Review:   Akhenaten & the Religion of Light

By Erik Hornung, translated from German by David Lorton, 1999. Cornell University Press.

 

The first part he writes about the discovery of Akhenaten since Champollion and changing opinions of him among Egyptologists. The most influential was Arthur Weigall's monograph "The Life and Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt" in 1910, from which we get many of the stereotypes of Akhenaten: Weigall laid the foundation for the idyllic view of the Aten religion, Akhenaten's family life, and life in ancient Amarna. All in stark contrast to the terrible events in western Asia which could be reconstructed from

Akhenaten's cuneiform archive. Akhenaten as a pacifist who ruined Egypt as a world power in the 18th dynasty, as a king caught up in the unreal, sham world of the Horizon of the Aten, his new capital, where he lived out his teaching and conducted his search for the divine.

 

He then goes over Akhenaten's reign, and the development of the Aten chronologically. Akhenaten's ideas evolved in stages. Starting with the temple to Aten at Karnak, the Aten is depicted as a hawk headed God, among other deities. There was a de-emphasis on Amen-Ra. The style of the artwork is already moving toward the Amarna conventions.

 

It was only after the move to Amarna that the full break with polytheism took place. The city of Akhetaten at Amarna was a center for the practice of the cult.

 

Horning details the differences between Atenism and traditional Egyptian polytheism. The Aten is silent and faceless. Akhenaten was  the sole intermediary for the God. The inscriptions frequently mention a teaching or instruction of Akhenaten's, which he placed in the hearts of his subjects. It seems to be exclusively a matter of oral teaching, there is no trace of religious books. Akhenaten stressed that he alone knows the Aten.

 

Akhenaten and his family were the only ones to worship Aten directly. The courtiers were expected to worship the royal family. Images of the royal family: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their daughters, were installed in altars in each residence at Amarna.

 

There was no mythology associated with the Aten. It was only said that he ever and again creates the world and maintains it in life. There was a deliberate avoidance of any references to earlier mythology.

 

The structure of temples and tombs at Amarna was different than traditional Egyptian ones. The temple was open to sunlight, with no ceiling. The tombs were placed in the east. The new attitude toward the afterlife is like this: The dead slept at night. They woke at dawn, and during the day accompanied the Aten and the royal family to the Great Temple, where all were provisioned with offerings. The King was responsible for provisioning the dead. The Aten tended personally only to the well-being of the King. Since the afterlife no

longer had a realm of the dead, the concept of a judgement of the dead was abandoned. The ethical basis for a blessed afterlife was the grace & mercy of the King. One's provisions for the afterlife could be received only from the King. Loyalty to the King was what insured life after death.

 

The repression against the traditional Egyptian pantheon was unevenly applied. The brunt of the wrath was directed against the cult of Amen-Re at Thebes. Other areas of Egypt were affected sporadically. The persecution was especially against Amun and his consort Mut, but occasionally it would be directed against other Gods as well, including the plural noun "Gods". Some Gods, like Thoth, were not affected, and the persecution was not consistent. But care was taken to erase the name of Amun from diplomatic archives, the tops of obelisks, personal scarabs, and in temples in distant regions of Nubia. Akhenaten even had his own original name Amenhotep IV erased. The persecution also applied to the animal totems of the Gods, like the vulture of Mut and the goose of Amun. Only the falcon and the uraeus cobra were allowed.

 

Found in homes in Amarna are images of traditional Egyptian Gods. The most popular were Bes and Taweret, but also were found Sobek, Isis, Thoth, Ptah, Osiris, Mut, and even Amun. Which indicates that people were continuing their traditional religion on the sly. Other evidence of discontent with Akhenaten's religion are two dozen limestone figures of monkeys in chariots and kissing, which may have been caricatures mocking the King.

 

Lamentations were common, particularly a graffito in Theban tomb 139 by Pawah, who praises Amun. Later the lamentations were transformed into praises of the God who triumphantly survived all persecution.

 

There is no evidence that Akhenaten's reign ended violently. His religion survived through the reign of Tut. Worship of other Gods resumed openly upon his death, however. Akhenaten had a continued impact in styles of art and literature.

 

Akhenaten was the first fundamentalist in history. And should be taken as a cautionary tale.

 

- review by Tamara Wyndham. May 2008.