Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was an architect, a priest, a scribe, and a public official, who held a number of offices under Amenhotep III.
He is said to have been born at the end of Thutmose III's reign, in the town of Athribis (modern Banha in the north of Cairo). His father was Hapu, and his mother Ipu. 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's mortuary temple at western Thebes, of which only two statues remain nowadays, known as the Colossus of Memnon. His death may have occurred in the year 31 of Amenhotep's reign (according to some reliefs in the tomb of Ramose). It is recorded by Manetho that in Akhenaten's reign, he committed suicide because of they way Akhenaten's reign was going. 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. There are several statues of him as a scribe, portraying him as a young man and as an older man. Velikovsky, not known for his orthodox views, links Amenhotep, son of Hapu with the legendary seer Tiresias, of the story of Oedipus.
References
- Heinrich Brugsch Bey,Egypt Under the Pharaohs: A History Derived Entirely from the Monuments, 1891
- 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
