Akhenaten

From New World Encyclopedia
Akhenaton redirects here.
Bust of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.


Akhenaten, known as Amenhotep IV at the start of his reign, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiy at some point during his father's reign. Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a co-regency between the two of up to 12 years. Suggested dates for Akhenaten's reign (subject to the debates surrounding Egyptian chronology) are from 1367 B.C.E. to 1350 B.C.E. or from 1350 B.C.E./1349 B.C.E. to 1334 B.C.E./ 1333 B.C.E. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, who has been made famous as the most 'beautiful women in the world' by her bust in the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin.

other names:

  • Amenhotep (IV), (nomen, or birth name)
  • Amenophis (Greek variant of birth name)
  • Nefer-kheperu-Rê (praenomen, or throne name)
  • Naphu(`)rureya (Variant of throne name found in the Amarna letters)
  • Alternative spellings of Akhenaten (Name taken on conversion to Atenism, exclusive worship of the sun deity )

- Akhnaten', Akhenaton, Akhnaton, Ankhenaten, Ankhenaton, Ikhnaton

Atenist revolution

File:Aten disk.jpg
Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten

Unusually, Pharaoah Amenhotep IV was not invested as custom dicated at the main Temple in Karnak but at, but at Hermonthis, where his uncle Inen was High Priest (Ptahmose) of Amen-Re, the Sun God. However, very soon after his corronation, the new Pharaoh began to build a roofless temple to a previoulsy obscure God Aten (or Atum), the disk of the rising sun. He soon forbade the worship of other gods, especially of the state god Amen of Thebes. In the 6th year he changed his name from Amenhotep ("Amen is satisfied") to Akhenaten ("beneficial to Aten") and left Thebes for a new capital at Akhetaten (El Amarna), which he started to build. Funds were diverted from the Amun or Amen cultus to the new one. No image of this God was ever made, thus it is often referred to in English in the impersonal form "the Aten". Akhenaten vastly simplified Egyptian religion by proclaiming the visible sun itself to be the sole deity, thus introducing 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 ritualistic emphasis of Egyptian religion to allow for a new "personal relationship" with God. 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. Perhaps absence of any reference to the realm of the dead, so prominent in Egyptian religion, was the most remarkable feature. So much wealth and effort was traditionally invested in preparation for death that this aspect of the Armana episode is quite astonishing, although Freud (1955) saw this as a necessary part of the struggle against the 'popular religion, where the death-god Osiris played perhaps a greater part than any God of the bupper regions' (29).

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 the old gods had been. Akhenaten is also believed to have composed the Great Hymn to the Aten, which began:

Thou aristest beauteous in the horizon of heaven. O living Aten, beginner of life, when thou dost shine forth in the eastern horizon and dost fill every land with thy beauty...

The hymn goes on to proclaim that Aten's 'works are manifold' and 'mysterious in men's sight'. He is 'the sole God, like to whom there is none other' who 'didst create the earth' after his own 'heart'. Aten 'makest the seasons in order to prosper all' that he had made' (Montet,1968: 140-141).

Initially, Akhenaten presented Aten as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Ra-Harakhti (itself the result of an earlier fusion of two solar deities, Ra and Horus), 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 even ordered the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt. Departing from the traditional of claiming to be divine, Akhenaton was himself the high priest, and his chief wife, Nefertiti, was high priestess. It may have been believed that only through the combiation of husband-wife or priest and priestess could the full power of the deity be revealed. Reliefs show king and queen offering flowers as gifts to Aten. Akhenaton's reform may have been partly motivated by the desire to curb the power of the priests, whose wealth and power rivalled the Pharoahs, by assuming a priestly role for himself. The old cultus was neglected, no priests or high priests were appointed and the temples fell into neglect. Amenhotep III had also favored Aten, especially towards the end of his reign, 'probably in opposition to the worship of Amon in Thebes' (Freud, 1955: 22). Montet points out, too, a certain henotheistic trend in Egypt that had many earlier Pharoahs 'of vagueluy monotheistic tendency' speak 'more often than not of the god than they did of the gods' (1968: 144). Certainly, it seems that the backlash against his reform following his death was led by the priests of Ra. Nefertiti exercised a great deal of authority, perhaps almost as much as her husband. This is suggested by the fact that in the art of the period (known as the Amarna period) there are more depiction of her than of the Pharaoh himself, while one relief has her adopting one of the poses of the Pharaoh, that of the victor in battle. Towards the end of the period, however, she appears to disappear from the artistic record. In artwork, her status is evident and indicates that she had almost as much influence as her husband. Indeed, she is once even shown in the conventional pose of a pharaoh smiting his (or in this case, her) enemy. In other depictions, she wears crowns that usually only male royality wore. On the other hand, she is typically depected as much smaller than her husband, which accenttuates his power. In contrast, the images of Rameses II's wife, at Abu Simbal, show his queen Nefertari equal in stature.

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. This is indicated by references in the hymn to Aten's also blessing the Syrians and the Nubians.

Akhenaton and Moses

There has been much speculation about possible links between Akheneton and Moses. While there is no empirical evidence of any link, scholars have been fascinated by the possibility that monotheism may have started in Egypt and influenced Judaism or that there may have been at the least some traffic between Judaism and Akhenaton's creed. It is usually assumed that prior to Moses, the Hebrews were henotheists (gave exclusive allegiance to One God but did not deny the existence of others) and that Moses introduced monotheism. For Muslims, however, Abrahmam was a monotheist (many say the first, although that designation usually belongs to Adam) (see Q16: 123). The early stage of Atenism also appears to be a kind of henotheism familiar in Egyptian religion*, but the later form suggests a proto-monotheism. The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of monotheistic religion was promoted by Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis), in his book Moses and Monotheism and thereby entered popular consciousness. According to Freud, Moses was an Egyptian (not a Hebrew) close to Akhenaton. His 'slowness of speech' could be explained by his not being a native Hebrew speaker (1955: 37-8).

Moses was, said Freud, probably either of royal or priestly blood conscious of his own 'great abilities'. 'Ambitious and energetic', when he was passed over for advancement or succession following Akhneton's death, he decided to lead another people instead. The 'dreamer Akhenaton' had alientated his own people, too, who did not warm to his new creed, so Moses thought that another people might be more receptive. he chose a 'certain Semitic tribe' in the region of Gosen, of which he may have been Governor. Freud dated the Exodus between 1358B.C.E. and 1350B.C.E., 'that is to say, after the death of Ikhnaton and before the restitution of the authority of the state by Haremhab' (33) (Haremhab was a general under both Akhenaton and Amenhotep III, then co-king with Tutankhamun, who he killed and succeeded). Frued comments that while we do not know much about Akhenaten's religion, because following the restoration of the cult of Amon, who destroyed artifacts but he nontheless comapres and contrasts Mosaic and Armana religion. While he notes significant differences (for example, the Egyptian religion retained an element of sun-worship) similarities include the name of the deity (Atun for the Egyptians, Adonai [Lord] for the Hebrews), rejection of images and absence of interest in what happens 'beyond the grave' (28-29). Also, all 'myth, magic and sorcery' were excluded from Armana religion (26. Freud thinks that circumcision, an ancient Egyptian practice, was also introduced by Moses (not Abraham) and that Moses intended to establish his people as a 'holy nation' (34) who could look down on people who did not circumcise themselves (33). The Levites, Freud suggests, were relatives of Moses.

Recently Ahmed Osman has claimed that Moses and Akhenaten were one and the same person, supporting his belief by interpreting aspects of biblical and Egyptian history. This would mesh with Osman's other claim that Akhenaten's maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph. Others have identified Akhenaton not with a Pharaoh of close to Moses' times (usually identified as Ramses II) but with the Pharoah who appointed Joseph as his vizier. Mainstream Egyptologists do not take these speculations seriously, pointing out that there are direct connections between early Judaism and other Semitic religious traditions, but no identifiable links to Atenism. It is also known that Yuya's family were part of the regional nobility of Akhmin, in Upper Egypt, which would make it very unlikely that he was an Israelite. Immanuel Velikovsky, in Oedipus and Akhnaton, (NY: Doubleday, 1960, argued that Moses was neither Akhenaton, nor one of his followers. Instead, Velikovsky identifies Akhenaton as the history behind Oedipus and moved the setting from the Greek Thebes to the Egyptian Thebes.

  • there is a modern-day religion akin to ancient Egyptian religious practice (with the exception of Atenism) which is referred to as "Kemetic Orthodoxy." (http://www.kemet.org) Practitioners consider both the ancient Egyptian religion and their modern equivalent to be monolatrous Monolatrism.(http://www.kemet.org/kemexp1.html) Changes in Atenism are easier to understand as a shift from monolatry to proto-monotheism is considerably less radical than a shift from henotheism.

Depictions of the Pharaoh and his family

File:Akhenaten (realistic).jpg
a portrait of Akhenaten in the naturalistic style of the late-Amarna period, associated with the sculptor Thutmose

The aim of this art and the philosophy that informed it has been described as 'living in truth' (Montet: 142). Styles of art that flourished during this short period are markedly different from other Egyptian art, expressing a new freedom that perhaps accompanied the new religion. Several artists of distinction flourished. Akhenaton himself as a poet and musician. Depictions bearing a variety of affectations, from elongated heads to protruding stomachs, exaggerated ugliness of Akhenaton and the beauty of Nefertiti have been found. 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. The king and Queen's daughters are seen sat besides them on cushions, exchanging caresses (Montet: 142). Nefertiti and Tyre, the Queen Mother, who lived on in the royal household as a revered 'wise woman' are often depicted drinking from the same goblet. Artistic representations of Akhenaten give him a strikingly bizarre appearance, with slender limbs, a protruding belly and wide hips, giving rise to controversial theories such as that he may have actually been a woman masquerading as a man, or that he was a hermaphrodite or had some other intersex condition. In some depictions, he had no genitalia. The fact that Akhenaten had several children argues against these suggestions. Given Nefertiti's fabled beauty, could it be that Akhenaten was being self-depracating in his portraits of himself? Discovered facing what had been the Temple of Atun, was the king depicting himself as a mere human, unworthy of kingship or of paying homage to the great God? Depictions also show that the king had a healthy appetite.

Akhenaton's Suppossed Deformity or Illness

Many scholars have speculated about possible explanations for Akhenaton's physical appearance. Bob Brier, in his book "The Murder of Tutankhamen", suggests's that Akhenaton's family suffered from Marfan's syndrome, a dominant autosomal mutation of Chromosome 15, which is known to cause elongated features, a long thin face, arachnodactyly (spider like fingers), a sunken chest and an enlarged aorta, with a proneness for heart problems. Conic shaped eyes also gives a distinctive slit eyed appearance, and may be associated with short-sightedness. Brier speculates that this may explain Akhenaten's appearance, and perhaps his fascination with the sun - since Marfan's sufferers often feel cold easily. See http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1999/03/05/56.asp

As evidence of Marfan's Syndrome, being a dominant characteristic it tends to be passed on to the children, usually appearing after 10 years of Age. Artists tended to show Akenaten's children as suffering the same physical character as their father. If the family did suffer from Marfan's syndrome it could help explain the high mortality of Akhenaten, three of his daughters, and his son and co-regent towards the end of his life, Smenkhkare, within a brief period of 5 years at the end of his reign. Smenkhare actual identity is also a matter of debate (see below). He may or may not have been the Pharaoh's son. Against the Marfan's diagnosis is the fact Tutankhamon (possibly Akhneton's brother), does not appear to have suffered from the condition. An alterntive source of the elevated mortality of the Royal Family of the Amarna period is the fact that a known pandemic was sweeping the region (see below).

It is possible that the history of the royal family inbreeding could have finally taken a physical toll. This claim is countered by the fact that Akhenaten's mother Tiy was not from within the royal family, probably being the sister of Ay (Pharaoh after Tutankhamon), and High Priest Anen. Nefertiti is also generally believed to have been from non-royal blood, although some suggest that she was Akhenaten's sister or cousin.

It has also been claimed that he suffered from acromegaly, a thyroid disorder that can cause longer and thicker bones, oversized jaw (dolicephaly), bilharzia and altered sex characteristics. However, other leading figures of the Amarna period, both royal and otherwise, are shown with some of these features, suggesting a possible religious connotation – though its also possible that his family and court were depicted as similarly formed to Akhenaten as a compliment to him. In addition, in Akhenaten's later reign, art becomes less idiosyncratic. Under the new chief sculptor Thutmose, Akhenaten is depicted as more normal-looking. Some claim that his earliest portraits appear the most normal, with a progression towards more elongated and feminine features later in life, suggesting an endocrine disorder of post-pubertal onset, but the earliest images of the pharaoh are in the conventional pre-Amarna style.

Unless Akhenaten's mummy is located and identified, these proposals are likely to remain speculative.

Plague and Pandemic

This Amarna period is also associated with a serious outbreak of a pandemic, possibly the plague, or perhaps the world's first outbreak of influenza, which came from Egypt and spread throughout the Middle East, killing Suppiluliumas, the Hittite King. Some scholars think that Akhenaton's children may have been victims of the plague, not of an hereditary illness. The prevailance of disease may help explain the rapidity with which the site of Akhetaten was subsequntly abandonned. It may also explain the fact that later generations considered the Gods to have turned against the Amarna monarchs.

Problems of the reign

Crucial evidence about the latter stages of Akhenaten's reign was furnished by discovery of the so-called "Amarna Letters". These letters comprise a priceless cache of incoming clay tablets sent from imperial outposts and foreign allies. The letters suggest that Akhenaten's neglect of matters of state were causing disorder across the massive Egyptian empire. Montet (1968) says that he left state affairs to his scribes, from time to time expressing his appreciation for their services by appearing on the royal 'balcony', tossing 'goblets and necklets to the fortunate recipients' (144). The governors and kings of subject domains wrote to beg for gold, and also complained of being snubbed and cheated. Early on in his reign, Akhenaten fell out with the king of Mitanni. He may even have concluded an alliance with the Hittites, who then attacked Mitanni and attempted to carve out their own empire. A group of Egypt's other allies who attempted to rebel against the Hittites were captured, and wrote begging Akhenaten for troops; he evidently did not respond to their pleas. Conventional accounts of this period suggest that Akhenaton was too preoccupied with internal affairs to attend effectiveky with external ones and that, as a result, territorial losses followed, including upper Syria which fell to the Hittites.


Family

Amenhotep IV was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his reign, and the couple had six known daughters. This is a list with suggested years of birth:

  • Meritaten - year 1.
  • Meketaten - year 2.
  • Ankhesenpaaten, later Queen of Tutankhamun - year 3.
  • Neferneferuaten Tasherit - year 5.
  • Neferneferure - year 6.
  • Setepenre - year 8.

His known consorts were:

  • Nefertiti, his Great Royal Wife early in his reign.
  • Kiya, a lesser Royal Wife.
  • Meritaten, recorded as his Great Royal Wife late in his reign.
  • Ankhesenpaaten, his third daughter, and who is thought to have borne a daughter, Ankhesenpaaten-ta-sherit, to her own father. After his death, Ankhesenpaaten married Akhenaten's successor Tutankhamun.

Two other lovers have been suggested, but are not widely accepted:

  • Smenkhkare, Akhenaten's successor and/or co-ruler for the last years of his reign. Rather than a lover, however, Smenkhkare is likely to have been a half-brother or a son to Akhenaten. Some have even suggested that Smenkhkare was actually an alias of Nefertiti or Kiya, and therefore one of Akhenaten's wives. Montet describes Smenkhkare as Akhenatons' son-in-law, husband of his eldest daughter, which would by custom have conveyed him the succession (which was via the female line) (1968: 146).
  • Tiy, his mother. Twelve years after the death of Amenhotep III, she is still mentioned in inscriptions as Queen and beloved of the King. It has been suggested that Akhenaten and his mother acted as consorts to each other until her death. This would have been considered incest at the time. Supporters of this theory (notably Immanuel Velikovsky) consider Akhenaten to be the historical model of legendary King Oedipus of Thebes,

Greece and Tiy the model for his mother/wife Jocasta. Mainstream Egyptologists do not take these speculations seriously.

Burial

Akhenaten planned to start a relocated Valley of the Kings, in the Royal Wadi in Akhetaten. His body was probably removed after the court returned to Memphis, and reburied someone in the Valley of the Kings. His sarcophagus was destroyed but has since been reconstructed and now sits in the Cairo Museum.

Succession

There is some debate around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Amenhotep III, or whether there was a co-regency (of as much as 12 years according to some Egyptologists).

Similarly, although it is accepted that both Smenkhkare and Akhenaten himself died in year 17 of Akhenaten's reign, the question of whether Smenkhkare became co-regent perhaps 2 or 3 years earlier is still unclear, as is whether Smenkhkare survived Akhenaten. If Smenkhkare outlived Akhenaten, becoming sole Pharaoh, he ruled for less than a year.

The next successor was certainly Tutankhaten (later, Tutankhamun or Tutankhanom)), at the age of 9, with the country perhaps being run by the chief vizier (and next Pharaoh), Ay. Tutankhamun is believed to be a younger brother of Smenkhkare and a son of either Amenhotep III or Akhenaten. He was married to Akhenaton's third daughter.

With Akhenaten's death, the Aten cult he had founded almost immediately fell out of favor. Tutankhamun is usually depicted as the heroic restorer of the Gods, while his father is reviled as a heretic. However, it can be debated whether Tutankhanmun was an ideological convert to the old religion, or a pragmatist (the majority of the people had not welcomed the new religion) or a puppet in the hands of the disgruntled priests of Amun. They may have conninced him that 'a house divided against itself must fall' and that Egypt without Amen was like a 'ship without a pilot' (Montet: 15)) but regardless of motiv, he re-instated the old cult. Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun in year 2 of his reign (1349 B.C.E. or 1332 B.C.E.) and abandoned Akhetaten, which eventually falling into ruin. Temples Akhenaten had built, including the temple at Thebes, were disassembled by his successors Ay and Horemheb, reused as a source of easily available building materials and decorations for their own temples, and inscriptions to Aten defaced. Tutankhamun built monuments to the old gods that 'surpassed all the ones that had gone before' (Montet: 150).

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 archaeolologists.

Legacy

Freud comments that Akhenaton's memory was 'scorned as that of a fellon' (1955: 26). Montet wrote, 'in the long list of Pharaohs', Akhenaton 'is unique'. He continues:

Akheneton was not just a philosopher, he was a poet and an artist; he was not just connoisseur of painting and sculpture, he was a musician who liked to hear his

choir of blind singers and the sound of his new harps. Artists gave his ephermeral capital a brilliance beyond comparison. What the king had done by shaking off the farrago of old rites, sculptors like Thutnose, Beki and their followers had done for the rigid rules which encumbered art, They had brought in something irreplaceble: freedom. If Amenhotep IV has not existed, our gallery of famous Pharaohs would lack its most original figure (146)

Assessment of Akhenaton's legacy range from hero to villain, depending on whether the assessor wants to depict him as a weak Pharaoh who compromised Egypt's security and econony

Akhenaten in the arts

Facination for Akhneton has resulted in quite a number of works of fictions, including two by Nobel Prize winners (Naguib and Mann).

  • Moyra Caldecott: novel Akhenaten: Son of the Sun Bath, UK: Mushroom Publishing, 1989, 2003 ISBN 1899142258, eBook 2000 ISBN 189914286X)
  • Moyra Caldecott: novel The Ghost of Akhenaten Bath, UK: Mushroom Publishing, 2003 ISBN 1843190249, eBook 2001 ISBN 1899142894)
  • Mika Waltari: novel The Egyptian (1945)
  • Agatha Christie: play "Akhnaton: A play in three acts" (1973)
  • Philip Glass: opera Akhnaten (1983)
  • Naguib Mahfouz: novel Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (1985)
  • Allen Drury, historical novels A God Against the Gods (Doubleday, 1976) and Return to Thebes (Doubleday, 1976)
  • Judith Tarr, historical fantasy Pillar of Fire NY: Tor Books, 1995 ISBN 0812539036
  • Lynda Robinson, historical fiction Drinker of Blood (NY: Mysterious Press, 2001, ISBN 0446677515)
  • Carol Thurston, fiction, The Eye of Horus NY, HarperCollins., 2000, ISBN 0380802236

posits "Akhenaten was Moses" theory

  • Gwendolyn MacEwen, historical novel King of Egypt, King of Dreams Ontario, Canada: Insomniac Press, 1971, ISBN 1894663608)
  • Thomas Mann, in his fictional biblical tetralogy Joseph and his Brothers (1933-1943), makes Akhenaten the "dreaming pharaoh" of Joseph's story

Further reading

  • Aldred, Cyril Akhenaten: King of Egypt NY: Thames & Hudson, 1988 ISBN 0500050481
  • Freed, Rita E, Markowitz, Yvonne J, D'Auria, Sue H Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten - Nefertiti - Tutankhamen Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999 ISBN 0878464700
  • Mahfouz, Naguib Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, NY: Anchor, trans. 1998 ISBN I0385499094
  • Montserrat, Dominic Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt, Oxford: Taylor and Francis, 2000 ISBN 0415185491
  • Osman, Ahmed Moses and Akhenaten. The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus, Rochester, VT: Bear & Company; 2nd Reissue edition, 2002 ISBN 1591430046
  • Phillips, Graham Act of God: Moses, Tutankhamun and the Myth of Atlantis, London & NY: Sidgwick & Jackson/Pan, 1998 ISBN 0283063149
  • Redford, Donald B: Akhenaten : The Heretic King Baltimore, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984)
  • Reeves, Nicholas Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet, NY: Thames and Hudson, 2001 ISNB 0500051062

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Freud, Sigmund Moses and Monotheism, translated from the German by Katehrine Jones, NY: Vintage, 1955 (first published 1939).
  • Montet, Pierre Lives of the Pharaohs of Egypt, Cleveland & NY: The World Publishing Company, 1968

External links


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