796
edits
Changes
no edit summary
In ancient Egyptian religion, it was not unheard of for a mortal to achieve deified status after his or her death, but the person in question was almost always a king or queen. Imhotep was one of the few exceptions to this rule. Egyptians began worshipping Imhotep about 100 years after his death, but the scholar turned god’s religious following remained relatively minor for nearly 2,000 years. <ref> Wikinson, p. 113</ref> When Egypt entered the phase modern scholars know as the Late Period, Egyptians became much more engaged with their neighbors, with the result being the adoption of some foreign cultural elements by Egyptians and conversely foreigners living in Egypt began to accept and modify some elements of pharaonic culture. When the first Greeks who lived in Egypt saw Egyptians worship Imhotep, they were very impressed by the scholar and his life and so in typical Greek fashion they equated Imhotep with their own Asclepius and joined in with the worship.
Imhotep’s primary “cult-center,” which is where his followers believed his spirit physically resided, was near Djoser’s pyramid in what is known today as the Saqqara necropolis. Worshippers of Imhotep gathered at Saqqara in a sanctuary dedicated to him that the Greeks called the “Asclepion.” Since Imhotep was associated with wisdom and scholarship, pilgrims would dedicate mummified ibises on his behalf in the Saqqara necropolis because the ibis was associated by ancient Egyptians with the god of wisdom and writing – Thoth. Worshippers also routinely asked the priests who looked after the sanctuary if they could sleep there in order to have dreams that would give them remedies for sick family members. <ref> Chauveau, Michael. <i>Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society under the Ptolemies.</i> Translated by David Lorton. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2000), p. 125</ref> Imhotep’s role in the religion of Egypt’s Late Period extended beyond the pilgrims who actively worshipped him and eventually made its way into various mythological and theological texts.
The character of Imhotep played a role in the pseudo-historical Late Period tale known as the “Famine Stela” and hymns to the architect turned god can be found in temples far from Djoser’s pyramid. In a doorway in the Temple of Ptah, which is part of the much larger Karnak Temple in Luxor, an inscription dated to the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus honors Imhotep as a god. Part of the inscription read:
