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| God Imhotep |
Imhotep was a high officer in the court of King
Djoser (
the third Dynasty) who after exaltation becomes the embodiment of scribal wisdom and, as son of
Ptah, of superb architectural and creative acquisition. Statue fragments attest that Imhotep was given the extreme privilege of his name being carved aboard that of Djoser Netjerykhet himself. He took the offices of chief executive (vizier) and master sculptor the Egyptian priest Manetho, who write in Greek a history of Egypt in the third century BC, credits Imouthes (i.e. Imhotep) with the design of the technique of building with cut stone. It is future he was the architect who planned Egypts first big scale stone memorial: the
Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Afterwards his death Imhotep is remembered in
Middle and
New Kingdom scribal reports as the author of a book of direction a well-experienced genre of Egyptian literature although the one referable to Imhotep has not went. In the Late Period bronzes of Imhotep show him seated in scribal strength with a papyrus-roll open crossways his knees. This fear for him leads to his apotheosis an highly rare phenomenon in ancient Egypt (compare
Amenhotep-Son-of-Hapu, Peteese and Pihor, and pharaoh sections titled Living king deified through ritual and Dead king deified as royal ascendents). In the Ptolemaic period Imhotep as a god is discovered in cult centres and temples passim Egypt:
1- Objects devoted in his name are discovered in northwest
Saqqara.
2- Inside Thebes where he was precious in conjunction with Amenhotep-Son-of-Hapu he has a sanctuary on the Upper Terrace of the temple at Deir el-Bahari and is defended in the temple at
Deir el-Medina.
3- Iside Philae there is a chapel of Imhotep instantly before the eastern pylon of the temple of goddess Isis (See
Philae Temples).
