Imhotep

Imhotep, whose name means “the one who comes in peace,” served as chancellor to Pharaoh Djoser, likely designed Djoser’s step pyramid, and was a high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. As a historical figure, very little is known about him, but over the three millennia following his death, he was increasingly honored and eventually worshipped as a god.

No writings from Imhotep’s own time describe him as a physician or author of wisdom texts, and his name does not appear in any surviving records for the first 1,200 years after his death. The Westcar Papyrus, written during the Hyksos period in classical Middle Egyptian (probably around the 13th Dynasty), includes a story about an official performing a miracle for Djoser—possibly Imhotep—but that section is badly damaged and the character’s name is lost. Apart from two short contemporary inscriptions naming him as the pharaoh’s chancellor, the earliest surviving text to mention Imhotep dates to the reign of Amenhotep III. It is addressed to a tomb owner and reads as a libation offering to Imhotep, which appears to have been done regularly, as such offerings are recorded on papyri linked to statues of Imhotep up to the Late Period. Scholar Wildung (1977) suggests this cult grew slowly from the intellectual memory of Imhotep after his death. Egyptologist Gardiner considers the New Kingdom veneration of Imhotep distinct enough from typical offerings to commoners that the term “demigod” likely fits. The first references to Imhotep’s healing abilities appear only from the Thirtieth Dynasty onward, some 2,200 years after his death.

Imhotep is one of fewer than a dozen non-royal Egyptians deified after death. His cult centered in Memphis, and despite efforts, his tomb has never been found.

Historicity is confirmed by two contemporary inscriptions on the base of a statue of Djoser and by a graffito on the enclosure wall of Sekhemkhet’s unfinished step pyramid. The graffito suggests Imhotep outlived Djoser and worked on Sekhemkhet’s pyramid, abandoned due to that king’s short reign. Imhotep held the unique title *bity sensen* or *bity senwy*, meaning “the King of Lower Egypt, the two brothers.” This could imply he was the pharaoh’s twin brother, explaining his high rank, but since no other individuals held such a title, this remains speculative. He may instead have been a confidant or childhood friend.

Egyptologists, agreeing with later legends, credit Imhotep with designing and building Djoser’s step pyramid at Saqqara during the 3rd Dynasty. He may also have been the first to use stone columns to support a building. However, pharaonic Egyptians themselves never credited him with designing the step pyramid or inventing stone architecture.

Two thousand years after his death, Imhotep was worshipped as a god of medicine and healing. He was eventually equated with Thoth, god of architecture, mathematics, medicine, and patron of scribes, and his cult merged with that of his former tutelary god. In Thebes, he was revered as the “brother” of Amenhotep, son of Hapu, another deified architect, in temples to Thoth. The Greeks identified him with Asklepios, their own deified healer. According to myth, his mother was a mortal named Khereduankh, later revered as a demi-goddess and daughter of Banebdjedet. Alternatively, because Imhotep was called “Son of Ptah,” his mother was sometimes said to be Sekhmet.

In the Ptolemaic period (305–30 BC), the Famine Stela records a legend of a seven-year famine under Djoser, which Imhotep helped end by explaining the link between the god Khnum and the Nile’s rise, leading to a dream in which the Nile god promised to end the drought. A demotic papyrus from the 2nd century AD at Tebtunis tells a long story about Imhotep, featuring Djoser, Imhotep’s father Ptah, mother Khereduankh, and younger sister Renpetneferet. In it, Djoser desires Renpetneferet, and Imhotep disguises himself to rescue her. The text also mentions Djoser’s royal tomb and includes an anachronistic battle between the Old Kingdom and Assyrian armies, where Imhotep fights an Assyrian sorceress in a magic duel.

Imhotep’s idealized image as an instigator of Egyptian culture lasted into the Roman period. The Ptolemaic priest and historian Manetho credited him with inventing stone-dressed building during Djoser’s reign, though stone had been used sporadically earlier. Still, a building the size of the step pyramid made entirely of stone was unprecedented.