Imhotep

{{About|the ancient Egyptian official|other uses|Imhotep (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Imhotep

| image = Imhotep, donated by Padisu MET DP164134.jpg

| caption = Statuette of Imhotep, 664–30 BC

| native_name = {{langx|egy|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 = {{circa|27th century BC}}

| known_for = Being the architect of Djoser's step pyramid

| relatives = Djoser (possible brother; disputed)

}}

{{Infobox hieroglyphs

|name = 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:

|Greek = {{ubl|Africanus: Imouthes|Eusebius: missing|Eusebius, AV: missing}}

|}}

Imhotep ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|m|ˈ|h|əʊ|t|ɛ|p}};{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/imhotep?showCookiePolicy=true |title=Imhotep |access-date=September 25, 2014 |work=Collins Dictionary}} {{langx|egy|ỉỉ-m-ḥtp}} "(the one who) comes in peace";{{cite book |last1=Ranke |first1=Hermann |year=1935 |title=Die Ägyptischen Personennamen |trans-title=Egyptian Personal Names |volume=1: Verzeichnis der Namen |page=9 |language=de |publisher=J. J. Augustin |place=Glückstadt |url=http://gizamedia.rc.fas.harvard.edu/images/MFA-images/Giza/GizaImage/full/library/ranke_personennamen_1.pdf |access-date=24 July 2020}} {{Floruit|late 27th century BC}}) 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{{cite book |first=D. |last=Wildung |year=1977 |title=Egyptian Saints: Deification in pharaonic Egypt|publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9169-1 |page=34}} and especially as a physician.{{cite book |first=William |last=Osler |year=2004 |title=The Evolution of Modern Medicine|publisher=Kessinger |page=12}}{{cite book |last=Musso |first=C. G. |year=2005 |title=Imhotep: The dean among the ancient Egyptian physicians}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=Publisher name, publ. place, opt. ISBN etc.}}{{cite journal |last1=Willerson |first1=J. T. |last2=Teaff |first2=R. |year=1995 |title=Egyptian Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine |journal=Texas Heart Institute Journal |page=194}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=Full journal name, volume & issue numbers, opt. DOI, etc.}}{{cite news |first=Roger |last=Highfield |date=10 May 2007 |title=How Imhotep gave us medicine |newspaper=The Telegraph |place=London, UK |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3293164/How-Imhotep-gave-us-medicine.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}{{cite journal |last=Herbowski |first=Leszek |year=2013 |title=The maze of the cerebrospinal fluid discovery |journal=Anatomy Research International |volume=2013 |article-number=596027 |page=5 |oclc=733290677 |lccn=2011243887 |doi=10.1155/2013/596027 |pmid=24396600 |pmc=3874314 |doi-access=free }} No text from his lifetime mentions these capacities and no text mentions his name in the first 1,200 years following his death.{{cite book |last=Teeter |first=E. |year=2011 |title=Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt |page=96}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=Publisher name, publ. place, opt. ISBN etc.}}{{cite book |last=Baud |first=M. |year=2002 |title=Djéser et la IIIe dynastie |trans-title=Djoser and the Third Dynasty |page=125 |language=French}}{{full citation needed|date=March 2021|reason=Publisher name, publ. place, opt. ISBN etc.}} Apart from the three short contemporary inscriptions that establish him as chancellor to the Pharaoh, the first text to refer to Imhotep dates to the time of Amenhotep III ({{circa|1391–1353 BC}}). It is addressed to the owner of a tomb and reads:

{{Blockquote|text=The wab-priest may give offerings to your ka. The wab-priests may stretch to you their arms with libations on the soil, as it is done for Imhotep with the remains of the water bowl. |source=Wildung (1977)}}

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 ({{circa|664–332 BC}}). Wildung (1977) 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 ({{circa|1550–1077 BC}}) sufficiently distinct from the usual offerings made to other commoners that the epithet "demigod" is likely justified to describe his veneration.{{cite book |last=Hurry |first=Jamieson B. |orig-year=1926 |title=Imhotep: The Egyptian god of medicine |year=2014 |edition=reprint |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Traffic Output |isbn=978-0-404-13285-9 |pages=47–48}}

The first references to the healing abilities of Imhotep occur from the Thirtieth Dynasty ({{circa|380–343 BC}}) onward, some 2,200 years after his death.{{rp|page=127}}{{rp|page=44}}

Imhotep is among fewer than a dozen non-royal Egyptians who were deified after their deaths.Troche, Julia (2021). Death, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.{{cite book

|editor1-last=Albrecht |editor1-first=Felix

|editor2-last=Feldmeier |editor2-first=Reinhard

|date= 2014

|title=The Divine Father: Religious and philosophical concepts of divine parenthood in antiquity |page=29

|edition=e-book

|publisher=Brill |place=Leiden, Netherlands; Boston, Massachusetts

|isbn=978-90-04-26477-9

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=myPvAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA29

}}

The center of his cult was in Memphis. The location of his tomb remains unknown, despite efforts to find it.{{cite web |title=Lay of the Harper |website=Reshafim.org.il |url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/harpers_lay.htm |access-date=2015-06-23}} The consensus is {{citation needed|date=March 2024}}that it is hidden somewhere at Saqqara.

Historicity

File:Imhotep JE 49889.png

Imhotep's historicity is confirmed by two contemporary inscriptions made during his lifetime on the base or pedestal of one of Djoser's statues {{nowrap|(Cairo JE 49889)}} and also by a graffito on the enclosure wall surrounding Sekhemkhet's unfinished step pyramid.{{cite book |first=Jaromir |last=Malek |year=2002 |article=The Old Kingdom |title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt |editor-first=Ian |editor-last=Shaw |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=paperback |pages=92–93}}{{cite book |first=J. |last=Kahl |date=2000 |article=Old Kingdom: Third Dynasty |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt|isbn=0195138228 |editor-first=Donald |editor-last=Redford |edition=1st |volume=2 |page=592}} 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.

Imhotep held the ambiguous title bity sensen or bity senwy, unique in ancient Egyptian history. This literally translates as "the King of Lower Egypt, the two brothers", and could be interpreted to mean that Imhotep might be twin brother of Pharaoh, which would explain his high position; with no known individuals with similar titles, however, interpretation remains highly speculative.Naunton, Chris (2018). Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 44. {{ISBN|978-0500051993}}. If not a blood relative, he might have been the King's confidant or childhood friend.{{Cite book |last=Naunton |first=Chris |title=Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2018 |isbn=978-0500051993 |page=44}}

=Architecture and engineering=

File:Sakkara, la pyramide LCCN2017656975.jpg

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.{{cite book |author-link=Barry J. Kemp |first=B.J. |last=Kemp |title=Ancient Egypt |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |page=159}} He may also have been responsible for the first known use of stone columns to support a building.{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Rosalie |last2=Baker |first2=Charles |year=2001 |title=Ancient Egyptians: People of the pyramids |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientegyptians0000bake/page/23 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientegyptians0000bake/page/23 23] |isbn=978-0195122213 }} 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.{{cite book |first=John |last=Romer |title=A History of Ancient Egypt from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid|isbn=9780141399713 |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2013 |pages=294–295}}

Deification

=God of medicine=

{{Infobox deity

| type = Egyptian

| name = Imhotep

| cult_center = Memphis

| image = Imhotep.svg

| hiero = ii-m-Htp:t*p

| parents = Ptah and Sekhmet or Khereduankh

| consort = Renpetneferet (sometimes sister)

| siblings = Amenhotep, son of Hapu, Renpetneferet (sometimes wife)

| greek_equivalent = Asclepius

}}

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.{{cite book |first=Patrick |last=Boylan |year=1922 |title=Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt: A study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt |pages=166–168 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}{{cite book |author-link=Miriam Lichtheim |first=M. |last=Lichtheim |year=1980 |title=Ancient Egyptian Literature |publisher=The University of California Press|isbn=0-520-04020-1}}{{rp|at=v3, p104}} Because of his association with health, the Greeks equated Imhotep with Asklepios, their own god of health who also was a deified mortal.{{cite book |first=Geraldine |last=Pinch |year=2002 |title=Handbook of Egyptian Mythology |series=World Mythology |publisher=ABC-Clio |place=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=9781576072424 |oclc=52716451}}

According to myth, Imhotep's mother was a mortal named Khereduankh, she too being eventually revered as a demi-goddess as the daughter of Banebdjedet.{{cite book |first1=Marina |last1=Warner |first2=Felipe |last2=Fernández-Armesto |title=World of Myths |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-292-70204-3 |page=296}} Alternatively, since Imhotep was known as the "Son of Ptah",{{rp|at=v?, p106}}{{volume needed|date=March 2021|reason=Missing volume number for 3-volume work.}} 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.{{cite web |title=The famine stele on the island of Sehel |publisher=Reshafim.org.il |url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/famine_stele.htm |access-date=2015-06-23}}

A demotic papyrus from the temple of Tebtunis, dating to the 2nd century AD, preserves a long story about Imhotep.{{cite conference |author-link=Kim Ryholt |first=Kim |last=Ryholt |year=2009 |title=The Life of Imhotep? |conference=IXe Congrès International des Études Démotiques |editor1-first=G. |editor1-last=Widmer |editor2-first=D. |editor2-last=Devauchelle |series=Bibliothèque d'étude |volume=147 |place=Le Caire, Egypt |publisher=Institut français d'archéologie orientale |pages=305–315}} 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.{{cite book |author-link=Kim Ryholt |first=Kim |last=Ryholt |chapter=The Assyrian invasion of Egypt in Egyptian literary tradition |title=Assyria and Beyond |publisher=Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten |year=2004 |isbn=9062583113 |page=501}}

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."{{cite book |last=Allen |first=James Peter |year=2005 |title=The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300107289 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNbVl5LOjHUC&q=+Imhotep |access-date=August 17, 2016}}

In his Pulitzer-prize winning “biography” of cancer – The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee cites the oldest identified written diagnosis of cancer to Imhotep.{{Cite book |last=Mukherjee |first=Siddhartha |title=The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer |publisher=Fourth Estate Ltd; First Edition |date=29 September 2011 |isbn=9780007250929}} Unfortunately, the therapy Imhotep laconically prescribed for it would be equally recognizable for millennia: “There is none”.

In popular culture

File:An invocation to I-em-hetep, the Egyptian deity of medicine. Wellcome V0018149.jpg: An invocation to I-em-hetep, the Egyptian deity of medicine, {{Circa|1912}}]]

Imhotep's name is shared by the antagonist of the 1932 film The Mummy,{{cite web |last=Reid |first=Danny |date=24 April 2014 |title=The Mummy (1932) |series=Review, with Boris Karloff and David Manners |website=Pre-Code.com |url=http://pre-code.com/mummy-1932-review-boris-karloff |access-date=6 June 2016}} its 1999 remake, and that film's 2001 sequel.{{cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |title=Sarcophagus, be gone: Night of the living undead |via=NYTimes.com |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E06E0D7103CF934A35756C0A96F958260 |access-date=6 June 2016}} He features in the manga Im: Great Priest Imhotep as the protagonist.