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| atenism | |
| pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty of egypt | |
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Akhenaten (or rarely '', first known as '''Amenhotep IV''' (sometimes read as ''Amenophis IV'' and meaning '' Amun is Satisfied'') before his first year, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty Of Egypt , especially notable for attempting to compel the Egyptian population to monotheistically worship the Aten . Although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this, it was the first known attempt at Monotheism the world had seen. He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was their younger son. Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose . Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a Coregency lasting between either 1 to 2 or 12 years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to the debates surrounding Egyptian Chronology ) are from 1353 BC - 1336 BC or 1351 BC – 1334 BC . Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti , who has been made famous by her exquisitely painted Bust in the Altes Museum of Berlin . ATENIST REVOLUTION See Also: Atenism A political and religious revolutionary, Amenhotep IV introduced Atenism in the fourth year of his reign, raising the previously obscure god Aten (sometimes spelled Aton) to the position of supreme deity, and attacking the power of the Amen-Ra priestly establishment. The early stage of Atenism appears to be a kind of Henotheism (the exaltation of one god above all others) familiar in Egyptian Religion , but the later form suggests a Monotheism (belief in the existence of only one deity or god). Aten was the name for the sun-disk itself; hence the fact that it is often referred to in English in the impersonal form "the Aten". The Aten was by this point in Egyptian history considered to be an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus. These previously separate deities had been merged with each other. Amun was identified with Ra , who was also identified with Horus . Akhenaten simplified this Syncretism by proclaiming the visible sun itself to be the sole deity, thus introducing a type of Monotheism . Some commentators interpret this as a proto- Scientific naturalism, based on the observation that the sun's energy is the ultimate source of all life. Others consider it to be a way of cutting through the previously Ritual istic emphasis of Egyptian religion to allow for a new "personal relationship" with god; this interpretation is hampered by the fact that only the Royal family was able to interact with and perform rituals pertaining to the Aten. Others interpret it as a pragmatic political move designed to further centralise power by crushing the independent authority of the traditional Amun priesthood who controlled Egypt's wealth and produce. However, Akhenaten did not formally break with the Amun priests and still used his old Amun inspired royal name--Amenhotep IV--until Fourth Year when the latter defied his authority, according to the text on one of his Amarna border stela. This religious reformation appears to have begun with his decision to celebrate a Sed Festival in his third regnal year — a highly unusual step, since a Sed-festival, a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce the Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship, was traditionally held in the thirtieth year of a Pharaoh's reign. His Year 5 marked the beginning of his construction of a new capital, Akhetaten ('Horizon of Aten'), at the site known today as Amarna . In the same year, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten ('Effective Spirit of Aten') as evidence of his new worship. Very soon afterward he centralized Egyptian religious practices in Akhetaten, though construction of the city seems to have continued for several more years. In honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak , close to the old temple of Amun . In these new temples, Aten was worshipped in the open sunlight, rather than in dark temple enclosures, as had been the previous custom. Akhenaten is also believed to have composed the Great Hymn To The Aten . Initially, Akhenaten presented Aten as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Amun-Ra (itself the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun , resulting in Amun becoming merged with the sun god Ra ), in an attempt to put his ideas in a familiar Egyptian religious context. However, by Year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god, and that he, Akhenaten, was the only intermediary between Aten and his people. He ordered the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt, and in a number of instances inscriptions of the plural 'gods' were also removed. Aten's name is also written differently after Year 9, to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime, which included a ban on Idols , with the exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten, who by then was evidently considered not merely a sun god, but rather a universal deity. It is important to note, however, that representations of the Aten were always accompanied with a sort of "hieroglyphic footnote", stating that the representation of the sun as All-encompassing Creator was to be taken as just that: a representation of something that, by its very nature as something transcending creation, cannot be fully or adequately represented by any one part of that creation. AKHENATEN'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Important evidence about Akhenaten's reign and foreign policy has been provided by the discovery of the Amarna Letters , a cache of diplomatic correspondence discovered in modern times at El-Amarna , the modern designation of the Akhetaten site. This correspondence comprises a priceless collection of incoming messages on clay tablets, sent to Akhetaten from various subject ruler through Egyptian military outposts, and from the foreign rulers (recognized as "Great Kings") of Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria and Hatti. The governors and kings of Egypt's subject domains also wrote frequently to plead for Gold from Pharaoh, and also complained of being snubbed and cheated by him. Early on in his reign, Akhenaten fell out with the king of Mitanni , Tushratta , who had been courting favor with his father against the Hittites. Tushratta complains in numerous letters that Akhenaten had sent him gold plated statues rather than statues made of solid gold; the statues formed part of the dowry which Tushratta received for letting his daughter Tadukhepa be married to Amenhotep III and then Akhenaten. Amarna letter EA 27 preserves a complaint by Tushratta to Akhenaten about the situation ''I...asked your father, , The Amarna Letters, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992., pp.87-89 While Akhenaten was certainly not a close friend of Tushratta, he was evidently concerned at the expanding power of the is mentioned in one letter.Trevor Bryce, The ''Kingdom of the Hittites'', Clarendon Press, 1998. p.186 When Rib-Hadda appealed in vain for aid to Akhenaten and then turned to Aziru, his sworn enemy to place him back on the throne of his city, Aziru promptly had him dispatched to the king of Sidon where Rib-Hadda was almost certainly executed.Bryce, op. cit., p.186 The Amarna corpus of 380+ letters counters the conventional view that Akhenaten neglected Egypt's foreign territories in favour of his internal reforms notes William L. Moran .Moran, op. cit., p.xxvi There are several letters from Egyptian vassals notifying Pharaoh that the king's instructions have been followed: To the king, my lord, my god, my Sun, the Sun from the sky: Message of Yapahu, the ruler of Gazru , your servant, the dirt at your feet. I indeed prostrate myself at the feet of the king, my lord, my god, my Sun...7 times and 7 times, on the stomach and on the back. I am indeed guarding the place of the king, my lord, the Sun of the sky, where I am, and all the things the king, my lord, has written me, I am indeed carrying out--everything! Who am I, a dog, and what is my house...and what is anything I have, that the orders of the king, my lord, the Sun from the sky, should not obey constantly?'' (EA 378)Moran, op. cit., pp.368-69 When the loyal but unfortunate Rib-Hadda was killed at the instigation of Aziru Bryce, op. cit., p.186, Akhenaten sent an angry letter to Aziru containing a barely veiled accusation of outright treachery on the latter's part.Moran, op. cit., pp.248-250 Akhenaten wrote: ''Say to Aziru, ruler of ), whose brother had cast him away at the gate, said to you, "Take me and get me into the city. There is much silver, and I will give it to you. Indeed there is an abundance of everything, but not with me {Link without Title} ." Thus did the ruler (Rib-Hadda) speak to you. Did you not write to the king, my lord saying, "I am your servant like all the previous mayors (ie: vassals) in his city"? Yet you acted delinquently by taking the mayor whose brother had cast him away at the gate, from his city.'' ''He (Rib-Hadda) was residing in Sidon and, following your own judgment, you gave him to (some) mayors. Were you ignorant of the treacherousness of the men? If you really are the king's servant, why did you not denounce him before the king, your lord, saying, "This mayor has written to me saying, 'Take me to yourself and get me into my city'"? And if you did act loyally, still all the things you wrote were not true. In fact, the king has reflected on them as follows, "Everything you have said is not friendly."'' ''Now the king has heard as follows, "You are at peace with the ruler of Qidsa. ( Kadesh ) The two of you take food and strong drink together." And it is true. Why do you act so? Why are you at peace with a ruler whom the king is fighting? And even if you did act loyally, you considered your own judgment, and his judgment did not count. You have paid no attention to the things that you did earlier. What happened to you among them that you are not on the side of the king, your lord? Consider the people that are training you for their own advantage. They want to throw you into the fire....If for any reason whatsoever you prefer to do evil, and if you plot evil, treacherous things, then you, together with your entire family, shall die by the axe of the king. So perform your service for the king, your lord, and you will live. You yourself know that the king does not fail when he rages against all of Canaan. And when you wrote saying, 'May the king, my Lord, give me leave this year, and then I will go next year to the king, my Lord. (ie: to Egypt) If this is impossible, I will send my son in my place'--the king, your Lord, let you off this year in accordance with what you said. Come yourself, or send your son {Link without Title} , and you will see the king at whose sight all lands live.'' (EA 162)Moran, op. cit., pp.248-249 This letter shows that Akhenaten paid close attention to the affairs of his vassals in Canaan and Syria. Akhenaten commanded Aziru to come to Egypt and proceeded to detain him there for at least one year.Bryce, op. cit., p.188 In the end, Akhenaten was forced to release Aziru back to his homeland when the Hittites advanced southwards into Amki thereby threatening Egypt's series of Asiatic vassal states including Amurru.Bryce, op. cit., p.188 Sometime after his return to Amurru, Aziru defected to the Hittite side with his kingdom.Bryce, op. cit., p.189 While it is known from an Amarna letter by Rib-Hadda that the Hittites "seized all the countries that were vassals of the king of Mitanni",Moran, op. cit., EA 75, p.145 Akhenaten managed to preserve Egypt's control over the core of her Near Eastern Empire which consisted of present day Palestine as well as the Phoenician coast while avoiding conflict with the increasingly powerful Hittite Empire of Suppiluliuma I . Only the Egyptian border province of Amurru in Syria around the Orontes river was permanently lost to the Hittites when its ruler Aziru defected to the Hittites. Finally, contrary to the conventional view of a ruler who neglected Egypt's international relations, Akhenaten is known to have initiated at least one campaign into Nubia in his regnal Year 12.A.R. Schulman, "The Nubian War of Akhenaten" in L'Egyptologie en 1979: Axes prioritaires de recherchs II (Paris: 1982), pp.299-316 Akhenaten's Year 12 campaign is mentioned in Amada stela CG 41806 and on a separate companion stela at Buhen. PLAGUE AND PANDEMIC This due to the fact that at Amarna the traces of the plague have been found.Arielle Kozloff, in "Bubonic Plague in the Reign of Amenhotep III?" (''KMT'', 17, 3 (Fall 2006), pp. 36-46) discusses the evidence, arguing that the epidemic was caused by Bubonic plague over polio. However, her argument that "polio is only fractionally as virulent as some other diseases" ignores the evidence that diseases become less virulent the longer they are present in the human population, as demonstrated with Syphilis and Tuberculosis . PHARAOH AND FAMILY DEPICTIONS in the naturalistic style of the late-Amarna period, associated with the sculptor Thutmose ]] Styles of art that flourished during this short period are markedly different from other Egyptian art, bearing a variety of affectations, from elongated heads to protruding stomachs, exaggerated ugliness and the beauty of Nefertiti. Significantly, and for the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art, Akhenaten's family was depicted in a decidedly naturalistic manner, and they are clearly shown displaying affection for each other. Nefertiti also appears beside the king in actions usually reserved for a Pharaoh, suggesting that she attained unusual power for a queen. Artistic representations of Akhenaten give him a strikingly bizarre appearance, with an elongated face, slender limbs, a protruding belly, wide hips, and an overall pear-shaped body. It has been suggested that the pharaoh had himself depicted in this way for religious reasons. Until Akhenaten's mummy is located and identified, proposals of actual physical abnormalities are likely to remain speculative. Following Akenaten's death, a comprehensive political, religious and artistic reformation returned Egyptian life to the norms it had followed previously during his father's reign. Much of the art and building infrastructure that was created during Akhenaten's reign was defaced or destroyed in the period immediately following his death. Stone building blocks from his construction projects were later used as foundation stones for subsequent rulers temples and tombs. Family and relations : ''See also'': Eighteenth Dynasty Of Egypt Family Tree Amenhotep IV was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his reign, and the couple had six known daughters and possibly two sons (the sons with his other wife Kiya ). This is a list with suggested years of birth:
His known consorts were:
Also suggested as his consorts were his daughters:
Both Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten apparently had children – Meritaten-ta-sherit and Ankhesenpaaten-ta-sherit , respectively –, but there are doubts not only regarding their parentage but their existence as well. Both appear only in texts which had belonged to Kiya, and were usurped by the princesses later, and it was suggested that they might have been the daughters of Kiya, or were fictional, replacing Kiya's daughter in those scenes.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.154 Two other lovers have been suggested, but are not widely accepted:
BURIAL AND SUCCESSION Akhenaten planned to relocate Egyptian burials on the East side of the Nile (sunrise) rather than on the West side (sunset), in the Royal Wadi in Akhetaten . His body was probably removed after the court returned to Thebes , and reburied somewhere in the Valley of the Kings. His sarcophagus was destroyed but has since been reconstructed and now sits outside in the Cairo Museum . He was buried In 1336 B.C., in a pink granite sarcophagus. There is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, , William Murnane, Alan Gardiner and more recently by Lawrence Berman in 1998 contests the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten and his father.Lawrence M. Berman, 'Overview of Amenhotep III and His Reign,' in Amenhotep III: Perspectives on his Reign, ed: David O'Connor & Eric Cline, op. cit, p.23 Similarly, although it is accepted that Akhenaten himself died in Year 17 of his reign, the question of whether Smenkhkare became co-regent perhaps 2 or 3 years earlier or enjoyed a brief independent reign is unclear. If Smenkhkare outlived Akhenaten, and became sole Pharaoh, he likely ruled Egypt for less than a year. The next successor was certainly entry)'' With Akhenaten's death, the Aten cult he had founded gradually fell out of favor. Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun in Year 2 of his reign ( 1332 BC ) and abandoned the city of Akhetaten, which eventually fell into ruin. His successors Ay and Horemheb disassembled temples Akhenaten had built, including the temple at Thebes, using them as a source of easily available building materials and decorations for their own temples. Finally, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, and Ay were excised from the official lists of Pharaohs, which instead reported that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb . This is thought to be part of an attempt by Horemheb to delete all trace of Atenism and the pharaohs associated with it from the historical record. Akhenaten's name never appeared on any of the king lists compiled by later Pharaohs and it was not until the late 19th Century that his identity was re-discovered and the surviving traces of his reign were unearthed by archaeologists. SPECULATIVE THEORIES Akhenaten's status as a religious revolutionary has led to much speculation, ranging from the mainstream to New Age Esotericism . First "individual" Akhenaten has been called "the first individual in history", as well as the first monotheist, first scientist, and first romantic.Discussions of such Akenatenolatry can be found on Akhenaten , Deep Thought As early as 1899 Flinders Petrie declared that, : ''If this were a new religion, invented to satisfy our modern scientific conceptions, we could not find a flaw in the correctness of this view of the energy of the solar system. How much Akhenaten understood, we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, the sole Lord of the universe.''Sir Flinders Petrie, ''History of Egypt'' (edit. 1899), Vol. II, p. 214. H.R. Hall even claimed that the pharaoh was the "first example of the scientific mind".H. R. Hall, ''Ancient History of the Near East'', p. 599. Moses and Akhenaten The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a , 1964. Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Following his book, the concept entered popular consciousness and serious research. Recently, Ahmed Osman has claimed that Moses and Akhenaten were the same individual. While these alternative views have gained acceptance in various quartersLaurence Gardner, ''Bloodline of the Holy Grail'', ''Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark'',Gary Greenberg, ''The Moses Mystery: The African Origins of the Jewish People most scholars do not take them seriously. An example of such skepticism has been stated by Savitri Devi , who insisted in her book '' The Lightning And The Sun '' that Akenaten's god bore no resemblance to, "...the jealous tribal god Jehovah, created in the image of the Jews, — but the equivalent of the immanent, impersonal Tat — That — of the Chandogya Upanishad , no less than of das Gott (as opposed to “der Gott”) of the ancient Germans, and the one conception of Divinity that modern science, far from disproving, on the contrary, suggests.Savitri Devi, ''The Lightening and the Sun'', p. 142 Other scholars and mainstream Egyptologists point out that there are direct connections between early Judaism and other Semitic religious traditions.Curtis, Samuel (2005), "Primitive Semitic Religion Today" (Kessinger Publications) They also state that two of the three principal Judaic terms for God, Yahweh and Elohim , have no connection to Aten. Akhenaten does seem to appear, according to the , as most Asiatic settlers tended to cloister around the Nile delta region of Lower Egypt Montete, Pierre (1964), "Eternal Egypt" (New American Press)Redford, Donald B. (1993), "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" (Princeton University Press). Some Egyptologists, however, give him a Mitannian origin. It is widely accepted that there are strong similarities between Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104 , though this form is found widespread in ancient Near Eastern Hymn ology both before and after the period and whether this implies a direct influence or a common literary convention remains in dispute. Oedipus theory Another claim was made by Immanuel Velikovsky .Immanuel Velikovsky, ''Oedipus and Akhnaton, Myth and History'', Doubleday, 1960 Velikovsky argued that Moses was neither Akhenaten, nor one of his followers. Instead, Velikovsky identifies Akhenaten as the history behind Oedipus and moved the setting from the Greek Thebes to the Egyptian Thebes. His theory also includes that Akhenaten had an incestuous relationship with his mother, Tiye . Velikovsky also posited that Akhenaten had Elephantiasis , producing enlarged legs – Oedipus being Greek for "swollen feet." As part of his argument, Velikovsky uses the fact that Akhenaten viciously carried out a campaign to erase the name of his father, which he argues could have developed into Oedipus killing his father. This point seems to be disproved, however, in that Akhenaten in fact mummified and buried his father in the honorable traditional Egyptian fashion prior to beginning his monotheistic revolution. Akhenaton's genetic make-up The rather strange and eccentric portrayals of Akhenaten, with a sagging stomach, thick thighs, larger breasts, and long, thin face - so different from the athletic norm in the portrayal of Pharaohs - has led certain Egyptologists to suppose that Akhenaten suffered some kind of genetic abnormality. Various illnesses have been put forward. Cyril Aldred Aldred, C. (1988). "Akhenaten, King of Egypt". (Thames and Hudson, Ltd.,) , on the basis of his longer jaw and his feminine appearance suggested he may be suffering from Froelich's Syndrome . However, this is unlikely because this disorder results in Sterility and Akhenaten is believed to have fathered numerous children. Another suggestion by Burridge Burridge, A., (1995) "Did Akhenaten Suffer From Marfan's Syndrome?" (Akhenaten Temple Project Newsletter No. 3, Sept. 1995) is that Akhenaten may have suffered from Marfan's Syndrome. and a longer head than normal. A third alternative Reeves, Nicholas (2005) "Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet" (Thames and Hudson) relates to some form of religious symbolism. Because the god Aten was referred to as "The mother and father of all human kind," it has been suggested that Akhenaten was made to look Androgynous in artwork as a symbol of the androgyny of the god. Akhenaten did refer to himself as "The Unique One of Re," and it maybe that he used his control of the artistic expression to distance himself from the populace and the common people. IN THE ARTS
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