succeeded to the inheritance and the throne of his father, receiving sovereignty over the whole world.201 Horus was one of the most universally recognized, beloved, and worshipped deities of the pantheon. The hawk was sacred to him, and he was usually represented with a human body and the head of a falcon, being called the 'hawk-headed Horus'; or he was pictured as a child in the arms of Isis or some other goddess, and occasionally as a boy (Harpokrates) standing by her side.202 I-M-HOTEP I-M-ḤOTEР, the architect of King Tosorthros (Zoser) of the Third Dynasty (circa 2900 B.C.), the builder of the Sakkâra Pyramid, an astrologer of the priests of Rē, and a distinguished leech, was renowned for his wise sayings and became a patron of learning, of scholars, and especially of physicians. After the New Kingdom (1580 B.C.), writers made libations to him; and gradually losing his humanity, he was deified after the Persian period (525 B.C.) and elevated to the rank of a healing divinity.208 In his divine character he was the 'Son of Ptah' and of Sekhmet, and having displaced their son Nefer-têm, he was made the third member of the great Memphite triad. Related to Thoth in function, I-m-hotep occasionally absorbed his funerary duties, and as 'scribe of the gods' he was the author of words of power which protected the dead.204 He was also closely related to the deified sages Amon-hotep and Teos,205 who were associated with healing. I-m-hotep, 'He who cometh in peace,' owed his fame and 201 Breasted, op. cit., pp. 33-37; also Budge, op. cit., i, 489. 202 Budge, op. cit., i, 466-499. 203 Sethe, in ERE vi, 650-651. 204 Budge, op. cit., i, 522. 205 Boylan, op. cit., pp. 166-168. power to his skill in the healing art. He was the good physician both of deities and of men, "the god who sent sleep to those who were suffering and in pain, and those who were afflicted with any kind of disease formed his especial care. >20 He was the divinity of physicians and of "all those who were occupied with the mingled science of medicine and magic." His suppliants usually received information of the curative remedy in dreams by incubation, as shown by epigraphs and related in tales (Diodoros, i, 25); and in the vision the deity usually began by identifying the suppliant, and then revealed the directions for treatment.207 Satni relates that his wife Mahituaskhit appealed to the god for relief from sterility, prayed and slept in his temple, and dreamed that he told her to pull a living colocasia plant, leaves and all, and making a potion, to give it to her husband. This she did and she conceived at once.208 Another case of sterility, cured by a remedy similarly revealed in a dream during temple-sleep, is recorded on the Memphite Stele of Psherenptah of the Augustan period.209 The cult of I-m-hotep was originally attached to his tomb near the Pyramid of Sakkâra, and his earliest important sanctuary was erected near the Serapeum close to Memphis. After the New Empire was established, his worship grew rapidly in popularity and importance; and during the Saïte period and the later Ptolemaic age he was greatly honored. He was revered and adored in his own city, as well as at Thebes, Edfu, and elsewhere; he was prominent in the temple of Kaşr-el-'Agûz, erected to Teos, a sage or god similar to Thoth; while the Ptolemies built a small but beautiful temple to him on the island of 206 Budge, op. cit., i, 523. 207 Foucart, in ERE v, 35-36. 208 Maspero, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt, pp. 146-147. 209 Foucart, in ERE v, 35. Philæ, upon which was placed the following inscription: "Great one, Son of Ptaḥ, the creative god, . . the god of divine forms in temples, who giveth life unto all men, the mighty one of wonders, the maker of times, who cometh unto him that calleth upon him wheresoever he may be, who giveth sons to the childless, the chief 'lectorpriest' (kher-hab; i.e., 'wisest and most learned one'), the image and likeness of Thoth the wise one. ''210 The bronze figures of this hero-god in the museums are all of the Twenty-second Dynasty, and represent him as a bald man, sometimes wearing a cap, seated, with a book or roll of papyrus on his knees,211 and without any of the customary ornamentations of Egyptian deities. I-m-hotep was called Imuthes by the Greeks, who identified him with their Asklepios (Stobaios, Ecloga, I, xli, 44); and his temples were termed Asklepieia.212 ISIS, OR ESET Isis, one of the very ancient goddesses of Egypt, the most beloved and generally worshipped as a 'protective deity,' held a place in the affections of the people above that of all other female deities. Born on the fourth epagomenal day, she was the daughter of Qêb and Nut, the sister of Osiris, Horus the Elder, Sêth, and Nephthys, the wife of Osiris, and the mother of the Child Horus. Becoming the consort and mother of the sun-god, with the solarization of Osiris she was identified with all other celestial goddesses and was most intimately assimilated with Ḥathôr;213 while she was also one of the chief divinities of the 210 Budge, op. cit., i, 523. 211 Erman, Ägyptische Religion, p. 174. 212 Müller, op. cit., p. 171; and for further details consult G. Foucart, "Imhotep," in RHR, 1903, xlviii, 362-371; K. Sethe, "Imhotep der Asklepios der Aegypter," in UGAÄ, 1902, ii, 98 ff. 218 Müller, op. cit., p. 99. |