Great Hymn to the Aten

Akhenaten's grandfather, Pharaoh Thutmose IV, was visited by the sun god Ra in a dream. In this dream, Ra referred to him as his son and commanded him to uncover the Sphinx, which was buried in sand near the pyramids of Giza. To commemorate this mystical experience, Thutmose IV erected a stone tablet between the paws of the Sphinx, which remains there to this day (the so-called Dream Stele). Thutmose IV subsequently avoided mentioning Amun, the then "King of the Gods," and increasingly turned his devotion to the sun god Ra. The structures he built were adorned with sun symbolism dedicated to Ra.

Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, intensified the sun cult centered on Ra, whom he worshipped in his manifestation as the solar disk. His actions significantly influenced Akhenaten's new religion.

Amenhotep III was Egypt’s greatest builder up to that time. Among his most famous constructions was the mortuary temple dedicated to him in Thebes, which was the largest temple complex in the world at the time. Today, only the 18-meter-tall Colossi of Memnon, originally part of the temple’s entrance, remain. For his queen, Tiye, he had a massive artificial lake constructed, measuring 1,500 x 500 meters, which she could sail for her enjoyment. All his constructions were dedicated to Ra.

As Ra’s chosen one, Amenhotep III identified himself with the solar disk, considered himself of the same essence, and adopted its titles. The term "solar disk" translates to "Aten" in ancient Egyptian. Amenhotep’s palace was named "Palace of the Gleaming Solar Disk," and statues representing the number of days in the year lined the path to it. The Pharaoh referred to himself as the "Gleaming Solar Disk of All Lands," and vassals of subjugated territories were required to address him as "My Sun." The lake built for his wife Tiye was traversed by a royal barge named the "Barge of the Gleaming Solar Disk" (The Egyptians believed that the solar disk sailed across the heavens on a barge).

Amenhotep III always presented himself as the embodiment of solar power in all its manifestations, a concept that was particularly evident during traditional throne jubilee celebrations. The "Sed festivals," held on the 30th anniversary of a king’s reign, were meant to demonstrate the Pharaoh’s continued capacity to rule. Amenhotep’s festival took place in Thebes, the traditional capital of the god-king Amun, where the Karnak Temple, the most significant temple of ancient Egypt, was located on the eastern side of the city, divided by the Nile. Specifically for this festival, the Pharaoh had massive artificial harbors excavated on both sides of the Nile, each measuring 800 x 150 meters. These harbors are now silted up or built over, but their outlines and the mounds of debris from the western harbor remain visible from the air today. On the western side of the Nile stood Amenhotep’s mortuary temple, rising on an unprecedented scale against the backdrop of the Valley of the Kings. During the jubilee celebrations, the Pharaoh donned golden clothing, boarded a solar barge, and had himself rowed from one harbor to the other. This act would have made him appear as the sun itself in the eyes of his subjects. Without a doubt, Akhenaten, his successor, witnessed this highly influential spectacle.

Even in private life, Amenhotep III can be seen as a spiritual role model for Akhenaten. Amenhotep III regarded Queen Tiye as his divine counterpart and endowed her with significant power. She, like him, had the authority to issue decrees and, what was absolutely unusual, could also act as an independent representative of Egypt in foreign affairs, which until then had been the exclusive privilege of the Pharaoh. As the Amarna Letters show, Tiye maintained her significant role even after the death of Amenhotep.

Aten is always depicted as a circle, at the lower edge of which is a Uraeus snake. The Uraeus snake refers to an upright cobra, as seen in the various crowns of the Pharaoh. Originally, the Uraeus was the symbolic animal of Lower Egypt, the region of the Nile Delta in northern Egypt. Over time, it became increasingly associated with the sun god Ra, symbolizing power and protection.

From the Aten circle, rays extend downward, reaching the people below. The number of rays can vary, as can the angle between the two outermost rays. At the ends of the rays are stylized hands, touching whatever they encounter.

The depiction of Aten is also associated with the Ankh symbol, the hieroglyph for "life." It is often placed directly beneath the Aten circle. Additionally, where the rays of Aten touch the noses of living beings, the rays hold an Ankh symbol in their hands. This points to the life-giving power of Aten, who breathes life into them.

Akhenaten refers to himself in the Hymn to Aten as the son of Aten, and this is meant quite literally. Akhenaten is thus the son of the god and, on earth, his only legitimate representative of the new faith. At the same time, he reinterprets his biological father as an abstract, god-like being who is both one and all. His own Sed festivals (throne jubilees), which he held every three years, were staged to honor his father Aten. The father had become the sun and continued to rule for eternity. Since the sun is indeed responsible for all processes related to life on earth, the personification of God as the sun is a natural choice.

It is debated whether Akhenaten was truly a follower of his religion, or if the introduction of the Aten faith merely served his political purposes. The new faith gave him the theological justification to disempower and dispossess the very powerful priesthood of Amun, making him one of the most powerful pharaohs politically.

On the other hand, the Aten faith emerged shortly after a period in which Egypt, under Thutmose III, had reached its greatest territorial expansion. In this context, the claim of an all-encompassing god is a spiritual continuation of the worldly empire.

The fact that the Aten faith was closely tied to the personal worship of Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti, and the brutal persecution of his opponents, raises doubts about the sincerity of his proclamation of a benevolent, gentle god. On the other hand, only a pharaoh was capable of enforcing such a profound religious revolution in ancient Egypt, as only he could confront the naturally arising resistance of the traditionalists. Since a pharaoh, in the people’s view, was a living god and difficult to eliminate, it was a shrewd move by Akhenaten to tie the new faith so closely to his own person in order to gain broad acceptance.

The depiction of Aten is almost always associated with Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The often seated parents, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, play with their children, caress and cuddle them, always accompanied by Aten, who appears as a heavenly presence above them. For the first time, Egyptian rulers are depicted in such affectionate and private scenes.

Novel was also the depiction of Nefertiti. She is shown as completely equal to her husband. To further emphasize her unique position, she wears a crown specially created for her, which no Egyptian queen had worn before or after her. She is also the first queen of a pharaoh to be depicted striking down the (female) enemies of Egypt, a representation that had previously been reserved solely for pharaohs. In this sense, she appears masculinized.

Similarly, Akhenaten is not only shown with the traditionally male symbols of a pharaoh, such as the whip and crook. Statues often depict him in a feminized form, with enlarged breasts, symbolizing a nurturing mother. However, it may also be an accurate representation, indicating a medical condition of Akhenaten. Akhenaten is always accompanied by the Aten, who is seen as a co-regent above him in wall paintings and reliefs.

In his 5th year of reign, Akhenaten left the traditional royal seats in Memphis and Thebes and founded a new capital, which he named Akhetaten ('Horizon of Aten', today Amarna). Akhetaten is located in a semicircular valley east of the Nile, surrounded by nearly vertical cliffs. Akhenaten chose this site because

• Akhenaten was led there by Aten himself
• the location was roughly halfway between Memphis and Thebes
• it was an undeveloped area
• no local god had been worshipped in the sparsely populated area before.

In massive inscriptions that Akhenaten had erected at the ends of the cliffs around Akhetaten, he elaborated further on this.

The city itself was designed as a planned city for 50,000 inhabitants. As a result, Akhetaten was meant to become the largest city in Egypt at the time. Construction began in Akhenaten's fifth year and was completed within three years. The short construction period was made possible by smaller, more manageable stones ("Talatat": 50cm x 25cm x 25cm), which replaced the typical towering stones used previously.

In the city, there was a large palace district to the north with barracks and houses for the servants, and to the south, another palace where the Pharaoh resided during the day. Opposite this, there was a large temple dedicated to Aten, with residential houses for the city's inhabitants surrounding it.

Akhetaten only existed for 12 years. After Akhenaten's death, the city was completely abandoned, and later rulers used the stones from the site as raw materials for their own building projects. As a result, very little of the original city remains today.

Since the memory of Akhenaten and his god Aten was largely erased, very little is known about the religion. Apart from Akhenaten's Hymn to Aten, a few surviving stelae, reliefs, and artworks, the ruins of the city of Amarna are an important testament to this period. Nevertheless, the Aten faith can generally be characterized as monotheistic.

The prominent position of Aten among the many gods of ancient Egypt was first introduced by Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, who had himself worshipped as the solar disk (ancient Egyptian "Aten"). Before that, Aten had only been a locally worshipped deity. With the death of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, he ascended to the sky and was thereafter worshipped as the god Aten by his son.

The attributes that the Hymn to Aten ascribes to the god characterize him, beyond the solar nature belief, as "One." That is, he is everything, and everything is from him. The Aten faith is therefore strictly monotheistic.

Aten, Akhenaten, and Nefertiti are often depicted together. This triad refers to the tradition of the mythical account of the creation of the world, as it was passed down in Heliopolis. The "City of the Sun" was the regional origin of the sun cult in ancient Egypt. According to this tradition, the primordial god Atum (god of light, not to be confused with Aten) created himself from the primeval waters of Nun, and then created the first pair of gods, Shu (air) and Tefnut (fire). Akhenaten's religion was intended to return to this beginning, in which he saw the paradisiacal primordial state of the universe. The Aten faith refers to this primordial state after creation and deliberately plays with the triad of Atum (Aten), Shu (Akhenaten), and Tefnut (Nefertiti). However, Akhenaten remained the sole mediator of his doctrine. There, all that has eyes sees the sun, but only he, Akhenaten, recognizes the god Aten in its workings.

Aten reveals himself through his constant presence as the solar disk and, most notably, through his eternal visible workings from sunrise to sunrise. In contrast to the god of the Bible, he does not speak. A story of the creation of life by Aten is not preserved. There are no heavenly hosts, no angels, no demons, or other intermediary beings, only the prophet of the new faith, Akhenaten, who acts as the mediator between the people and Aten. The Aten faith has no ethical dimension, and no specific rules or behavior codes are known for honoring him. There are no magical rituals or ceremonies. The teachings on life after death were not fundamentally changed. Only the traditionally named "Ba," the spirited soul, continued to exist after the death of the body as a spiritual being in Akhet-Aten, a heavenly city.

Aten is a living god. In contrast to the old gods, he cannot be worshipped as a dead statue. Therefore, his temples have no roofs, and the courtyards of the temples are open, as the rays of Aten are omnipresent. Akhenaten saw himself as the earthly herald of Aten, without neglecting the emphasis on his own divinity as his son. Since Aten was almighty and omnipresent, and in order not to diminish his own power, Akhenaten emphasized Aten's role as co-regent. Aten, like Akhenaten, was king over Egypt.

To honor Aten, Akhenaten celebrated the daily rebirth of the sun and, thereby, of life, through royal outings. He drove daily in his solar chariot from the palace in the north to the temple district in the center of the city, cheered on by his people. The symbolism corresponded to the wandering sun, which he embodied as its prophet. This daily procession replaced the previously known god-processions for the old gods. Furthermore, it was common to set up a home altar with statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti to call upon them as intermediaries between the worshiper and Aten, so that their wishes could be fulfilled. For those who could not afford a home altar, there were public chapels where the divine triad of Aten, Akhenaten, and Nefertiti could be worshipped. Akhenaten and Nefertiti, through the familial character of their depictions, emphasized a home-centered ethical ideal.

Aten is not above all gods, but instead, he is instead of all gods. According to the radically new logic of one single god, no other gods could be worshipped anymore. Although the Aten religion and the old gods still coexisted, the old priests were increasingly dismissed, the old temples were deprived of resources, and eventually, they were entirely closed. Subsequently, gods like Horus and Ra were occasionally reinterpreted as manifestations of Aten, but fundamentally, the traditional cults were eventually banned, and their followers were brutally persecuted. Words like "gods" could no longer be mentioned. In the later years of Akhenaten's reign, a state-sponsored, nationwide iconoclasm was conducted, aimed at erasing the memory of the old gods. Changes in names of individuals who had references to the old gods can also be traced during this time.

Although there was great pressure on the people to confess their faith in Aten, many still held on to the old gods privately, as the myths associated with them were deeply rooted in popular belief.

After the death of Akhenaten, the old religious order was restored, and the memory of him was almost completely erased. The "Damnatio Memoriae" (Latin for "Damnation of Memory") is responsible for the fact that today very little is known about Akhenaten and his god Aten. This condemnation of memory was a meticulous administrative process carried out with great precision. Essentially, it meant that all traces of Akhenaten and his worship of the god Aten were systematically removed: evacuation of the city Akhetaten, which Akhenaten had founded, destruction of statues of Akhenaten, removal of inscriptions about him (where possible), destruction of images and documents, and prohibition of mentions in chronicles. Akhenaten was referred to as "the one whose name must not be spoken." Akhenaten’s significant role only became clearer in 1921 with the discovery of the tomb of his son Tutankhamun, when many of the artifacts found there referenced Akhenaten and his god Aten.

Akhenaten's Tomb

Akhenaten's tomb itself was identified in 1907 (KV55). Given Akhenaten's radical religious zeal, it is surprising on one hand that his tomb was not desecrated by his successors, and on the other hand, that it was equipped according to traditional rites. For example, there were Ushebti figures, small wooden figurines that were meant to serve him in the afterlife, bringing him back to life after death. Additionally, there was a bowl from Pharaoh Khafre, the builder of one of the three pyramids at Giza and also the builder of the Sphinx. Khafre had already been dead for 1,000 years at the time of Akhenaten's death. Also noteworthy are four statues of Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti, placed at the four corners of his stone sarcophagus. Nefertiti had similar privileges at the royal court as Teje, Akhenaten's mother. She was probably his co-regent and, immediately after his death, succeeded him as Pharaoh Semenkhkara, ruling for another three years until she also passed away. The four statues on Akhenaten's sarcophagus emphasize her outstanding significance.

Akhenaten's son was the later Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who was originally born as Tutankhaten.

• Tut-Anch-Aton means 'Image of the living Aten'
• Tut-Anch-Amun, on the other hand, means 'Image of the living Amun.'

Amun was, in Egyptian mythology, the god of creation and life force, and at that time "King of the Gods." By changing his name, Tutankhamun wanted to express respect for the old gods and restore the previous religious order. It is possible that the young Pharaoh acted under the pressure of his advisors. Tutankhamun died at around 20 years of age for unknown reasons. He may have been the victim of a court intrigue, but a CT scan of his mummy carried out in the 2000s revealed that while he showed signs of injury, he could not have died from them. He became famous primarily for his tomb, discovered in 1921, which had been spared by grave robbers and revealed an unprecedented wealth of ancient Egyptian treasures.

Ankhesenamun and the End of the Dynasty

Tutankhamun was married to his sister Ankhesenamun. As the widow of a Pharaoh and the daughter of Akhenaten, her new husband had a claim to the throne. In an unprecedented action, she wrote a letter to the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I. (modern-day Turkey). She stated that she did not want to marry any of her subjects and requested that a Hittite prince be sent to her as a husband. Prince Zannanza died on this journey under unknown circumstances. Ankhesenamun then married the much older Egyptian court official Ay II, who had likely already served as a court official under her grandfather. After the marriage, she is no longer mentioned. With her, a family dynasty of about 200 years on the pharaonic throne came to an end.