To appreciate just how long ago Imhotep lived, it is important to remember that Egyptian history only really began just half a millennium before his time, when the semi-mythical King Menes (MEHN-eez) united Upper and Lower Egypt. Five hundred years might seem like a long time, but in the grand sweep of history it is not much, especially considering that it was all that lay between Imhotep's time and prehistory.
Imhotep qualifies as the first true “person” in history. Certainly he was the first non-king or “ordinary” person, though he was far from common. Of course there were people before Imhotep, but none about whom historians know much. What few names survive from the prehistory of Near Eastern civilizations are either of legendary figures such as the biblical Adam and Eve, or of semi-legendary ones such as Menes. Though there was certainly a factual basis for the idea of Menes, the facts about him are so shadowy that he is almost like a figure out of mythology.
On the other hand, Zoser, or Djoser (ZHOH-suhr), the pharaoh for whom Imhotep designed the Step Pyramid,
Pythagoras
The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras (puh-THAG-uh-ruhs; c. 580-c. 500 b. c.) is one of the few figures in ancient times, or indeed in any age, who warrants comparison to the extraordinary Imhotep. Although he is best known for his famous geometrical theorem, his accomplishments ranged far beyond mathematics and involved areas as diverse as music, politics, and religion. Like Imhotep, he was a figure larger than life. Some historians suggest that he never really lived; in fact it appears highly likely that he did live some time during the 500s B. C. (Imhotep was only a bit less ancient to Pythagoras than Pythagoras is to modern people.)
Born on Samos (SAH-mohs), an Ionian (ie-OHN-ee-uhn) island off the coast of Asia Minor, Pythagoras later settled in Crotona (kruh-TOH-nuh) in southern Italy. There he gathered around him a school of followers, usually referred to as the Pythagoreans (puh-thag-uh-REE-uhnz), who had their own way of looking at life. It is possible that the Pythagoreans took control of Crotona, which may have led to Pythagoras's expulsion in about 509 b. c.
Certainly the Pythagoreans were interested in politics, along with most other subjects. Pythagoras and his followers envisioned a world of small communities. In each community people would share property. Women would have the same rights as men—an extremely radical idea, particularly in the Greek world. Everyone in this utopia would take an active interest in mathematics and music, concepts which in Pythagoras's mind were closely linked.
Pythagoras believed that the universe was highly ordered and could be explained mathematically. He was able to establish a complex relationship between the movements of the planets and the intervals between notes on the musical scale, an idea his followers termed "the music of the spheres." His ideas of precise relationships between different elements had a strong influence on Greek sculpture and architecture, both of which were heavily concerned with proportion.
Other Pythagorean ideas, particularly his belief in reincarnation, gained less acceptance in the world at large. This belief seems to be at odds with his scientific interests, but in Pythagoras's time, there was no clear division between religion and science.
Similarly, he treated numbers as though they were something mystical and possessed a real and highly concrete existence. This idea, not to mention Pythagoras's utopian politics, would heavily influence the philosopher Plato (see entry). It was a measure of Pythagoras's broad views, however, that he also had a great effect on Aristotle (see entry), a philosopher with ideas quite different from those of Plato.
Was most certainly a historical figure who probably reigned from about 2630 to 2611 b. c. But more is actually known about Imhotep.
World History
