The special personage corresponding to Æsculapius, among the Egyptians, would seem to have been IMHOTEP, EIMOPTH, IMOTHPH, EIMOTHPH, or EMEPH, a god whose shrine was first discovered by Salt,[350] the Egyptologist, at Philæ. A Greek inscription on the shrine reads: “Æsculapius, who is Imuthes, son of Vulcan.” In accordance with the inscription, Sir Erasmus Wilson says: “Imhotep, the IMUTHES of the Greeks, corresponded with their Æsculapius.”[351] Ebers, probably the best of authorities on the subject, says of Imhotep: “He was the son of Ptah, and named Asklepios by the Greeks. Memphis[352] was the chief city of his worship. He is usually represented with a cap on his head and a book on his knee. There are fine statues of him at Berlin, the Louvre, and other museums.”[353] It is said by Tiele that “he is a personification of the sacrificial fire,” that “the texts designate him as the first of the Cher-hib,” a class of priests who were at the same time choristers and physicians, for the sacred hymns were believed to have a magical power as remedies, and that his worship, although of ancient date, “does not seem ever to have taken a prominent place.”[354] Of Imhotep I may further say, in the way of biography, that he was the son of Ptah and Sekhet, and was possibly a king of the sixth dynasty. In the Egyptian system of mythology, Ptah, “he who forms,” the god of fire, was regarded as the father of the gods and the great artificer of the world. He bore a resemblance to Hephæstus,[355] a god, indeed, who had the gift of healing. After all, it is necessary to say that there is but little evidence to establish the claim of Imhotep to the title of god of medicine. As Kenrick says, “He has no attribute which specially refers to the art of healing, and it may be an arbitrary interpretation of the Greeks which gave him the name of Æsculapius, as some applied the same to Serapis.”[356] Whether he was a medical worthy or not, it appears from quotations from his teachings given in a song, recently translated from a papyrus in the British Museum, that he was of decidedly epicurean views. “Fulfill,” says he, “thy desire whilst thou livest;” and again: “Feast in tranquility, seeing that there is no one who carries away his good things with him.”[357] However, as a matter of interest, I will give the name of the god in the Egyptian characters.[358] The double reed stands for a long _i_, or _ei_, the owl for _m_, and the other three figures—the table, semicircle, and square—for _h_ _t_ _p_. As will be observed, the _o_ and _e_ of the ideographic combination, _hotep_,[359] are not given. The reason of this is, that in writing, the Egyptians, like the Hebrews and others, commonly omitted the vowels, except at the beginning and end of words. The meaning of the name is rendered by Bunsen, “I come with the offering.”[360]