Traditions from long after Imhotep's death treated him as a great author ofwisdom 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 refer to Imhotep dates to the time ofAmenhotep III (c. 1391–1353 BC). It is addressed to the owner of a tomb and reads:
Thewab-priest may give offerings to yourka. 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.
Imhotep is among fewer than a dozen non-royal Egyptians who weredeified after their deaths.[12][13] The center of his cult was inMemphis. The location of his tomb remains unknown, despite efforts to find it.[14] The consensus is[citation needed]that it is hidden somewhere atSaqqara.
Imhotep'shistoricity is confirmed by two contemporary inscriptions made during his lifetime on the base or pedestal of one of Djoser's statues(Cairo JE 49889) and also by agraffito on the enclosure wall surroundingSekhemkhet'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]
Imhotep held the ambiguous titlebity sensen orbity 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.[17] If not a blood relative, he might have been the King's confidant or childhood friend.[18]
Imhotep was one of the chief officials of thePharaohDjoser. Concurring with much later legends, Egyptologists credit him with the design and construction of thePyramid of Djoser, astep pyramid atSaqqara built during the3rd Dynasty.[19] He may also have been responsible for the first known use of stonecolumns to support a building.[20] 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.[21]
Two thousand years after his death, Imhotep's status had risen to that of a god of medicine andhealing. Eventually, Imhotep was equated withThoth, the god of architecture, mathematics, and medicine, and patron ofscribes: Imhotep's cult was merged with that of his own former tutelary god.
He was revered in the region ofThebes as the "brother" ofAmenhotep, son of Hapu – another deified architect – in the temples dedicated to Thoth.[22][23]: v3, p104 Because of his association with health, theGreeks equated Imhotep withAsklepios, their own god of health who also was a deified mortal.[24]
According to myth, Imhotep's mother was a mortal namedKhereduankh, she too being eventually revered as a demi-goddess as the daughter ofBanebdjedet.[25] Alternatively, since Imhotep was known as the "Son of Ptah",[23]: v?, p106 [volume & issue needed] his mother was sometimes claimed to beSekhmet, the patron ofUpper Egypt whose consort wasPtah.
The Upper EgyptianFamine Stela, which dates from thePtolemaic period (305–30 BC), bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine lasting seven years during the reign ofDjoser. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental in ending it. One of his priests explained the connection between the godKhnum and the rise of theNile to the Pharaoh, who then had a dream in which the Nile god spoke to him, promising to end the drought.[26]
Ademotic papyrus from the temple ofTebtunis, dating to the 2nd century AD, preserves a long story about Imhotep.[27] The Pharaoh Djoser plays a prominent role in the story, which also mentions Imhotep's family; his father the god Ptah, his motherKhereduankh, and his younger sisterRenpetneferet. 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 anAssyrian sorceress in a duel of magic.[28]
As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep's idealized image lasted well into theRoman period. In the Ptolemaic period, the Egyptian priest and historianManetho 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 theArchaic 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 inmastaba tombs.
EgyptologistJames 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."[29]
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.[30] Unfortunately, the therapy Imhotep laconically prescribed for it would be equally recognizable for millennia: “There is none”.
^"Imhotep".Collins Dictionary. Retrieved25 September 2014.
^Ranke, Hermann (1935).Die Ägyptischen Personennamen [Egyptian Personal Names](PDF) (in German). Vol. 1: Verzeichnis der Namen. Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin. p. 9. Retrieved24 July 2020.
^abcdWildung, D. (1977).Egyptian Saints: Deification in pharaonic Egypt. New York University Press. p. 34.ISBN978-0-8147-9169-1.
^Osler, William (2004).The Evolution of Modern Medicine. Kessinger. p. 12.
^Musso, C. G. (2005).Imhotep: The dean among the ancient Egyptian physicians.[full citation needed]
^Willerson, J. T.; Teaff, R. (1995). "Egyptian Contributions to Cardiovascular Medicine".Texas Heart Institute Journal: 194.[full citation needed]
^abMalek, Jaromir (2002). "The Old Kingdom". In Shaw, Ian (ed.).The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (paperback ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 92–93.
^Kahl, J. (2000). "Old Kingdom: Third Dynasty". In Redford, Donald (ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol. 2 (1st ed.). p. 592.ISBN0195138228.
^Naunton, Chris (2018).Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 44.ISBN978-0500051993.
^Naunton, Chris (2018).Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 44.ISBN978-0500051993.
^Kemp, B.J. (2005).Ancient Egypt. Routledge. p. 159.
^Romer, John (2013).A History of Ancient Egypt from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid. Penguin Books. pp. 294–295.ISBN9780141399713.
^Boylan, Patrick (1922).Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt: A study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. pp. 166–168.
^Ryholt, Kim (2009). Widmer, G.; Devauchelle, D. (eds.).The Life of Imhotep?. IXe Congrès International des Études Démotiques. Bibliothèque d'étude. Vol. 147. Le Caire, Egypt: Institut français d'archéologie orientale. pp. 305–315.
^Ryholt, Kim (2004). "The Assyrian invasion of Egypt in Egyptian literary tradition".Assyria and Beyond. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. p. 501.ISBN9062583113.
Asante, Molefi Kete (2000).The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten. Chicago, IL: African American Images.ISBN978-0-913543-66-5.
Cormack, Maribelle (1965).Imhotep: Builder in stone. New York, NY: Franklin Watts.
Dawson, Warren R. (1929).Magician and Leech: A study in the beginnings of medicine with special reference to ancient Egypt. London, UK: Methuen.
Garry, T. Gerald (1931).Egypt: The home of the occult sciences, with special reference to Imhotep, the mysterious wise man and Egyptian god of medicine. London, UK: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson.
Hurry, Jamieson B. (1978) [1926].Imhotep: The Egyptian god of medicine (2nd ed.). New York, NY: AMS Press.ISBN978-0-404-13285-9.
Hurry, Jamieson B. (2014) [1926].Imhotep: The Egyptian god of medicine (reprint ed.). Oxford, UK: Traffic Output.ISBN978-0-404-13285-9.
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