Imhotep, Doctor, Architect, High Priest, Scribe and Vizier, founded the famous Asklepion school of medicine in Memphis 2,200 years before the Western Father of Medicine, Hippocrates was born. Imhotep (Imhetep, Greek Imouthes) who's name means "the one that comes in peace". existed as a mythological figure in the minds of most scholars until the end of the nineteenth century when he was established as a real historical person. He was the world's first named architect who built Egyptian pyramids, is often recognized as the world's first doctor, a priest,. scribe, sage, poet, astrologer, and a vizier and chief minister, the "high priest of Heliopolis", the "chief sculptor", and finally the "chief carpenter". Imhotep is one example of the "personality cult" of Kemet, whereby a learned sage or otherwise especially venerated person could be deified after death and become a special intercessor for the living, much as the saints of Roman Catholicism. About 100 years after his death, he was elevated as a medical demigod. In about 525, around 2,000 years after his death, he was elevated to a full god, known as the "son of Ptah". Imhotep was, together with Amenhotep, one of only two mortal Egyptians to ever reached the position of full god. He was also associated with Thoth, the god of wisdom, writing and learning. He was later even worshipped by the early Christians as one with Christ. The early Christians, it will be recalled, adapted to their use of pagan forms and persons whose influence through the ages had woven itself so powerfully into tradition that they could not omit them. He was worshiped even in Greece where he was identified with their god of medicine, Aslepius. He was honored by the Romans. The emperors Claudius and Tiberius had inscriptions praising Imhotep placed on the walls of their Egyptian temples. He even managed to find a place in Arab traditions.
Excerpts from Jimmy Dunn - References:
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None Stated
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