Reshafim.org.il . 2015-06-23.
  15. Book: Malek, Jaromir . 2002 . The Old Kingdom . The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt . Ian . Shaw . Oxford University Press . paperback . 92–93.
  16. Book: Kahl, J. . 2000 . Old Kingdom: Third Dynasty . The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. 0195138228 . Donald . Redford . 1st . 2 . 592.
  17. Book: Kemp, B.J. . Barry J. Kemp . Ancient Egypt . Routledge . 2005 . 159.
  18. Book: Baker . Rosalie . Baker . Charles . 2001 . Ancient Egyptians: People of the pyramids . Oxford University Press . 23 . 978-0195122213 .
  19. Book: Romer, John . A History of Ancient Egypt from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid. 9780141399713 . Penguin Books . 2013 . 294–295.
  20. Book: Boylan, Patrick . 1922 . Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt: A study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt . 166–168 . Oxford University Press.
  21. Book: Lichtheim, M. . Miriam Lichtheim . 1980 . Ancient Egyptian Literature . The University of California Press. 0-520-04020-1.
  22. Book: Pinch, Geraldine . 2002 . Handbook of Egyptian Mythology . World Mythology . . Santa Barbara, CA . 9781576072424 . 52716451.
  23. Book: Marina . Warner . Felipe . Fernández-Armesto . World of Myths . University of Texas Press . 2003 . 0-292-70204-3 . 296.
  24. Web site: The famine stele on the island of Sehel . Reshafim.org.il . 2015-06-23.
  25. Kim Ryholt . Kim . Ryholt . 2009 . The Life of Imhotep? . IXe Congrès International des Études Démotiques . G. . Widmer . D. . Devauchelle . Bibliothèque d'étude . 147 . Le Caire, Egypt . Institut français d'archéologie orientale . 305–315.
  26. Book: Ryholt, Kim . Kim Ryholt . The Assyrian invasion of Egypt in Egyptian literary tradition . Assyria and Beyond . Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten . 2004 . 9062583113 . 501.
  27. Book: Allen, James Peter . 2005 . The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt . Yale University Press . 9780300107289 . 12 . August 17, 2016.
  28. Book: Mukherjee, Siddhartha . The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer . Fourth Estate Ltd; First Edition . 29 September 2011 . 9780007250929.
  29. Web site: Reid . Danny . 24 April 2014 . The Mummy (1932) . Review, with Boris Karloff and David Manners . Pre-Code.com . 6 June 2016.
  30. News: Holden . Stephen . Sarcophagus, be gone: Night of the living undead . NYTimes.com . . 6 June 2016.