Page 59 - All About History - Issue 180-19

The Heretic Pharaoh

a solar disc with sun rays emanating from it, each the extent that the royal heb-sed festival showing
ending in hands holding ankhs to the mouths and the prowess of the king, was celebrated together as
noses of the royal family. two gods/two kings.
However, even this imagery is not new and is It could be questioned whether Akhenaten
depicted on Amenhotep II’s stela at Giza (1453-1419 was elevating his position to that of a god, or
BCE). Akhenaten didn’t even start the reverence reducing the god’s position to that of king.
of the deity. This was started by his father Either way, they were equal.
Amenhotep III, as part of a campaign to restrict This equality was further emphasised with
the ever-growing power of the priesthood of Amun Akhenaten’s control over the personal religion
located at Karnak temple. Akhenaten simply of the Egyptian people. The only people able
continued his father’s work but with more fervour. to worship Aten directly were the royal family.
Many modern writers believe that Akhenaten’s Everyone else in Egypt was expected to worship
religion was monotheistic but this does not seem Akhenaten, who would converse with the Aten on
to be the case. One of the first acts of Akhenaten their behalf. This suggests there were in fact two Nefertiti is
after he became king was, in year three, to write gods of equal divinity – Akhenaten and Aten. believed to
Aten’s name in a pair of cartouches. It wasn’t until year nine of his reign that have worked
This presented the divine name as part of a Akhenaten’s religious fanaticism went to extremes. hand in hand
with her
royal titulary and Aten was also given regnal years He closed all other temples in Egypt and diverted husband to
that were in line with those of the king. The king all their revenue to the temples of the Aten at reform Egypt © Alamy
and the god were therefore closely intertwined, to Tell el Amarna. Some years later he started a hate

This text is thought by many to show Akhenaten’s
AkHEnATEn’s Hymn To THE ATEn monotheism was a forerunner to Christianity

One text that has led to many comparisons between This is compared to verse 23 from Psalm 104,
Akhenaten’s religion and Christianity is the Great Hymn
to the Aten, which is recorded in his vizier, Ay’s tomb “The sun ariseth, they gather themselves
at Tell el Amarna. It has been compared to Psalm 104 together and lay them down in their dens. Man
from the Book of Psalms in the Christian Bible. There are goeth forth unto his work and to his labour
eight points of comparison between this and Psalm 104, until the evening.”
although the full text runs to dozens of lines.
For example The Hymn to the Aten states, This verse from the Hymn to the Aten is often
compared with verse 12 of the Psalm. It states,
“The land is in darkness, in the manner of death …
Every lion is come forth from his den; All creeping “The birds which fly from their nests,
things, they sting.” Their wings are (stretched out) in praise to thy ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feet.
Verse 20 from Psalm 104 similarly writes, Whatever flies and alights,

They live when thou hast risen (for) them.”
“Thou makest darkness and it is night: wherein
all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The The Psalm comparatively states,
young lions roar after their prey and seek their

meat from God.” “By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their
habitation, which sing among the branches.”
Another verse from the Hymn to the Aten states,
These comparisons seem convincing of the religion of the
“At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon, Aten being the origin of the Psalm and Christian thought

When thou shinest as the Aten by day, but for the eight comparable points there are many other
Thou drivest away the darkness and givest thy rays. verses that do not compare. Additionally the Hymn to the
Aten was not new at the time it was penned and much is
The Two Lands are in festivity every day, adapted from the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts (2040-

Awake and standing upon (their) feet, 1782 BCE) and earlier hymns to Amun. Akhenaten had
For thou hast raised them up … taken well-known elements of the traditional religion and © Getty Images
All the world, they do their work.” re-branded them to fit his new god; as did later religions.

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