Amenhotep, son of Hapu
Encyclopedia
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, a scribe
Scribe
A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...
, and a public official, who held a number of offices under Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
.
He is said to have been born at the end of Thutmose III
Thutmose III
Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...
's reign, in the town of Athribis
Athribis
Athribis or Athlibis Athribis or Athlibis Athribis or Athlibis (Greek: or was the Greek name for two cities of ancient Egypt: this article concerns the chief town of the Athribite, the Tenth nome, in Lower Egypt...
(modern Banha
Banha
Banha , also spelled Benha, is the capital of the Qalyubia Governorate in north-eastern Egypt. Egyptians call it Banha Elasal, which means "Sweet like honey"; the nomenclature originally comes from when the Prophet Muhammed sent his massage to Elmoqwqs to convert to Islam, he replied by sending him...
in the north of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
). His father was Hapu, and his mother Itu. He was a priest and a Scribe of Recruits (organizing the labour and supplying the manpower for the Pharaoh's projects, both civilian and military). He was also an architect and supervised several building projects, among them Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
's mortuary temple at western Thebes
Thebes, Egypt
Thebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
, of which only two statues remain nowadays, known as the Colossus of Memnon
Memnon
Memnon may refer to:* Saint Memnon the Wonderworker — early Christian saint from Egypt, hermit and hegumen of one of Egyptian monasteries* Memnon and those erroneously named after him in the Graeco-Roman era:...
.
After his death, his reputation grew and he was revered for his teachings and as a philosopher. He was also revered as a healer and eventually worshipped as a god of healing, like his predecessor Imhotep
Imhotep
Imhotep , fl. 27th century BC was an Egyptian polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis...
. There are several statues of him as a scribe, portraying him as a young man and as an older man.
According to some reliefs in the tomb of Ramose
Ramose
Ramose was an ancient Egyptian name, meaning "Born of Ra". A variant of the name is Ramesses; Egyptologists usually use the Ramesses variant for pharaohs and Ramose for non-royals...
, he may have died in the 31st year of Amenhotep III.
Manetho
Manetho
Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, approximately during the 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
however gives a legendary account of how Amenhotep advised a king Amenophis, who was "desirous to become a spectator of the gods, as had Orus, one of his predecessors in that kingdom, desired the same before him". This Amenophis is commonly identified with Akhenaton, while Orus fits with the latter's father, Amenhotep III. Manetho relates that the wise man counseled that the king should "clear the whole country of the lepers and of the other impure people" and that the King then sent 80,000 lepers to the quarries. After this the wise man foresaw that the lepers would ally themselves with people coming to their help and subdue Egypt. He put the prophecy into letter to the King and then killed himself. Manetho associates this event with the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt but Josephus strongly rejects that interpretation.
Further reading
- J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, 1906
- Warren R. Dawson, Bridle of Pegasus, 1930, pp. 55ff.
- Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings: The Late Period, 1980, University of California Press, Page 104
- Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion, 1992 Cornell University Press
- Margaret Alice Murray, 1931, Egyptian Temples, 2002 Courier Dover Publications
- Boyo Ockinga, Amenophis, Son of Hapu - A Biographical Sketch, The Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology Newsletter No. 18, February 1986