IMHOTEP
Imhotep lived during the 3rd Dynasty and appears to have served under as many as four Pharaohs: from Djoser to Huni. His mummy has not yet been identified, although there is a hypothesis that places it in a mastaba, 3518, at Saqqara. Numerous statues have arrived to us of him, depicting him both in common dress and with the dignities of his rank.
His name means "he who comes in peace", and little is known about his origins and private life.
Some researchers say that Imhotep was of humble beginnings, others consider him the son of the architect Kanopher and Khredouonk, and it appears that he was married to a woman named Ronfrenophert. Even his place of birth remains in doubt: perhaps in a suburb of Memphis, perhaps in the village of Gebelein, south of Thebes. What is certain is that, thanks to his exceptional ingenuity, he dealt with the most diverse disciplines and soon came to assume a rank inferior only to that of Pharaoh, so much so that he was later even deified.
Imhotep is mentioned as high priest of Heliopolis, Pharaoh's first minister and adviser, chief and protector of the scribes, magician and physician, astrologer and astronomer, poet, and, of course, architect. Temples and places of worship were dedicated to him at Memphis, where he replaced Nefertum in the great local triad, at Deir-el-Medina, at Deir-el-Bahari, at Karnak, at File, etc.
For the Greeks, he became Asklepion, god of medicine, for the alchemists Hermes Trismegistus and even the early Christians, who, in Egypt, combined the new religion with some local beliefs, continued his worship. In addition to being remembered as the builder of the step pyramid of Saqqara (where more dungeons have recently been found with vessels that apparently contained substances related to his experiments), Imhotep began the construction of the Sekhemkhet complex, which was decommissioned due to the untimely death of Pharaoh, where another pyramid, larger than Djoser's, was to be built.
It also seems that the design of the first Temple of Edfu was due to him. He achieved, however, the height of his genius in the field of medicine. In the "Smith" papyrus, which is attributed to him, more than ninety anatomical terms and forty-eight types of lesions are listed. It is known that he was able to diagnose and treat over 200 infirmities: 15 abdominal, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, 18 of the skin and others of the hair, tongue and nails. He knew the position and functions of vital organs and blood circulation. He practiced dentistry and surgery. Imhotep cured, mainly with elements of plant origin, tuberculosis, calculi, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. And all this more than two thousand years before Hippocrates, whom we consider the father of our medicine.
