Editing Imhotep (section)

==Deification==
===God of medicine===
{{Infobox deity
| type = Egyptian
| name = Imhotep
| cult_center = [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]]
| image = Imhotep.svg
| hiero = <hiero>ii-m-Htp:t*p</hiero>
| parents = [[Ptah]] and [[Sekhmet]] or [[Khereduankh]]
| consort = [[Renpetneferet]] (sometimes sister)
| siblings = [[Amenhotep, son of Hapu#Legacy|Amenhotep, son of Hapu]], [[Renpetneferet]] (sometimes wife)
| greek_equivalent = [[Asclepius]]
}}
{{Ancient Egyptian religion}}
Two thousand years after his death, Imhotep's status had risen to that of a god of medicine and [[healing]]. Eventually, Imhotep was equated with [[Thoth]], the god of architecture, mathematics, and medicine, and patron of [[scribes]]: Imhotep's cult was merged with that of his own former tutelary god.

He was revered in the region of [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] as the "brother" of [[Amenhotep, son of Hapu]] – another deified architect – in the temples dedicated to Thoth.<ref>{{cite book |first=Patrick |last=Boylan |year=1922 |title=Thoth or the Hermes of Egypt: A study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt |pages=166–168 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref name=Lichtheim-1980>{{cite book |author-link=Miriam Lichtheim |first=M. |last=Lichtheim |year=1980 |title=Ancient Egyptian Literature |publisher=The University of California Press|isbn=0-520-04020-1}}</ref>{{rp|at=v3, p104}} Because of his association with health, the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] equated Imhotep with [[Asclepius|Asklepios]], their own god of health who also was a deified mortal.<ref>{{cite book |first=Geraldine |last=Pinch |year=2002 |title=Handbook of Egyptian Mythology |series=World Mythology |publisher=[[ABC-Clio]] |place=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=9781576072424 |oclc=52716451}}</ref>

According to myth, Imhotep's mother was a mortal named [[Khereduankh]], she too being eventually revered as a demi-goddess as the daughter of [[Banebdjedet]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Marina |last1=Warner |first2=Felipe |last2=Fernández-Armesto |title=World of Myths |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-292-70204-3 |page=296}}</ref> Alternatively, since Imhotep was known as the "Son of Ptah",<ref name=Lichtheim-1980/>{{rp|at=v?, p106}}{{volume needed|date=March 2021|reason=Missing volume number for 3-volume work.}} his mother was sometimes claimed to be [[Sekhmet]], the patron of [[Upper Egypt]] whose consort was [[Ptah]].

===Post-Alexander period===
The Upper Egyptian [[Famine Stela]], which dates from the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic period]] (305–30&nbsp;BC), bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine lasting seven years during the reign of [[Djoser]]. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental in ending it. One of his priests explained the connection between the god [[Khnum]] and the rise of the [[Nile]] to the Pharaoh, who then had a dream in which the Nile god spoke to him, promising to end the drought.<ref>{{cite web |title=The famine stele on the island of Sehel |publisher=Reshafim.org.il |url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/famine_stele.htm |access-date=2015-06-23}}</ref>

A [[Demotic (Egyptian)|demotic]] papyrus from the temple of [[Tebtunis]], dating to the 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD, preserves a long story about Imhotep.<ref>{{cite conference |author-link=Kim Ryholt |first=Kim |last=Ryholt |year=2009 |title=The Life of Imhotep? |conference=<!-- Actes du -->IXe Congrès International des Études Démotiques |editor1-first=G. |editor1-last=Widmer |editor2-first=D. |editor2-last=Devauchelle |series=Bibliothèque d'étude |volume=147 |place=Le Caire, Egypt |publisher=Institut français d'archéologie orientale |pages=305–315}}</ref> The Pharaoh Djoser plays a prominent role in the story, which also mentions Imhotep's family; his father the god Ptah, his mother [[Khereduankh]], and his younger sister [[Renpetneferet]]. At one point Djoser desires Renpetneferet, and Imhotep disguises himself and tries to rescue her. The text also refers to the royal tomb of Djoser. Part of the legend includes an anachronistic battle between the Old Kingdom and the Assyrian armies where Imhotep fights an [[Assyria]]n sorceress in a duel of magic.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Kim Ryholt |first=Kim |last=Ryholt |chapter=The Assyrian invasion of Egypt in Egyptian literary tradition |title=Assyria and Beyond |publisher=Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten |year=2004 |isbn=9062583113 |page=501}}</ref>

As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep's idealized image lasted well into the [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman period]]. In the Ptolemaic period, the Egyptian priest and historian [[Manetho]] credited him with inventing the method of a stone-dressed building during Djoser's reign, although he was not the first to actually build with stone. Stonewalling, flooring, [[Lintel (architecture)|lintels]], and jambs had appeared sporadically during the [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt|Archaic Period]], even though it is true that a building the size of the step pyramid made entirely out of stone had never before been constructed. Before Djoser, Kings were buried in [[mastaba]] tombs.

===Medicine===
[[Egyptologist]] [[James Peter Allen]] states that "The Greeks equated him with their own god of medicine, [[Asklepios]], although ironically, there is no evidence that Imhotep himself was a physician."<ref name="Allen">{{cite book |last=Allen |first=James Peter |year=2005 |title=The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300107289 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNbVl5LOjHUC&q=+Imhotep |access-date=August 17, 2016}}</ref>

In his Pulitzer-prize winning “biography” of cancer – ''[[The Emperor of All Maladies]]'' – [[Siddhartha Mukherjee]] cites the oldest identified written diagnosis of cancer to Imhotep.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mukherjee |first=Siddhartha |title=The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer |publisher=Fourth Estate Ltd; First Edition |date=29 September 2011 |isbn=9780007250929}}</ref> Unfortunately, the therapy Imhotep laconically prescribed for it would be equally recognizable for millennia: “There is none”.