Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In Today’s video, we’re going to look at the
Egyptian gods who actually built the Pyramids: at Imhotep, a man, who was retroactively made a God,
credited with designing and overseeing the construction of the first ever stone pyramid,
which created the template for subsequent works, ushering in the age of the great stone
pyramids, the Apotheosis of which was the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza;
at Seshat, a goddess who was said to have guided architects and engineers in measuring and laying
the foundation for every temple and monument, pyramids included; and at Ptah, a demiurge,
meaning a being responsible for the creation of the universe, who was the patron of craftsmen,
especially sculptors and metalworkers, and of builders, particularly those who built monuments.
Let’s get into it. Imhotep, who lived in the 27th Century BC,
was one of only two mortals to become a God in Egyptian mythology,
the other being Amenhotep, also called Amenophis, an Egyptian king who reigned from the late 16th
to the early 15th century BC. What’s interesting about these two people is that they actually
existed, living remarkable lives, their legacies retroactively elevating both of them to godhood;
as opposed to someone like Hercules, a hero who became a god but was entirely a figment
of mythology, not a real historical figure. In time, though certainly not within the span
of his own life, Imhotep became a god of wisdom and medicine - alternatively, a god of science,
medicine and architecture. Imhotep wasn’t born into wealth or status; rather, through merit
alone, he rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful people of his time.
His accomplishments led to the mythologization of his life, the apogee of which was his deification.
He served as a priest and vizier to King Djoser, and potentially to the three subsequent kings,
as well. In medicine, he largely became immortalized for several treatises he wrote,
his most famous assertion being that disease and injury were phenomena that occurred naturally,
not god-sent punishments or afflictions brought about by wrathful spirits or wicked curses.
He became fully deified sometime in the late 6th century BC, about 2,000 years after his death,
and the Greeks linked him with their own religion, associating him with Asclepius, whose
own trajectory was not unlike that of Imhotep; for he began as a demi-god, the son of Apollo,
but was later more generally recognized as a god of healing and medicine. Even during the
Roman empire, Imhotep remained popular and influential, as can be seen from the praise
extolling him inscribed in extant Roman Temples. Even more impressive and, of course, more relevant
to the subject of this video, is Imhotep’s skill in architecture. Today, what he is best remembered
for is the construction of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest of the colossal stone
mausoleums in which ancient Egyptians entombed their kings. Before Imhotep designed and oversaw
the construction of this pyramid, it was customary to use mastabas, which are rectangular mausoleums
comprising mud bricks. Though the reason isn’t known, Imhotep took it upon himself to build a
grander and more majestic memorial to commemorate his king. He replaced the rectangular shape with
a square shape, and instead of relying on the banality of squat structural form,
as everyone else had until Imhotep reimagined how royalty would be laid to rest, his own design was
lofty and tiered, a three-dimensional representation of concentric squares,
having the appearance of multiple mastabas arranged so that they were stacked on top
of one another, each one smaller than the one below it, the culmination of which being what we
know today as the Step Pyramid of Djoser. After Imhotep revolutionized how kings were entombed,
mastabas, in stature, became utterly dwarfed by the Step Pyramid of Djoser,
which pierced upwards into the sky to the towering height of 204 feet (62 meters),
making it the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion. Imhotep's creation
ushered in the time of the great pyramids, the apotheosis of which were the pyramids of Giza.
Because of this, you could say that a God, as Imhotep was retroactively made a god,
created the first pyramid and that, in doing so, taught humanity the secret of pyramid building.
As a part of the mythologization of Imhotep’s life, his birth became the
result of divine parentage. It became said that his mother was bedded by the god Ptah,
resulting in ‘Son of Ptah’ becoming a common epithet to describe Imhotep,
which was quite unconventional, as only kings were said to be the sons of gods;
another abnormality akin to this also centered on Imhotep, when King Djoser
ignored tradition by insisting that Imhotep’s name be inscribed on his stepped pyramid as well.
Ancient Egyptian culture was something that spanned thousands of years across a large
geographic area, as such, there are many creation myths involving a multitude of creator deities,
respectively, espoused and worshiped in different places at different times. One of these involved
Ptah creating the world with his heart and tongue. He was known as a divine craftsman, and as such,
he was the patron of craftsmen, particularly metalworkers and sculptors, equating him with
Hephaestus, the divine craftsman of the Greek pantheon. Some sources also claim that Ptah
was the patron god of builders who worked to erect monuments, which would include pyramids.
Furthermore, In a secondary sense, Ptah being the patron of metalworkers also obliquely connects
him to pyramid construction, for the entire building process would not have been feasible,
let alone possible, without metallurgy, especially metal implements for hewing
large slabs of rock; without these tools, the millions of stone blocks used to build pyramids
could never have been prised from the earth. We’re going to spend the rest of the video
discussing Seshat, another ancient Egyptian deity linked with architecture and the
building of great stone works. She was a divine chronicler, measuring and recording the world.
She was the patroness of astronomy, architecture, and mathematics. And depending on the version,
she was either assistant to, daughter of, or the consort of Thoth.
As a scribe and goddess of writing, libraries were sacred to her, which is why one of her
epithets was “She Who Is Foremost in the House of Books”. As a goddess of measurements, she ensured
the mathematical calculations that underpinned the construction of temples and monuments were sound,
particularly in a dimensional sense through measuring. Because measuring was a province
of her purview, this resulted in her becoming the patron goddess of builders and architects,
as well as those who managed the accounting of livestock and prisoners of war. As the mistress
of builders, she created the ground plans on which the founding or expansion of every sacred
structure, which would include pyramids, was based. No temples were dedicated to her, but
it was believed, because of the role she played in ensuring sound design and construction, that, in a
way, each temple and monument was imbued with her influence and, thus, partially dedicated to her.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video
and SUBSCRIBE to the channel. As always, leave your video suggestions down below.