Matthew Reed

Season: 2, Episodes: 1, Faction: N/A

Overview

Matthew Reed is a counselor who works with police officers in the LAPD.

Healing

Intelligence (Knowledge)

Architecture

Craftsman

Space (Stars)

2×08 – Collision

Teresa Cortez referred her daughter Ana Lucia to him after she was shot by Jason McCormack and lost her unborn baby. Reed saw Ana Lucia for four months after this tragic incident and was also the one who pronounced her ready to go back on the forced armed, although he may have been incorrect, since Ana Lucia subsequently overreacted during a routine domestic violence case after being given back her gun. (“Collision”)

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Related Character Images

Decoded Season 2 Characters

Ana Lucia Cortez

Teresa Cortez

Key Episode(s) to Decoding the Character

2x08 "Collision"

(Imouthes) Imhotep is the most prominent example of an Egyptian ‘saint’, that is, an historical figure who achieves divine or semi-divine status posthumously. Imhotep was the vizier and ‘overseer of works’ for the third dynasty king Djoser, distinguishing himself especially as the architect of Egypt’s first pyramid, the so-called Step Pyramid at Saqqara. He was also a priest of Ptah, and hence his divinization consisted in being regarded as the son of Ptah by a mortal woman, Khreduankh. Imhotep was also worshiped as a full deity, however, his mother then being usually Sekhmet, but occasionally Mut. Apparently a man of considerable intellectual achievement in his lifetime, Imhotep came to be regarded as a patron of learning in general, but especially medicine. Imhotep’s temple at Memphis functioned as a hospital and school of medicine. Imhotep appeared in dreams to those who solicited him, bestowing advice on virtually any matter upon which he was consulted, but especially medical concerns, the dream either resulting in an immediate cure, or by way of some treatment or ritual action the God recommended. Hence Imhotep came to be known as “the good physician of Gods and men, kind and merciful God, assuaging the sufferings of those in pain, healing the diseases of men and giving peaceful sleep to the restless and suffering,” (Hurry 1926, 54). Imhotep also advises on and guarantees the proper form for rituals. Imhotep is depicted as a man, usually seated, in the garb of a priest or scribe, or sometimes nude, wearing a skullcap or with shaved head, frequently unrolling a papyrus scroll from which he reads. One votive statue of Imhotep bears the inscription, “Every scribe pours out to you a libation from his water bowl,” (ibid., 103).

A cycle of festivals were celebrated in honor of Imhotep through the year, celebrating his birth, his appearance before Ptah and Sekhmet, his death, and his resurrection in the company of his father Ptah. A hymn to Imhotep is inscribed upon the temple of Ptah at Karnak, alongside one to another ‘saint’, Amenhotep son of Hapu, who is often worshiped together with Imhotep. In the hymn Imhotep is said to share in the offerings which are presented to the Gods, who are referred to are “your brothers, the elder Gods,” in addition to the offerings which made to him directly, and in turn to “feed the worthy spirits with your surpluses,” that is, to distribute his surplus to the worthy deceased persons. As a healer, Imhotep is said in the hymn to “renew your father’s [Ptah’s] creation,” and to exist in the closest alliance with Amenhotep son of Hapu, “who loves you, whom you love … your bodies form a single one” (Lichtheim vol. 3, 104-6).

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Further Info

Other Names: Imhetep

Patron of: Architecture and the Sciences

Appearance: a man dressed in the robes of a noble with the punt beard and carrying the tools of a builder

Description: Not really a god in the truest sense of the word, Imhotep was a deified man. He was originally the chief architect, grand vizier, physician, and scientist under Zoser (III Dynasty, c.2635-2570 BC). He designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and formulated the architectural theories that would lead to the construction of the Pyramids of Giza only a few generations later. He was also an accomplished astronomer and physician.

After his death a cult sprang up dedicated to him. It quickly grew in popularity among the learned people of Egypt (Imhotep’s life had occurred during a sort of Renaissance) and continued for many centuries. His followers believed him to be the son of Ptah, the architect of the entire universe.

Worship: Worshipped widely throughout Egypt, he even had a flourishing cult in Greece where he was identified with Asclepius, another deified man and the god of healing.

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Wiki Info

Imhotep (sometimes spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep; called Imuthes (Ιμυθες) by the Greeks), fl. 27th century BC (2655-2600 BC) (Egyptian ii-m-ḥtp *jā-im-ḥatāp meaning “the one who comes in peace”) was an Egyptian polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king, Djoser, as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. He is considered to be the first architect and engineer and physician in early history though two other physicians, Hesy-Ra and Merit-Ptah lived around the same time. The full list of his titles is:

Chancellor of the King of Egypt, Doctor, First in line after the King of Upper Egypt, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary nobleman, High Priest of Heliopolis, Builder, Chief Carpenter, Chief Sculptor, and Maker of Vases in Chief.

Imhotep was one of very few mortals to be depicted as part of a pharaoh’s statue. He was one of only a few commoners ever to be accorded divine status after death. The center of his cult was Memphis. From the First Intermediate Period onward Imhotep was also revered as a poet and philosopher. His sayings were famously referred to in poems: I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hordedef with whose discourses men speak so much.

The location of Imhotep’s self-constructed tomb was well hidden from the beginning and it remains unknown, despite efforts to find it. The consensus is that it is hidden somewhere at Saqqara. Imhotep’s historicity is confirmed by two contemporary inscriptions made during his lifetime on the base or pedestal of one of Djoser’s statues (Cairo JE 49889) and also by a graffito on the enclosure wall surrounding Sekhemkhet’s unfinished step-pyramid. The latter inscription suggests that Imhotep outlived Djoser by a few years and went on to serve in the construction of king Sekhemkhet’s pyramid which was abandoned due to this ruler’s brief reign.

Attribution of achievements and inventions

Most known information about him is based on hearsay and conjecture. The ancient Egyptians credited him with many inventions. For example, it is claimed that he invented or improved the papyrus scroll. James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:

In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser’s reign left so notable a reputation that his name is not forgotten to this day. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation from the water-jug of their writing outfit before beginning their work.

—James Henry Breasted

Architecture and engineering

As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djoser, he designed the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt in 2630 – 2611 BCE. He may have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture. As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep’s idealized image lasted well into the Ptolemaic period. The Egyptian historian Manetho credited him with inventing the method of a stone-dressed building during Djoser’s reign, though he was not the first to actually build with stone. Stone walling, flooring, lintels, and jambs had appeared sporadically during the Archaic Period, though it is true that a building of the Step Pyramid’s size and made entirely out of stone had never before been constructed. Before Djoser, pharaohs were buried in mastaba tombs.

Medicine

Imhotep is credited with being the founder of medicine and with being the author of a medical treatise remarkable for being devoid of magical thinking; the so-called Edwin Smith papyrus containing anatomical observations, ailments, and cures. The surviving papyrus was probably written around 1700 BC but may be a copy of texts a thousand years older. This attribution of authorship is speculative, however.

Birth myths

According to myth, Imhotep’s mother was a mortal named Kheredu-ankh, elevated later to semi-divine status by claims that she was the daughter of Banebdjedet. Conversely, since Imhotep was known as the “Son of Ptah,” his mother was sometimes claimed to be Sekhmet, the patron of Upper Egypt whose consort was Ptah. Imhotep is said to have been born near Memphis.

Deification

As Imhotep was considered the founder of medicine as a discipline, he was sometimes said to be the one who held up the goddess Nut (the deification of the sky), as the separation of Nut and Geb (the deification of the earth) was said to be what held back chaos. Due to the position this would have placed him in, he was also sometimes said to be Nut’s son. In artwork he is also linked with the great goddess, Hathor, who eventually became identified as the wife of Ra. Imhotep was also associated with Ma’at, the goddess who personified the concept of truth, cosmic order, and justice — having created order out of chaos and being responsible for maintaining that order.

Two thousand years after his death, Imhotep’s status was raised to that of a deity. He became the god of medicine and healing. He later was linked to Asclepius by the Greeks. He was associated with Amenhotep son of Hapu, who was another deified architect, in the region of Thebes where they were worshipped as “brothers”.

Legacy

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep’s reputation was very respected in early times … His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.”

It is Imhotep, says Sir William Osler, who was the real “Father of Medicine”, “the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity.”

Imhotep was also identified with Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing, education, literacy and scribes through the Greco-Roman Period.

Imhotep’s dreams

The Upper Egyptian Famine Stela, dating from the Ptolemaic period, bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine of seven years during the reign of Djoser. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental in ending it. One of his priests explained the connection between the god Khnum and the rise of the Nile to the king, who then had a dream in which the Nile god spoke to him, promising to end the drought.

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