Seleucid and Ptolemaïc apotheosis of ancients

by Damien F. Mackey “The name Esagil-kini-ubba, ummânu or “royal secretary” during the reign of Nebuchednezzar I, was preserved in Babylonian memory for almost one thousand years – as late as the year 147 of the Seleucid Era (= 165 B.C.)”. J. Brinkman They did it with Imhotep and with Amenhotep son of Hapu, of Egypt. They did it with Ahikar. They may have done it as well with King Solomon, as Gudea, supposedly of Sumer. And they did it with many others as well, especially those associated with wonders. Just as the early post-diluvians had divinised notable ante-diluvian humans - with Nimrod perhaps leading the way in this work of apotheosising - so, too, did the Macedonian Seleucids and Ptolemies glorify and divinise notables who had come before them. Why, as late as St. Paul’s time, the pagans were still at it (Acts 14:11-12): “When the crowd [in Lystra] saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker”. Dietrich Wildung has written about Imhotep and Amenhotep, son of Hapu, as being the only true geniuses of Egyptian history (Imhotep und Amenhotep: Gottwerdung im alten Ägypten, München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1977). And we read at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenhotep,_son_of_Hapu “Amenhotep and Imhotep are among the few non-royal Egyptians who were deified after their death, and until the 21st century, they were thought to be only two commoners to achieve this status …”. The case of Imhotep Did Imhotep even exist? Previously I have written on this: Even a year ago I would not seriously have queried the historical reality of Imhotep. As far as I was concerned, the genius Imhotep of Egypt’s so-called Third Dynasty was the clear candidate for the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob, who had saved Egypt from a seven-year Famine. Did not Imhotep do the very same on behalf of his ruler (Pharaoh, as we say), Netjerikhet (Djoser, or Zoser)? Thus we read, in part, in Netjerikhet’s (Neterkhet’s) celebrated Sehel Famine Stela: Year 18 of Horus: Neterkhet; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Neterkhet; Two Ladies: Neterkhet; Gold-Horus: Djoser; under the Count, Prince, Governor of the domains of the South, Chief of the Nubians in Yebu, Mesir. There was brought to him this royal decree. To let you know: I was in mourning on my throne, Those of the palace were in grief, My heart was in great affliction, Because Hapy had failed to come in time In a period of seven years. Grain was scant, Kernels were dried up, Scarce was every kind of food. Every man robbed his twin, Those who entered did not go. Children cried, Youngsters fell, The hearts of the old were grieving; Legs drawn up, they hugged the ground, Their arms clasped about them. Courtiers were needy, Temples were shut, Shrines covered with dust, Everyone was in distress. I directed my heart to turn to the past, I consulted one of the staff of the Ibis, The chief lector-priest of Imhotep, Son of Ptah South-of-his-Wall: "In which place is Hapy born? Which is the town of the Sinuous one? Which god dwells there? That he might join with me." …. The following article by Alexandra Malenko, whilst presenting a typical, and most favourable view of Imhotep, includes sufficient precautionary comments to rein in any excess enthusiasm, e.g. “the myth created by the directors”, “great unknown”, “the world had forgot about him”, “what is fiction or exaggeration”, etc.: https://huxley.media/en/imhotep-leonardo-da-vinci-from-the-banks-of-the-nile/ IMHOTEP: Leonardo da Vinci from the banks of the Nile Even when there were no pyramids in Egypt, the legend said that he was great and powerful, he was the first who erected such a miracle in the sands. During the time of Cleopatra, he was revered as a wise and a skillful healer, during the reign of the Ptolemies, in the so-called Hellenistic period in the history of Egypt, he was worshiped as a deity. But here’s the trick: the name of Imhotep is well known to us, but not from scientific works, rather from entertainment films. Great power of cinema! This art is capable of distorting and altering everything, shown on the screen is so easy to believe, and the myth created by the directors is so difficult to collapse… Through the efforts of Hollywood masters, Imhotep is known to the broad masses for the film The Mummy, its numerous remarks and remakes. And whether it is Imhotep performed by Boris Karloff or Arnold Vosloo, the film image is incredibly far from the truth. THE GREAT UNKNOWN Imhotep (his name in translation means “the one who walks in peace”) lived in the 27th century BC [sic]. He was a healer and an architect, an inventor, a genius of his time and a polymath, as the ancient Greeks called such unique ones, Leonardo da Vinci of the Ancient World. During his long life, Imhotep served three pharaohs. His extraordinary talents were revealed during the first ruler of the Third Dynasty, Djoser. And two millennia later, other rulers, different people, raised him to the rank of a deity: in the era of the Ptolemies, the Greeks – the inhabitants of Egypt – revered him as the god of medicine on a par with their “native” Asclepius. According to some testimonies, the cult of Imhotep lasted until the appearance of Christianity and Islam in Egypt. With the arrival of the dominant religions, his temples were destroyed, most of the works were lost. Until the nineteenth century, until researchers began to decipher hieroglyphic texts, the world had forgot about him. But the very first mentions of an outstanding scientist of the Ancient World stunned Egyptologists. In 1926, during the excavation of the Djoser pyramid, archaeologists discovered a statue dated to the years when Imhotep hypothetically lived. On the basis of the statue, after the name of the pharaoh, the name of Imhotep was written and a list of titles was given: the keeper of the treasury of the king in Lower Egypt, the ruler of a large palace, the first after the king in Lower Egypt, the priest of Heliopolis, the architect, the carver of precious vases… For one person, the title of chati would be enough – this position in modern gradation can be equated with the post of prime minister. Chati was in charge of political and economic issues, was involved in the formation of the budget, made current executive decisions… But Imhotep was also a priest, therefore he had many responsibilities outside the palace. As a priest of the god Ra, the god of sun, he traveled extensively in Upper and Lower Egypt, taught the people the wisdom set forth in the sacred texts. …. THE GOD OF HEALING Many researchers reasonably consider Imhotep the founder of modern medicine. He was one of the first to consider diseases and the healing process not as punishment or mercy of the gods, but as natural processes, and began to apply methods of treatment not related to religious rituals. Until now, no sources have been found that would confirm that Imhotep was a healer. It can be argued that his ideas contributed to the development of medical science. Imhotep’s teachings are retold in a text known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, dated around 1500 BC. The ancient scientist knew methods of treating over 200 diseases, including a method for treating inflammation of the appendix and arthritis, he knew the healing properties of many plants and natural products. Guided by his instructions, the Egyptians consumed a lot of honey – a product with pronounced bactericidal properties, they also used honey to heal wounds. However, it should be noted that even before the birth of Imhotep, from about 2750 BC., Egyptian doctors knew human anatomy well. They knew how to do a kind of neurosurgical operations, and very successful. Obviously, they received extensive knowledge about the structure of man through mummification. During this complex procedure, the internal organs were removed from the body, inquiring minds had the opportunity to examine them well, study, and comprehend the principles of their work. The Egyptians believed that the heart is at the center of a network of channels through which blood, air and semen are carried to different parts of the body. The ancient physicians also knew that proper nutrition and adherence to the rules of hygiene create a reliable barrier to many diseases. One of the first medical recommendations was a ban on the consumption of raw fish and pork. However, in the matter of healing, the help of the gods was useful. During the treatment procedures, prayers were certainly read and special rituals were performed. There was some practical sense in it as well, because confidence in a favorable outcome of the disease is already a small victory over it. Imhotep, it seems, was, as they would say today, the popularizer of medical science, as a result, the fame of the great healer deservedly went to him. Temples were erected to him in Thebes and Memphis, people were ready to go half the world to worship him. It was then that thousands of statues of Imhotep were created: it was believed that everyone who possessed such a thing was under his patronage. At the same time, scientists believe, incredible stories about the great genius of the wise priest and chati were born: as if he cured Pharaoh Djoser of blindness, saved the kingdom from a seven-year drought, and defeated the great famine in the country. What is true in these retellings, and what is fiction or exaggeration, scientists are not ready to answer unequivocally. Time will tell, because excavations in Saqqara continue, the sands, albeit reluctantly, reveal ancient secrets. Perhaps it is there, on the plateau in the Nile Valley, that the solution to the nature of human genius will be found. [End of quote] I commenced this present article by writing: Even a year ago I would not seriously have queried the historical reality of Imhotep. As far as I was concerned, the genius Imhotep of Egypt’s so-called Third Dynasty was the clear candidate for the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob, who had saved Egypt from a seven-year Famine. Did not Imhotep do the very same on behalf of his ruler … Netjerikhet …? …. What I just wrote above may still fully apply chronologically speaking. The difference now, however, is that I would not embrace ‘Imhotep’ so uncritically. And here is why: Only when Brenton Minge’s book, Pharaoh’s Evidence. Egypt’s Stunning Witness to Joseph and Exodus (2013), arrived for me to review did I begin to question, not only Imhotep as Joseph, but even the very historical existence of Imhotep. Brenton Minge, who holds to a conspiracy theory view that Imhotep was a made-up imitation of the real Joseph, begins his Chapter 4: Was Imhotep … Joseph? with what has already been noted above about Imhotep – those late sources (p. 45): The problem, in historical terms, is that while Imhotep is placed around 2650 BC … his cult, or even any remembrance of him, only made its first appearance more than a millennium later. Imhotep authority Dietrich Wildung points out that, before then, “We have no clear records that Imhotep was remembered, much less venerated, for the thousand years after his death until the beginning of the New Kingdom” (emphasis added). …. Hence the Encyclopedia of Ancient History’s observation that his first claim to “deity” was in the “Late Period” (ie., around 712-332 BC) … effectively representing a 2,000-year “deity” silence from his claimed time to his earliest statue! …. On pp. 46-47, Brenton Minge will present one of his crucial arguments, that the word imhotep on the base of king Netjerikhet’s statue is not a name at all, but a title, and that the actual name of the title-holder has been carefully erased. He writes: Background In 1926, excavations at Sakkara’s Step Pyramid uncovered the base of pharaoh Netjerikhet’s statue, bearing the insignia of both the king and, as is presumed, Imhotep. Concerning the latter it reads (reading right to left): “Chancellor of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, first after the King, Administrator of the great palace, Director of public works, Overseer of the seers [of On], Imhotep the Architect, the Builder …” … (continuing, but broken off – see below left). For an officeholder to appear beside his king on an Egyptian royal statue is otherwise unheard of …. Yet here the full blaze of Pharaonic glory includes the architect, side by side with his Pharaoh – a truly remarkable honour. But what of the name Imhotep itself? For two reasons, it is submitted that this was not the name of the person being honoured, but part of his titles. 1. “Imhotep” literally comes from two words: im, meaning “overseer” (as still reflected in the Arabic imam), and hotep, meaning “peaceful”, or “blessed”, as in the Field of Hotep, or “Field of the Blessed”. With the variant imy, im occurs in more than 70 Egyptian administrative titles of the Old Kingdom … always containing a meaning closer to “overseer”/ “director”. Hence “Im-hotep” (often formerly spelt with a hyphen) … would seem as much of an administrative title as all the others in the inscription, effectively meaning “overseer who comes in peace”, or, more concisely, “blessed overseer”. 2. The inscription is unfinished, with the end part (at left) being conspicuously broken off. Yet the end, according to Egyptian protocol, is precisely where the proper name belongs, as Battiscombe Gunn – later Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford – observed: “Egyptian titles never follow the name of their holder, but only precede it. …”. That is, THE PROPER NAME ALWAYS COMES AT THE END, AFTER THE TITLES. Therefore “blessed overseer”, by virtue of its placement as much as its wording, cannot be a name, but only a descriptive “job title”, since there is clearly more to go! The description is manifestly unfinished. As Professor R.J. Forbes, of the University of Amsterdam, observed, “Only in the case of gods do the titles follow the name, never in the case of human beings” … (recalling from the encyclopaedia above, that Imhotep’s first claim to “deity” was still millennia away). So it would seem that, assuming the inscription is authentic, this endearing title (“blessed overseer”/ “overseer of peace”) was effectively later lifted from it, and reprocessed as a proper name with a life of its own. “A later tradition”, writes The Oxford Classical Dictionary (without taking our view), “identified Imhotep … as the architect”. …. Yet it could just as readily be referring to Joseph himself, the true and known “blessed overseer” of Egypt under his king (with his Egyptian name skilfully removed at the end; see Genesis 41:45; 45:26). [End of quotes] Along with their divinisation, these re-made characters are considered - not illogically - as having been the wisest of sages, universal polymaths. What today might be called “the Renaissance man”. Hence it is only fitting that Alexandra Malenko (above) might entitle her article: IMHOTEP: Leonardo da Vinci from the banks of the Nile The case of Amenhotep son of Hapu More confidently than in the case of Imhotep can we be sure that Amenhotep son of Hapu really did exist. And we know when. He dutifully served the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh of Egypt, Amenhotep (so-called III) ‘the Magnificent’. We read at: https://historicaleve.com/amenhotep-son-of-hapu/ Deification Amenhotep, son of Hapu, remained entrenched in popular consciousness long after his passing, along with his contemporaries. To such an extent, he eventually came to be revered as a minor deity during the Ptolemaic period, a millennium after his departure from the mortal realm. Associated with the revered sage Imhotep, who also attained divine status, Amenhotep was venerated as a benevolent magician who interceded on behalf of devotees before Amun and other deities, believed to possess healing and protective powers. In Thebes, the city where the majority of monuments dedicated to him and the pharaoh he served were erected, Amenhotep even had chapels dedicated to his worship, perpetuating his legacy for generations to come. …. If my reconstructions of Amenhotep son of Hapu are correct, then he really was a larger-than-life-character, one for whom even a miracle had been worked: Marvellous optimism of pharaoh Akhnaton (10) Marvellous optimism of pharaoh Akhnaton | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu The case of Gudea We read at: Gudea_of_Lagash_Iconoclasm_or_Tooth_of_T.pdf …. Gudea’s posthumous veneration bespeaks the special status of Lagash within the ur iii state and fits well with Michalowski’s thesis that the ur iii grand viziers came from a prominent Girsu clan. Gudea became a local hero: … he was posthumously deified, his name was used as a theophoric element in personal names, just like that of deified ur iii kings, and the same priestly offices that are associated with the cult of deified Ur III kings (gudu₄, nin dingir) are also attested for him. …. offerings for deceased rulers in the ur iii cultic calendar are exceptionally well attested in Girsu. …. Gudea, as in the case of Imhotep - supposedly of the Third Dynasty of Egypt - appears to have been a somewhat made-up character based upon a real person. Presumably, in the case of Imhotep, this real person was the biblical Joseph of Egypt; and, in the case of Gudea, it was King Solomon of Jerusalem (rendered as Girsu). See e.g.my article: Gudea had a dream (10) Gudea had a Dream | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu A garbled history of Judah and some its most famous characters appear to have been later re-fashioned, now in a Sumerian setting: Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu (10) Yahweh, Solomon, Jerusalem - Ningirsu, Gudea and Girsu | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu The case of Ahikar Suffice it to quote here from The Story of Ahikar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Ahikar The Story of Aḥiqar, also known as the Words of Aḥiqar, is a story first attested in Imperial Aramaic from the fifth century BCE on papyri from Elephantine, Egypt, that circulated widely in the Middle and the Near East.[1][2][3] It has been characterised as "one of the earliest 'international books' of world literature".[4] The principal character, Aḥiqar, might have been a chancellor to the Assyrian Kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Only a Late Babylonian cuneiform tablet from Uruk (Warka) mentions an Aramaic name Aḫu’aqār.[5] His name is written in Imperial Aramaic אחיקר and in Syriac ܐܚܝܩܪ and is transliterated as Aḥiqar, Arabic حَيْقَار (Ḥayqār), Greek Achiacharos, and Slavonic Akyrios, with variants on that theme such as Armenian Խիկար (Xikar) and Ottoman Turkish Khikar, a sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.[6] …. As in the case of Imhotep, Ahikar has been turned into a saint, sage and polymath, whereas, originally, he was merely a military officer and governor for Assyria – albeit a very competent one. The Seleucids knew him as Ahuqar – his Assyrian name being Aba-enlil-dari – and his Babylonian name being Esagil-kini-ubba. Sadly, via his given foreign names, Ahikar, now construed as being the polymath to overshadow all polymaths, has become the foundation for some of the greatest sage-polymaths of a Golden Age of Islam that never was: Melting down the fake Golden Age of Islamic intellectualism (10) Melting down the fake Golden Age of Islamic intellectualism | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Relevant also to the above is this article: Age-old temptation to make oneself God (9) Age-old temptation to make oneself God | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu