Chapter 8 Amenhotep and Imhotep at Deir el-Bahari and Thebes

8.1 Introduction

Few Egyptian gods had as much in common as Amenhotep, son of Hapu, and Imhotep, whose shared sanctuary at Deir el-Bahari is among the best docu- mented sites for incubation there, and the one that serves as the best example of a sanctuary at which both therapeutic and oracular dreams were sought. Another famously wise historical figure who had become a god, Amenhotep was often associated with Imhotep, even serving as his colleague at some heal- ing sanctuaries.1 Whereas Imhotep was posthumously venerated as a patron of scribes, Amenhotep was himself a royal scribe, serving the pharaoh Amenhotep III (reigned 1390–1352 BCE) in this important capacity; Amenhotep also served as chief architect, which had been the historical Imhotep’s primary function. Both left behind lasting monuments to the rulers they served: just as Imhotep oversaw construction of Djoser’s Step Pyramid, Amenhotep was instrumental in the erection of the two colossal statues of Amenhotep III in front of the pha- raoh’s , one of which in Greco-Roman times would become known as the “Colossus of Memnon” and attract countless sightseers because of its “singing.” Like Imhotep, Amenhotep was initially a divinized mortal— the term “Egyptian saints” has been used to describe both2—who ultimately was worshiped as a god, though not until Ptolemaic times. Amenhotep, how- ever, appears to have played a significant role in his own apotheosis: with the pharaoh’s permission, he erected statues of himself at the temple of Amun at Karnak which bore inscriptions proclaiming that he would convey visitors’

1 On Amenhotep, see: Bataille 1950; Varille 1968, 125–142; Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep (collecting written sources) and Wildung 1977a, 83–110; Sadek 1987, 277–280; and I.Deir el- Bahari, pp. 11–15; cf. Dunand 2006, 20–21 (with comment of R. Tybout in SEG 56, 1957) and Klotz 2012a, 51–52. Amenhotep, son of Hapu, is not to be confused with another oracular divinity with that name, , the divinized pharaoh whose oracle at Deir el- Medîna served this workmen’s community during the New Kingdom (see McDowell 1990, 107–141, and the two-part study in von Lieven 2000 and von Lieven 2001). For Imhotep, see Chapter 7.4. 2 The phrase comes from Wildung 1977a.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004330238_009 Amenhotep And Imhotep At Deir El-bahari And Thebes 449 messages to the god in return for a libation and offering, thus establishing himself as a divine herald and intermediary between worshipers and their god during his lifetime.3 After Amenhotep’s death, he continued to be venerated at the mortuary temple he had built for himself in the Theban necropolis at , where his cult was instituted by the pharaoh three years before Amenhotep had died, and it is clear that the cult continued to flourish at least until the end of the 21st Dynasty.4 At some point in the Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BCE) or Late Period (664–332 BCE), as his mortuary cult appears to have been declining, Amenhotep also came to be worshiped by the Thebans at an independent shrine located somewhere in western Thebes.5 The first indication that Amenhotep was revered as a healer dates more than seven centuries after his death, in the form of an inscribed statue of him that the daughter of Psamtik I dedicated in 628/627 BCE at an unidentified site in the hope that this “good physician” would cure an eye ailment.6 After the complete decline of Amenhotep’s Medinet Habu mortuary cult at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period this official cult appears to have relocated to nearby Deir el-Bahari, an area of western Thebes just east of the , where Amenhotep was newly established in a rock-cut shrine on the upper terrace of the decaying mortuary temple of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (reigned 1473–1458 BCE) (Plan 16).7 Although the date of this move is unknown, it was most likely sometime around 300 BCE, with the terminus

3 See Varille 1968, 140–142 and Wildung 1977a, 87–88. 4 On the remains of the original temple, see Robichon/Varille 1936; cf. I.Deir el-Bahari, p. 22. Amenhotep’s actual burial site was in the Valley of the Eagle. 5 See I.Deir el-Bahari, p. 14, citing a hieratic papyrus from 635 BCE that refers to a “chapel (kꜣr) of Amenhotep” somewhere in the area of Thebes (P.Choix I 15, col. i, l. 4, cf. P.Choix II, pp. 48–50 (facs.) + Pl. 14 (= Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep, 278–279, §180)). 6 Brook. 65.47 (= Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep, 277–278, §179); trans. Wildung 1977a, 92. 7 While the name “Deir el-Bahari” applies to a particular area on the western bank of the River opposite Thebes that played a changing role in the lives of the land’s rulers and popu- lace over the centuries, in this study I am using that name only to refer to the sanctuary of Amenhotep located within Hatshepsut’s abandoned temple. For the history of this area from the establishment of the funerary temple of the 11th-Dynasty pharaoh Mentuhotep- Nebhepetre through Late Antiquity, see I.Deir el-Bahari, pp. 1–104, as well as Adam Łajtar’s shorter overview of the site based on this work (Łajtar 2008; references to this work are not included below, as it is derived from I.Deir el-Bahari). Łajtar’s work is now the preeminent study of the cult of Amenhotep at this site, but see also: Bataille, Hatshepsout; Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep, 220–234, §§147–150 (cf. Wildung 1977a, 63–64, 97); Karkowski/ Winnicki 1983; and Laskowska-Kusztal, Deir el-Bahari. To these will be added the work of Amy Bahé, who is preparing a dissertation at Cambridge University entitled Demotic Ostraca from Deir el-Bahari in the British Museum, an overview of which can be found in Bahé 2014.