In 1932, there was a movie made called The Mummy.  It was remade in 1999, and the remake had a sequel a couple of years later.  The subject of both these films was an ancient Egyptian named Imhotep.  According to the remake–I haven’t seen the original–Imhotep assassinated his pharaoh because he and the pharaoh’s wife fell in love with each other.  According to the movie’s introduction, no one was allowed to touch the pharaoh’s wife except the pharaoh, not even in the slightest way.  Imhotep was caught and he along with his followers were punished severely.

I can’t say I know about the wife-touching thing, but the real Imhotep was nothing like this.  His name is remembered after forty-five-hundred years not for being a well-respected man.  Egyptians say he invented or improved the papyrus scroll.  He designed his pharaoh’s pyramid, which was the first pyramid of ancient Egypt to be built.  He is even credited as being the founder of modern medicine by writing the equivalent of a modern journal-worthy paper with observations about the human body, sicknesses and their cures.  In spite of being a priest of Ra, this paper he purportedly wrote is strictly scientific and contains no magical references.  Admittedly, his status of author is highly questionable, but somebody somewhere along the way felt he was worth of that attribution.  His life as we know it reflected this acceptance of science in the face of strong religious beliefs.

Imhotep is probably the most ancient historical figure I would like to meet.  I would like to learn the language of ancient Egyptians so that we might converse.  If what we know of him is true, it would be an interesting chat.  He lived in what was arguably a golden age for his civilization.  I think he was ahead of his time and saw things more as they were than how most imagined them to be.

I have had Imhotep on my mind lately as part of a story idea.  I have wondered what would happen if somebody went back in time and showed Imhotep some modern things like electricity and the things it can do.  My impression of the man is he was quite the opposite of the mummy man of the movies.  I think he would accept the gift of future knowledge and use it with wisdom.  His pharaoh, Djoser, seems to have been a man of some wisdom as well.

It’s interesting how history gets twisted sometimes.  Imhotep was a man of science and true to his pharaoh, but I am willing to bet many if not most think he was a scoundrel thanks to the Mummy movies.  It’s just one example in a long list:  Columbus did not appeal to Queen Isabella for funding on the basis of a desire to prove the world was round; this was already well-known to anyone with an education at the time.  Paul Revere’s ride was actually that of several men and he did not shout out “The British are coming!”  On an amusing note, Tarzan never said, “Me Tarzan, you Jane.”  The list goes on and on.

In any case, if Imhotep did come back to life as a mummy, I don’t think he’d be interested in taking over the world.  He’d be more interested in learning about modern science, medical science in particular, I believe.  He’d be a good mummy that way.