Imhotep

**Imhotep**


 * Other Names:**

Imouthes, Asclepius, Immutef, Ii-em-Hotep, Amenhotep


 * Meaning of Name:**

“The One That Comes in Peace”


 * Hieroglyphics:**




 * Family:**

Imhotep was considered to be the son of the god Ptah (by his human mother Khreduankh), and the brother of Thoth and Nefertem. In a few instances his mother was though to be the goddess Sekhmet.

The god of medicine, knowledge, and architecture. A rare example of a commoner who reached the rank of god by sheer merit, Imhotep lived in the 27th century B.C.E. He was revered as a genius and showered with titles. Imhotep was the //Tjaty// (vizier), chief architect, high priest, astrologer, scribe, and physician to the Pharaoh Djoser. Besides his weighty duties to the king, the wise man wrote extensively, developed revolutionary medical procedures, and was revered throughout Egypt. Imhotep is one example of the “personality cult” of Kemet, whereby a learned sage or otherwise especially venerated person could be deified after death and become a special intercessor for the living, much as the saints of Roman Catholicism.

It was Imhotep who created the first monumental building in history made of hewn stone: the famous “step pyramid” of Saqqara. He may have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture. He also founded a school of medicine in Memphis, a part of his cult center known as Asklepion, which remained famous for over two thousand years. All of this occurred some 2,200 years before the Western “Father of Medicine,” Hippocrates, was born. Hippocrates himself was said to have been inspired by books kept in the temple of Imhotep.

Imhotep died at the extraordinary age of eighty. Two thousand years after his death, Egyptians worshiped him; Imhotep became the god of medicine and healing, and was credited with the invention of building in stone. Imhotep was represented as a seated, head-shorn priest, wearing a long kilt and reading a sheet of papyrus, which was spread across his lap.

Imhotep was supposed to send sleep to those who were suffering or in pain. In the New Kingdom Imhotep was venerated as the patron of scribes - scribes would pour a few drops of water in libation to him before beginning to write. Small sculptures of Imhotep, carried for good luck and made of bronze, faience, and lapis lazuli, were popular – over 400 have been found. Mummified ibises were left by worshipers as votive offerings for Imhotep in his temples, and pilgrims also left models of injured limbs or diseased organs in the hope of being healed by the god.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

Hymn to Imhotep


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity****:**

Ta-Imhotep


 * Outside of Egypt:**

Imhotep had a flourishing cult in Greece where he was identified with the god Asclepius, and managed to find a place in Arab traditions, especially at Saqqara where his tomb is thought to be located (the exact location of Imhotep’s tomb was lost in antiquity and is still unknown, despite efforts to find it.) Imhotep was even worshiped by early Christians as one with Christ. The early Christians, it will be recalled, adapted to their use those pagan forms and persons whose influence through the ages had woven itself so powerfully into tradition that they could not omit them.

An inscription dating from the Ptolemaic Dynasty mentions a famine of seven years during the time of Imhotep. According to the inscription, the reigning pharaoh, Djoser, had a dream in which the Nile god spoke to him. Imhotep is credited with interpreting the dream and helping to solve the famine. The obvious parallels with the biblical story of Joseph have long been commented upon. More recently, the Joseph parallels have led some alternative historians to identify Imhotep with Joseph, and to argue that the supposedly thousand years separating them are indicative of a faulty chronology.


 * Modern Influences:**

This god has been sadly perverted in a series of sensational Hollywood films “The Mummy (I, II, and III.)” The fact that Imhotep was a peaceful deity of healing and wisdom has been completely overlooked.

Egyptian Deities - I