Imhotep

Egyptian physician and architect

• Born: fl. twenty-seventh century b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Memphis, Egypt
• Died: 2601

Imhotep, the priest-physician who was deified as the Egyptian god of medicine, was also an architect and is credited with starting the age of pyramid building.

Early Life

Little is known about the early life of Imhotep (ihm-HOH-tehp) except that his father, Kanofer, is believed to have been a distinguished architect and that his mother was named Khreduonkh. Imhotep was probably born in a suburb of Memphis, and his early training was most likely influenced by his father’s profession. To judge by his later reputation, he received a liberal education and was interested and skilled in many areas.

That Imhotep was a real historical figure in an influential position and that he was evidently respected for his wisdom and talent is deduced from his position as the chief vizier for one of the most famous Egyptian kings, Zoser (c. 2700-c. 2650 b.c.e.), of Egypt’s Third Dynasty. From what is known of the duties of viziers at a later period, it is likely that Imhotep had to be both efficient and extremely knowledgeable, for the vizier was in charge of the judiciary and the departments of the treasury, the army and navy, internal affairs, and agriculture. As a judge, Imhotep is reputed to have penned many wise proverbs, although unfortunately none is known to have survived.

The increasing stature of Imhotep during his lifetime is apparent in the changes in statuettes discovered. In some, he appears to be an ordinary man, dressed simply; he looks like a sage, seated on a throne or chair with a roll of papyrus on his knees or under his arm, and is depicted as reading or deep in thought. When he achieved full god status, he was shown standing, carrying a scepter and the ankh, with the beard typically worn by gods. His mother was then regarded as the mother of a god and his wife, Ronpe-nofret, as the wife of a god; following what appears to have been a tradition of Egyptian deities, Imhotep was considered to be the son of the god Ptah as well as the son of the mortal Kanofer.

Life’s Work

Imhotep’s reputation is remarkable not only because he was accomplished in so many fields but also because he is credited for his accomplishments in two distinct fields and in two distinct periods: his achievement as an architect during his lifetime and his high position as priest-physician, for which he was accorded a divine status several hundred years after his lifetime. In his capacity as architect, Imhotep is credited with designing and implementing the building of the earliest large stone structure—the Step Pyramid of Saqqara—which inaugurated the age of pyramid building in Egypt.

A story much debated among scholars nevertheless reveals the reverence with which Imhotep was regarded. According to the Legend of the Seven Years’ Famine, it happened that the Nile River had not risen to its usual level sufficient to irrigate the land for seven years, resulting in a shortage of food. King Zoser, distressed by the suffering of his subjects, consulted Imhotep about the birthplace of the Nile and its god. After absenting himself for a brief period of research and study, Imhotep revealed some unspecified “hidden wonders” that the king investigated; he offered prayers and oblations at the temple of the god Khnum and, promised by the god in a dream that the Nile would not fail again, endowed the temple of the god with land and gifts in gratitude.

Imhotep’s achievement in the field of medicine is equally legendary. His reputation as a healer seems to be based almost entirely on his apotheosis from a wise and talented man who was a contemporary of Zoser, to a medical demigod, and then finally to a full deity of medicine in the period of Persian rule (about 525 b.c.e.). In the period of the Greco-Egyptian rule, he was called Imouthes and identified with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, resulting in a gradual assimilation of the two figures.

Imhotep’s reputation as a wise healer is thus one that seems to have developed several hundred years after his death. The godlike status accorded him as a healer not only shows how he was revered but also points to the inextricable connection between medicine, magic, and religion in Egyptian medical practice. In addition to his other duties, Imhotep held an important position as the Kheri-Heb, or chief lector priest. Thus entitled to read holy religious texts that were believed to have magical powers, he served as a mediator and teacher of religious mysteries. Among the priest-physicians, two main classes predominated: the physicians who had some systematic training in medicine and the larger class of those who emphasized the power to cure with amulets and magic incantations. Because the names or achievements of other practitioners of medicine in ancient times have been discovered while the specific qualifications of Imhotep as a healer are not as clearly documented, it is thought that his duties as a priest who was regarded as a magician may have initiated his reputation as a medical man.

In all likelihood, his cumulative achievements as architect, physician, priest, sage, and magician led to the great reverence in which Imhotep was held and to his subsequent deification. The magic he was reputed to practice may well have been grounded in the considerably well-developed art of healing in ancient Egypt. A number of medical documents have survived in rolls of papyrus: the Ebers Papyrus, the Hearst Papyrus, the Berlin Medical Papyrus, the Kahun Medical Papyrus, the London Medical Papyrus, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, and another papyrus in Berlin. The Ebers Papyrus, the most important of these, was written about 1550 b.c.e. but appears to be a compilation of other books written centuries before. Parts of it were already in existence during Imhotep’s lifetime and may therefore be construed to reflect the kind of medicine and magic Imhotep practiced.

The Ebers Papyrus lists many prescriptions for a variety of ailments. Approximately 250 kinds of disease are identified in the various papyruses. Doses of medication and modes of administration are specified, suggesting that clinical examination, diagnosis, and therapeutics were quite progressive. Drugs from herbs, vegetable products, minerals, and parts of animals were studied and administered in many forms, such as gargles, salves, lozenges, pills, and plasters. Simple surgery was performed, and fractures were successfully treated. The custom of mummification, involving the dissection of bodies to remove the viscera, undoubtedly provided the Egyptians with a better working knowledge of the internal organs and practical anatomy than existed elsewhere for many centuries afterward.

Although the papyruses demonstrate that empirical knowledge existed and medical treatment was widely practiced, they also reveal that such practical measures were always accompanied by magical formulas. Disease was treated primarily as a visitation of a malign spirit or god, not as a dysfunction of the body. The healer therefore had to identify the nature and the name of the evil spirit, determine how far it had invaded the body, take into account the times and seasons of the year in gauging the virulence of the attack, and then try to drive it out with every possible means—including magic, ritual, and material remedies. Some physicians would seek to differentiate between symptoms that called for drugs, magic, or temple sleep, suggesting that already in ancient times an elementary form of psychiatry was practiced.

Several legends show the importance of the Egyptian temples as a gathering place for the sick and the practice of incubation sleep as a form of cure. The writer of one of the Oxyrhynchus papyruses, written in Greek around the second century c.e., recounts two incidents involving Imhotep’s power. The writer, a priest named Nechautis in the temple of Imhotep, and his mother both fell sick at different times. On both occasions, they went to the temple, where Imhotep appeared to them in dreams, suggesting a simple remedy; on waking, both were cured. Other legends discovered by Egyptologists recount stories of infertile couples who sought help at the temple of Imhotep and conceived children afterward.

One explanation given for the demigod status of Imhotep during the New Kingdom (c. 1570-c. 1069 b.c.e.) was the religious revival that increased the magnificence and wealth of the Egyptian gods to such a degree that they became inaccessible to the common people. In search of a superhuman but sympathetic friend, it is conjectured, the common people selected new demigods from the national heroes of the past—including Imhotep, who had a reputation as a wise man.

In at least three temples built to honor him, the cult of Imhotep flourished. The first one, at Memphis, was famous as a hospital and school of magic and medicine and was referred to as the Asclepieion by the Greeks. Two other temples, one at Philae and one at Thebes, and a sanatorium are believed to have been devoted to the worship of Imhotep. Stories similar to the one related above illustrate the power of the practice of incubation at Egyptian medical temples. People with all sorts of illnesses as well as those seeking protection from accidents went to the temples for help. During this natural or drug-induced sleep, it was believed that either the deity or a priest acting on behalf of the deity would appear and indicate a remedy. Temple sleep served as a powerful form of faith healing, the most effective for very high-strung patients.

It is thought that a practical man of affairs such as Imhotep, with his interest in astronomy and other sciences, probably leaned toward the scientific treatment of illnesses. From the records about the cult of Imhotep that grew hundreds of years after his death, it is apparent, however, that his greatest public achievements were in the capacity of a faith healer.

Significance

The name Imhotep means “he who cometh in peace”; the symbolic significance of the name is perhaps the best way to explain the enduring reputation of a person whom some scholars doubt even existed. For three thousand years, well into the Roman period, Imhotep was worshiped as the god of medicine, for a long time in temples devoted to him. This deification of a person who was not of the royal pharaohs was in itself a rare achievement, pointing to the great respect that a priest-physician could command. It is entirely conceivable, too, that the powerful fraternity of priest-physicians deliberately helped to create his reputation, spreading the word about the healing power of a man otherwise familiar to people as a wise and accomplished vizier in order to increase the contributions of the pharaohs to the temple coffers. The champions of Imhotep’s reputation argue, on the other hand, that the civilization of ancient Egypt was unknown for hundreds of years, compared to the relative familiarity of scholars with Greek and Roman life and culture. According to this argument, Imhotep simply suffered the fate of the ancients, as the inexorable process of history dimmed his achievements and assimilated his fame with succeeding generations of medical practitioners.

Under the Ptolemies, six festivals were regularly held to honor the events of Imhotep’s life, including his birthday on May 31 and his death on July 1, though there is no documentation to prove that these dates have any relation to real historical events. The elaborateness of the cult of Imhotep points, if not to his actual existence or achievement, to the power of his reputation as a healer. It is a recognition of the power that people in pain and suffering are willing to attribute to a distinguishable healing authority who, by virtue of that confidence in his skill, is able to bring them a measure of peace.

Bibliography

Asante, Molefi Kete. The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten. Chicago: African American Images, 2000. Imhotep and ten other African scholars are examined. Discusses Hippocrates’ study of the works of Imhotep and the mention of his name in his Hippocratic oath.

Dawson, Warren R. Magician and Leech: A Study in the Beginnings of Medicine with Special Reference to Ancient Egypt. London: Methuen, 1929. A short account of Egyptian medicine, based on the study of the Egyptian papyruses relating to medicine and on the study of techniques of mummification. Contains illustrations and index.

Hurry, Jamieson B. Imhotep: The Vizier and Physician of King Zoser and Afterwards the Egyptian God of Medicine. Rev. ed. New York: AMS Press, 1978. The single most informative source about Imhotep, this monograph contains a short bibliography, an index, illustrations, and appendices referring to the construction and variants of the name Imhotep, his pedigree as architect, and the statuettes and murals depicting him.

Sigerist, Henry E. Primitive and Archaic Medicine. Vol. 1 in A History of Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967. Written by one of the most promising historians of medicine (although he did not live to complete the series), this book includes a substantial chapter on ancient Egypt. Contains illustrations, an index, and appendices on histories of medicine, sourcebooks and medical history, museums of medical history, and literature of paleopathology since 1930.