colos of Amenhotep IV

Gem-pa-Aten temple at East Karnak
"the Aten is found" - Cairo Museum

O sole god without equal !
You are alone, shining in your form of the living Aten.
  Risen, radiant, distant and near.
Great Hymn, 47 & 73-74.

Introduction

1 The New Kingdom and the colossal Amenhotep III

• 1.1 A few political features of the New Kingdom : the age of empire.

• 1.2 The great builder, dated Sed-festivals & traditional piety.

2 Prelude to Amarna religion : the "New Solar Theology"

• 2.1 The antiquity of the title "Son of Re" in Pharaoh's titulary.

• 2.2 The theology of the Sun, of light and movement.

• 2.3 The naturalization of the divine in religious experience.

3 The Rise of Akhenaten

• 3.1 Again Pharaoh's titulary or definition of rule.

• 3.2 The grotesque Pharaoh, permanent dynamism & intimacy.

• 3.3 The singularity of divine mediation : Aten - King - Queen.

4 The Aten-project :

CULTIC : dictatorial eradications & an imposed religion

• 4.1 Brutal end of previous worship, especially of Amun.

• 4.2 New open temples with no statues, roofs or holy of holies.

• 4.3 Flowers as perferred offering.

• 4.4 New dynamical representations : globe, Ankh, chariot.

NOMIC : radical naturalization of the "old" religion

• 4.5 Only Aten is divine and there is no god but Aten.

• 4.6 Life-giving light is the only divine presence.

• 4.7 Pharaoh is the only one with the Aten in his heart.

COSMIC : only light, presence and movement

• 4.8 Light without darkness.

• 4.9 Presence without absence.

• 4.10 Unity without multiplicity. 

MYSTIC : exclusive & highly subjectified

• 4.11 Without Pharaoh no salvation.

• 4.12 Eradication of Amun's interventions on behalf of the common people.

• 4.13 The mystical experience of Nature ?

5 Why was Akhenaten's monotheism sterile ?

6 Ancient Egyptian religion after Amarna

• 6.1 Restoration & the breakthrough of the Ramesside renewal of the old.

• 6.2 The integral, antithetic synthesis : Amun-Re who becomes millions.

• 6.3 The Mosaic revelation, YHVH Elohîm and the elimination of the figural & the inert.

Epilogue
Notes

Remark :

The use of capitals in words as "Absolute", "God" or "Divine", points to a rational context (i.e. how these appear in a theology conducted in the rational mode of thought - cf. cognition, neurophilosophy & theonomy). Hence, when these words are used in the context of Ancient Egyptian ante-rational thought (which, as a cultural form, was mythical, pre-rational & proto-rational), this restriction is lifted. Hence, words such as "god", "the god", "gods", "goddesses", "pantheon" or "divine" are not capitalized.

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Introduction

Personal piety and the horizon of contact with the Divine

In The Seach for God in Ancient Egypt (2001), the egyptologist Jan Assmann proposed to measure Ancient Egyptian religion (its activities and experiences) using three "dimensions". These represent their conceptual horizon of contact with the divine, namely :

1. the cultic : the local, political residence of the deities, either as belonging to a particular place and/or as state deities functioning as symbols of the collective, political identity ;

2. the cosmic : the emergence, structure & dynamics of the sphere of their action ;

3. the mythic : the sacred tradition, or "what is said about the gods", their cultural memory as set down in myths, names, genealogies etc.¹

" ... there was no explicit and coherent explanation of Egyptian theology on the metalevel of theoretical discourse in Ancient Egypt any more than there were theoretical explanations in other areas, such as grammar, rhetoric or historiography. As is well known, the development of theoretical discourse, at least in the Mediterranean world, was an accomplishment of Greek culture."
^{Assman, 2001, p.9.}

For Assmann,  there are multiple dimensions, some of which "are realized in dominant form in any given historical religion".² The ones mentioned above were treated in a dominant fashion in Ancient Egyptian religion. In Assmann's reading, the Amarna religion assisted in the breakthrough of a fourth dimension in the era that followed it, called by Breasted "the age of personal piety" (1912). By closing the temples and banishing the deities of the old religion, Akhenaten had forced the worshippers to resort to internal gods & goddesses "placed in the heart" (mind).

Because, according to Assmann, the mystic "absolutizes the inner presence of the divine and takes satisfaction in it" ³ , he is reluctant to name this fourth dimension of "personal piety" truly "mystical". However, this holds only true if his definition of mysticism is accepted, which is not the case here.

Mysticism is the direct experience of the Divine. On the basis of the provisional comparative form of the phenomenology of Hinduism (Classical Yoga), Judaism (Qabalah), Christianity (the Jesus-people) and Islam (Sufism of Al Junayd and Ibn'Arabî), arrived at by means of a comprehensive hermeneutical and participant observational approach, the more mature and unfolding architecture (form) of this radical experience is conceived as implying a bi-polar one-fold. The universal & fundamental structure of this experience, always reflects both the inner as well as the outer aspect of the Divine (cf. Divine bi-polarity). 

Negative theology puts the mysticism of un-saying in perspective : the essence of the Divine is unknown, ineffable, incomprehensible and absolutely absolute. Positive theology affirms the Presence of the Divine in the created order. Like Bergson, I would like to suggest that the mystics are the true founders of the religions. Also that mystical experience is a universal human factor able to manifest in formidable everyday experiences (orgasm, strong emotions, aha, serendipity, cognitive paradox, synchronicity, inventivity, true love, creativity through service). See on these differences : Introduction to a Colorful Recital.

The mature mystic finds the Divine "in the heart" (inner, the seer) but he or she also unveils that everything what can be experienced (outer, the seen) is the Self-manifestation of the Divine. This may explain their strength facing evil (cf. theodicy).

However, to consider the mystic as exclusively focused on the inner side of the equation (as does Assmann) is limiting mysticism by a theistic approach of the Divine, which stresses the absent, transcendent and remote characteristics. All major traditions interested in the experience of the mystics themselves (exploring mysticism in an experiential way) are confronted with the "agonizing polarization" ⁴ between manifest and hidden. All major mystic traditions have identified these two poles and were aware of the tension. It is typical for the mystics that although they identify the two seas (salty & sweet) they never eclipse the fact that the water of life is one living water of Divine Presence (as Marguerite Porete so admirably synthesized in the character of "Loinprés", Farnear - a theme explicit in Amarna theology & later in Theban theology). The bi-polarity is a phenomenon taking place within a fundamental, implicit, unbreakable, eternal but unfolding unity (cf. "pan-en-theos" : all-in-God - cf. henotheism).

As Staal demonstrated ⁵ , mysticism implies a structure of direct experience (between the mystic and the Divine, both inner as outer) and a superstructure which is a verbal thematization of the experience (as a solitary and/or as a group) which may lead to textualization and canonization. To limit the structure of mystical experience to being satisfied with a fusion with the inner, hidden & remote aspect of the Divine, is considered by mystics (in the East, Middle East and West) as a limitation and an incomplete experience of the Divine (cf. Ibn'Arabî on the paradoxical, wonderous perplexity of the "station of no station", and Sufi criticism on stressing Divine remoteness). It may even lead to insanity and heresy. The mature mystic has inner trance and outer sobriety (cf. Al-Junayd). Trance without sobriety is insanity. Sobriety without trance is utter darkness. Outer sobriety is also regulated by the idea of moral harmony (cf. Maat), i.e. symmetrical communication with other human beings aiming at establishing, sustaining & differentiating the common good (of nature, family, society, the planet, etc.).

In this paper, I will consider the "breakthrough" of "personal piety", contrary to Assmann, indeed as "mystical". Moreover, the fact this "personal piety" became so important after Amarna is not denied, but its traces in the earlier stages of Ancient Egyptian religion are considered differently. True, only after the fall of the Old Kingdom is the conception of the soul ("bA") generalized and popularized (everybody had a "ba"). In the Middle Kingdom, as testified in the Coffin Texts, officials and their subordinates could also attain the enjoyment of the afterlife (continued existence and no "second death"), and eventually every deceased person was an "Osiris NN". 

But, in the Old Kingdom (and also thereafter) Pharoah was a paradoxical figure, for he was a "god on Earth" while the other gods & goddesses abided in the other world, present in their temples and images in a symbolical and subtle fashion only (they sent their doubles -"kAw"- and souls -bAw- while their spirits -"AXw"- remained in the sky). Because religious activity happened between the deities ⁶ (the temples do not mediate but were loci of the indwelling ⁷ of the divine), the figure of Pharaoh, the "Great House" and divine king was extraordinary. Hence, in the Old Kingdom, the overt manifestation of the mystical approach of the divine was an exclusive royal prerogative, or as the Pyramid Texts claim :

"Men hide, the gods fly away."
Pyramid Texts, utterance 302 (§ 459). 

Does this royal prerogative of the mystical in the written record imply the common Egyptians had no direct religious experience ? Did they, in their private domain, in the temple of their nome and in the regular festive processions outside the sacred precinct, never experienced the "radical other" (totaliter aliter) ? In the official point of view, only Pharaoh had a direct experience of the divine (being a god himself) and thus rose vertically to the stars, while all others Egyptians were barred from contact with the divine, except within the confines of their own inner subjectivity.

"Although in all periods relatively few people were directly involved in the cult, the temples and the cult performed in them would have existed in a partial vacuum if they had corresponded with little in the lives of the other people. Apart from this general point, several literary texts become more meaningful if it is assumed that contact with the deity, or experience of the deity, was considered possible."
Baines, J. : "Society, Morality and Religious Practice", in Shafer, 1991, p.173.

In the private tombs of Sheshi (VIth Dynasty - Saqqara) & Harkhuf (VIth Dynasty - Assuan), a stylized catalog of virtues occurs. These virtues are not told in the prose of the narrative autobiography but were recited in an orational style.⁸ They suggest great intellectual and literary capabilities.⁹ Together with the Maxims of Ptahhotep (Vth Dynasty under Izezi or Djedkare) they evidence interior reflection, wisdom and a search for true peace. Why would these individuals not have attained mystical states of consciousness ? Moreover, Ptahhotep is eager to relate how wisdom (with which no one is born) and the good (like wealth & peace) come by virtue of the deities. Apparently, they are not restricted to Pharaoh.

(139)     If You are a weakling, serve a man of quality, worthy of trust,
(140)     (so) that all your conduct may be well with god.
(141)     Do not recall if once he was of humble condition,
(142)     do not let your heart become big toward him,
(143)     for knowing his former state.
(144)     Respect him for what has accrued to him,
(145)     for surely goods do not come by themselves.
(146)     They are their laws for him whom they love.
(147)     His gain, he gathered it himself,
(148)     (but) it is god who makes him worthy,
(149)     and protects him while he sleeps.

Ptahhotep : Maxims of Ptahhotep, maxim 10, D175 - "they" and "theirs" refer to the deities

Hence, regarding the horizon of contact with the divine, at least four elements seem valid :

1. cultic : the actual religious actions, expressions and manifestations of religiosity (in the temples of the nomes, in private homes and in state cults), intimately connected with the economical, social & political conditions at hand ;

2. nomic : what is said & written down about the divine, for example in the "House of Life" of the various temples ;

3. cosmic/social : the field of action of the divine ;

4. mystic/personal : the direct experience of the divine in personal piety. 

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The Great Hymn to the Aten of Akhenaten

In the history of Egypt of Manetho (third century BCE), which became authoritative from Antiquity down to modern times (although full of inconsistencies), Pharaoh Akhenaten (ca. 1353 - 1336 BCE), is not mentioned as such. Instead, the names "Acencheres" (in Josephus), "Acherres" (in Africanus) and "Cherres" (in Eusebius) prevail.

"The Eighteenth Dynasty consisted of 14 kings at Thebes. (...) Achencheres ruled for 16 years. In his time Moses became leader of the Jews in their exodus from Egypt."
Manetho, 3th century BCE.

The Ramessides were deemed the immediate successors of Amenhotep III. Instead, Manetho handed down a story which was recorded by Josephus, according to which lepers ruled over Egypt during the reign of "Amenophis". They were in league with the Hyksos for 13 years and burned the cities, destroyed the temples and the statues of the gods. The period before Tutankhamun came to the throne is also described by Manetho as a period wherein "The land experienced an illness, and the deities did not look after this land." ¹⁰ Other classical writers like Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo manifest no knowledge of this "heretic king". His memory had been suppressed. He had been forgotten ...

"The simplest and commonest technique of forgetting is the destruction of memory in its cultural objectifications such as inscriptions and iconic representations. This is what happened to the monotheistic revolution of Akhenaten, and the destruction was thorough enough to keep this event completely unretrievable until its archaeological rediscovery in the course of the nineteenth century. (...) Another technique of forgetting is silence. This technique was practiced by the Amarna texts, which never speak of what they implicitly reject."
Assmann, 1997, p.216, my italics.

After the death of Tutankhamun (ca. 1323 BCE), the vandalism and destruction of the monuments erected by Akhenaten at Akhetaten was on its way. Under Pharaoh Ramesses II (ca. 1279 - 1213 BCE), dismantlement and reuse were stepped up. A century after his death, Akhenaten is no longer named by his name, but as "the rebel" ("sebiu") or "the criminal" ("kheru") of Akhetaten.

"It seems likely that chronicles or annals in temple archives preserved some record of him and his reign. These chronicles were perhaps still extant in the third century BCE when they were consulted by historians writing in Greek, and a rather garbled version of Akhenaten's story was transmitted into the classical tradition."
Montserrat, 2001, p.29.

Although in November 1714, the Jesuit father Claude Sicard had made copies of one of Akhenaten's boundary stelæ ¹¹ and J.Gardner Wilkinson had discovered the tombs of his officials in 1824 and had made copies, both of these finds did not appear in print until years after Champollion's death.¹² In his summary of Egyptian history (in the Appendix of his Letters from Egypt) ¹³, the latter proceeded immediately from Amenophis III to his son "Horus", who continued the work of his father and had two weak successors, after which Seti I led Egypt to new heights ...

On the 26th of June 1851, Karl Richard Lepsius (who had arrived at Tell el-Amarna -the modern place name of Akhetaten-on the 19th of September 1843) communicated his conclusions that a "highly noteworthy episode in the history of Egyptian mythology" had taken place. Amenophis IV (identified with Akhenaten) opposed the prior worship of Amun with a "pure cult of the Sun : only the disk itself was tolerated as its unique image". He also mentions Akhenaten had commanded "the names of all the deities be hacked away from all public monuments, and even from the accessible private tombs, and that their image be destroyed to the extent possible".¹⁴ Slowly the learned world realized the existence of Akhenaten. The first monograph entirely devoted to the "heretic king" was written by Arthur Weigall in 1910.¹⁵

The empty tomb of Akhenaten had been discovered by locals in 1881 - 1882. In 1887, locals again discovered the famed archive of clay tablets (380 of them) containing the cuneiform correspondence of Akhenaten and his father with the princes of Western Asia. The authoritative edition was made by J.A.Knudtzon in 1915.¹⁶

Between 1883 and 1884, Urbain Bouriant, thank goodness, made a copy of the Great Hymn in the tomb of Aya (a brother of Teye, the mother of Akhenaten and tutor, even father-in-law of the reformer) of which a third was maliciously destroyed in 1890 (during a quarrel among local inhabitants).¹⁷ On the basis of this copy, the famed Great Hymn to the Aten could be studied for the first time by James Henry Breasted in 1895 in his Berlin dissertation : De Hymnis in Solem sub Rege Amenophide IV conceptis ("On the Hymns to the Sun composed under Amenophis IV").¹⁸

Contrary to the Memphis Theology, the Great Hymn to the Aten is not a composite work, neither does it have more than one temporal layer (the original of the former work may be written in the XVIIIth Dynasty, more likely in the XXth Dynasty, but older layers from the Vth Dynasty can not be ruled out). The Great Hymn gives, ex hypothesis, a clear and comprehensive picture of the ideals of Akhenaten himself, and was most likely composed by the king himself. The core of this ideal being a return to the exclusive, pivotal and mediating role of divine kingship, in casu Akhenaten's, coupled with a naturalistic reduction to visible light (represented by the Solar disk, the Aten). The Shorter Hymn to the Aten, which occurs in five Amarna tombs, has beauty but lacks structural unity and can therefore not make the same cosmopolitan and humanist leap as reflected in the Great Hymn to the Aten.

What is the philosophical interest of this text ? Following topics emerge :

1. history of philosophy : the claim philosophy started in Greece is traditional but questionable. True, in the Classical Age, Greek philosophy discovered the rational mode of cognition, but philosophy is not limited to this mode. In Greek philosophy, this is attested by the importance of the Ionic, Eleatic and Sophist schools of thought, evidencing the mythical (pre-logical), pre-rational and proto-rational modes. The later are always included in any systematic history of philosophy.
   
   Let us eliminate his Hellenization of philosophy, rooted in Europacentrist opinions (Indian & Chinese philosophy for example are usually also excluded, although exceptions do occur - cf. the history of philosophy of Störig).¹⁹ The Memphis Theology, the Maxims of Ptahhotep, the Great Hymn to the Aten and many Ramesside Hymns to Amun-Re show a philosophical insight (albeit mostly proto-rational) far beyond the limitations of Ionic thought, which seems very rudimentary compared to the magnificent synthesis brought about in the late New Kingdom and the depth of the sapiental instructions found in the Old Kingdom (centered around the concept of justice or "Maat").
   
   The fact of the influence of Ancient Egypt on Greek authors like Pythagoras (of whom it is said that he was the first to use the Greek word "philosophos"), Thales (the arche as "water"), Anaximander ("apeiron"), Plato (who praises the wisdom of the Egyptians and at the end of book VI of the Republic compares the idea of the good with the Sun), Plotinos (who was a Hellenized Egyptian) and many others (did Greek thinkers not travel to Egypt to study in "the land of the gods" ?), coupled with Egypt's relative vincinity to Greece, makes the study of the philosophy of Ancient Egypt more than necessary. It is a lacuna in the history of philosophy that such a fundamental study is lacking. Apparently egyptologist are not qualified to do this job and Western philosophers do not take the time to study (Middle) Egyptian, read most of the available egyptological studies or make hasty remarks (like Hegel on Egypt, Jaspers on Akhenaten & Sartre on Seth).
   
   

2. metaphysics : is an untestable but arguable set of speculative propositions aiming at a totalized explanation of being and its processes. It appeared as a separate discipline only after the works of Aristotle were put together by Andronicos of Rhodos (ca. 40 BCE), who placed these books "next to" (meta) Aristotle's work on physics (proving the relationship between both). In Ancient Egypt, especially in the Old & Middle Kingdoms, metaphysics is mostly shrouded in mythology and the specifics of Egyptian religion. Nevertheless, in the Maxims of Ptahhotep (the emerging idea of an overall ethical order), in the Pyramid Texts (hymns & ascension-texts), in the Memphis Theology (the logos-section), and other sapiental works, loci of metaphysical thought may be discerned.
   
   Two Amarna themes have metaphysical interest, namely the disenchantment brought about by the New Solar Theology (objectification) and the inflation of divine kingship by Akhenaten, explaining why his revolution failed.
   
   

3. theology : Assmann argues polytheism was explicit and the problem of the divine (the search for the One) implicit.²⁰ The common folk were polytheists and at a certain point in their religious history, the high priests and temple officers tried to solve the fundamental problem of every theology, namely theonomy (the name(s) of the Divine) and the solution of the tensions between the hidden and manifest poles of Divine bi-polarity. At the end of the Old Kingdom & in the Middle Kingdom, the realization the divine order could be broken up, triggered theodicy (which vanished from the literature of the New Kingdom).
   
   My reading of Ancient Egyptian literature ²¹ suggests both polytheism, monolatery and henotheism were "originally" present. In the Old Kingdom, the Great One stays foremost in the background (cf. Atum in the dominant Heliopolitan cosmology, the unity of the Two Lands, the exclusive status of Pharaoh and the role of Maat, the universal order). In the Middle Kingdom, the first henotheistic attempts occur (cf. Amun as "king of the gods", the synergy of Re and Osiris). In the New Solar Theology of the Early New Kingdom, the Great One comes to the fore as Re, mingles with the pantheon and assimilates the deities in a theophanic (henotheism) way.
   
   But Akhenaten was the first to consequently destroy the multiplicity of the old religion. His Aten stood above and was against all deities. The Aten was the "sole god", i.e. quantitatively singular (monotheism). A step too far ?
   
   In Ramesside theology, henotheism and bi-polarity were again fully put to the fore and the conflict between the One and "the millions" was solved by the "coincidentio oppositorum" realized by Amun, "the hidden" (and also by Ptah). In this theology, the Great One did not oppose the existence of other deities and a restoration of the old pantheon followed (a maturation of the proto-rational henotheism which had started in the Middle Kingdom). But besides being before everything (as in the Old Kingdom - cf. Nun & the "zep tepi"), the Great One was now also witnessed in everything. With the exception of Atenism, deemed criminal, a mature monotheistic theology & cult of the Great One cannot be identified in Ancient Egypt religion.
   
   

4. African philosophy : the fact Africa developed a philosophy of its own has only be recently advanced.²² In which way can Ancient Egyptian spirituality, without turning the argument Afrocentric, be seen as a historical culmination of the potential of traditional African philosophy ?
   
   

5. the presence/absence-discourse : in postmodernism, deconstruction has been associated with the unmasking of the tirany of presence (the notion reality can be fixed in words), and is suggestive of the overall activity of absence (the notion truth is partly veiled - cf. Heidegger on "aletheia"). Is Akhenaten a good example of how an overall focus on solitary presence (of the Aten and Pharaoh) leads to disaster ? Does what happened to Akhenaten's Aten religion tell us something about the fanatism, violence, exclusivism and dogmatism of any monotheist logic, as evidenced by the bloody history of the three major monotheisms "of the book" ? Is this one of the reasons for the irrational fascination and abuse of history people accommodate regarding Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as Montserrat (2001) elucidates ?

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1 The New Kingdom and the colossal Amenhotep III

1.1 A few political features of the New Kingdom : the age of empire.

Amenhotep III quarzite statue of the "dazzling Sun" - almost 2.5m tall

Politically, the New Kingdom brought internationalization, which defied the particularism of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. From Myceanae, Knossos, Mitanni, Babylon, and from the Hittites, Assyrians, Libyans & Nubians, gifts & trade goods were flowing in. The XVIIIthe & XIXth Dynasties produced great monuments of theocratic statesmanship. The reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390 - 1353 BCE) was a period of stabilty and peace, the foundations of which had been laid by Akhenaten's grandfather, Tuthmosis IV (ca. 1400 - 1930 BCE), who had brought to end decades of military conflict between the two great powers of the area, Egypt and the kingdom of Mitanni, fighting over the control over northern Syria. The court of Amenhotep III became an international center visited by ambassadors of many nations. Even Asiatic deities such as Reshef, Astarte, Baal and Qudshu were worshipped.  In the Book of Gates (Vth Hour), the "wretched" Aziatics, Nubians & Libyans were placed under the protection of Egyptian deities ...  Luxurious living in a setting of peace reached its climax under Amenhotep III. He never set foot in his Asiatic empire but acquired princesses for his harem and lavished gold on his allies. The age of empire did not focus on power, wealth and luxury only. The intellectual horizon had also broadened. Curiosity and tolerance for foreigners rose. Scribes had to be bilingual and foreign languages were fashionable. Especially religious thinking had been affected by this internationalism. The gods were not only there for Egypt, but for the whole world.

• in the cosmogonies of the Old Kingdom, Shu & Tefnut are the first two deities to belong to the created order (Atum emerges and simultaneously creates Shu & Tefnut) and without this division between heaven and Earth (by the air between them) nothing would have come forth ; 

• in the Coffin Texts, Shu (the word "shu" means "light-filled air"), the god of air, "makes it light after the darkness" ;

• the Aten or Sun disk is the dwelling-place of Shu (with the rays of its disk, the Sun clarifies the division made by Shu, division which is the necessary condition for anything to exist).

In the third year of his reign, Akhenaten also enclosed the didactical name of the Aten in a cartouche, as if it were part of the royal titulary. From the third to the fifth regnal year, he carried out a vast "Aten-project" or a formidable and thorough reorganization in religion, art, language, cult administration, economy etc. (in year 4, the high priest of Amun was literally sent "into the desert" and priest were reindoctrinated).

In the fifth year, the new Residence, Akhetaten ("Horizon of the Aten") is a gigantic construction site. The project was never really finished (Pharaoh was unusually depicted with a hammer in his hand), but in the fifth or sixth year, Amenhotep IV changed his royal titulary. ³⁴

1. Horus name : changed from "Strong Bull of the Double Plumes" to "Strong Bull, Beloved (or lover) of Aten" ;

2. Nebty name : changed from "Great of Kingship in Karnak" to "Great of Kingship in Khut-Aten" (his newly founded residence of Akhetaten) ;  

3. Gold name : from "Crowned in Heliopolis of the South" (Thebes) to "Exalter of the Name of Aten" ;

4. Throne name : the core of the name : "Nefer-kheperu-re Waenre" or : "perfect are the manifestations of Re, the sole one of Re" remained unaltered but he added "Living by Maat" ;

5. personal (nomen) name : from "Amenhotep god-ruler of Thebes" to "He who is useful to Aten, Radiance of Aten or Glory of Aten". In Egyptian, "Akhenaten" sounded something like "Akhanyati" ³⁵

These changes were recorded on a boundary stelæ of year 6 (fourth month of winter, day 13) :

"The living Horus : Strong Bull beloved of Aten ; Two Ladies : Great of Kingship in Aten ; Gold-Horus : Who exalts the name of Aten ; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands : Nefer-kheperu-Re, Sole-one-of-Re ; the Son of Re who lives by Maat, the Lord of crowns : Akhenaten, great in his lifetime, given life forever."
Akehenaten : Later Boudary Stelæ, at El-Amarna, translated by : Lichtheim, 1976, p.49, italics are cartouched.

Akhenaten made fourteen stelæ to record his founding of the new City of Light, Akhet-Aten ('the horizon of the Aten"). First three boundary stelæ were carved into the limestone cliffs on the East bank, at the northern & southern ends of the town. Later eleven more were cut into the cliffs, eight on the East and three on the West bank. The actual city lay only on the East bank, where the cemeteries are also to be found. He never did anything on the West bank, so the traditional "beautiful West" (the realm of the dead) played no role. The eleven stelæ bear one basic text with some additions and variations.

His traditional titles remained, but he used to style himself "the beautiful child of the living Aten". About four years later, the Aten too received a new royal titulary. The names Horus and Shu were removed from the new double cartouche, leaving only Aten and Re. The new "didactic" name or credo became : "Re-ruler-of-the-twin-horizons, who rejoices in the horizon in his name as Re-the-father-who-returns-as-Aten." ³⁶ 

These changes point to one direction only : the variety of appellations are avoided to the advantage of a single, unique deity : Re as the Aten. All associations with Amun (theological as wel as political) are eliminated. Also Atum is avoided, for this would associate creation too much with the first time ("zep tepi") and the chaotic realm before creation (Nun). Of this, no mention is made for there is no divine presence other than light.

There are reasons to believe Akhenaten inaugurated the royal status of the Aten with the celebration of a Sed-festival (however not in Akhetaten). A representation is not enough proof, for even Akhenaten is represented felling enemies without having undertaken a single military campaign. However, although his father Amenhotep III had invited all the deities in the land to celebrate with him, Akhenaten is represented as striding from shrine to shrine, each containing only the Aten, depicted as the Sun disk with its life-giving rays. All plurality is reduced to the singular.³⁷ 

The following choices point in the same direction :

1. in Thebes, beginning as "Amenhotep", he erects a temple for Re-Herakhty, favouring light (Re) and the mystical place of its emerging (the horizon or "akhet") ;

2. the new nomen name "Akhenaten" combines the notion of "efficiency" and "spirituality" (both "akh") with that of divine physical light (Aten). Pharaoh is a divine spirit who is effective for the Aten ;

3. his great monument, and proof of power, is a new capital, a new city of Akhetaten, where all aspects of the new creation may be combined as in the horizon or "akhet" of the Aten ;

4. the linguistic nearness between "akh" and "akhet" is used to convey the effectiveness of the power of the Eastern horizon, the mystical locus of the dawn of a new creation.

3.2 The grotesque Pharaoh,  permanent dynamism & intimacy.

The colossal statues in the Gem-pa-Aten temple are the earliest evidence of a change of artistic style. Egyptologists described them often in pejorative terms : Champollion employed the term "morbidezza" or softness, Wiedemann found the representations "in a frightfully ugly form, caricature", Wolf said the style invoked a "sick ugliness and nervous decadence", whereas Schäfter thought that he wanted to shock with his repulsive ugliness.

"Everything that had been static, fixed in place for eternity, is now set in motion. Vertical axes become diagonal, stressed by receding foreheads and elongated crowns. (...) movement characterized the playful, caressing intimacy of the royal family, which is depicted in lively group scenes, and the fluttering bands of cloth that dangle from clothes, crowns, and articles of furniture."
Hornung, 1999, p.44, my italics.

As soon as Pharaoh Akhenaten had changed his religion and his name, he also changed his own form and figure. In the earlier monuments, he still had retained some of the typical features of his father and his ancestors, but in Akhetaten (Tell el-'Amarna) his physical appearence totally changed too. His head was portrayed with a very high, narrow and receding forehead, with a large, sharp, aquiline nose, a weak, thin mouth and a large chin. This head was set upon a long, slender neck. Round chest, inflated stomack, large & broad thighs ... in many ways resembling a woman. 

"Their common denominator is a symbolic gathering of all attributes of the creator-god into the physical body of the king himself. The Aten subsumes into itself all the different gods who create and maintain the universe, and the king is the living image of the Aten on earth. He can therefore display on earth the Aten's multiple life-giving functions. These are represented through a set of signifiers that seem mutually contradictory to modern viewers, such as the appearance of female and male physical characteristics on the same statue, but made sense to the intended Egyptian audience. These attributes render the king literally superhuman, a divine body which goes beyond human experience."
Montserrat, 2001, p.48.

So-called "Amarna Art" has been compared with schools of Modern Art using a free form. Schäfter saw "expressionism" at work, as did Scharff. Montserrat (2001) doubts whether it is possible to compare Amarna with European currents and styles. Perhaps it is better to mark how it differs from the Egyptian canon ? For Hornung, this new style was a rebellion against the classical ideal of the XVIIIth dynasty.³⁸

hand of Akhenaten
limestone example of the innovative style of Amarna

Driven by his interest in dynamic process, Akhenaten as it were returned to the perennial idea behind the representation of the sign of "god" ("nTr" or "neter" pronounced "netjer") as a flagpole with two to four ribbons attached to the top and hence able to float in the air (representations show how, at the entrance of Akhenaten's Great Temple of the Aten at Amarna -760m long by 290m wide-, there were ten flagpoles instead of the eight of Karnak). This crucial sign acquired its definitive form as early as the Old Kingdom, starting with the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 - 2600 BCE), with strips around the complete pole (like a mummy) attached by a cord with its extremity projecting outwards like a ribbon.³⁹ The association with movement is evident and consistent with the Heliopolitan cosmogony, focusing on the emergence of Atum out of Nun as Shu, the god of air who separated Earth and sky, and the return to the "first occurrence" ("neheh"-time or eternal recurrence). Early in his reign, Akhenaten identified with Atum and Re-Horakethy (cf. Gem-pa-Aten temple in East Karnak), but soon he avoided all associations invoking the teachings of the netherworld of Osiris and the "first time" of the autogenous Atum and Nun. Indeed, Amarna theology intends no hiddenness, darkness or inertia (cf. infra).

Earlier scenes of deities and their mythological contexts were replaced by family scenes, in which all six daughters of Akhenaten & Nefertiti appeared. Because of the life-giving force of the Aten, the love existing in this "holy family" is portrayed intimately & emphatically. The children caress one another and are tended with affection by their parents, sitting on their lap ...This intimacy is exceptional and clearly innovative.

hands of statue of Akhenaten & Nefertiti
red quartzite - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Along with movement, we also see scenes of kissing, embracing, caressing, mourning & nursing among the royal family. They represented, with previously unthinkable freedom, the love emanating from the Aten who strove for the togetherness of his creatures. This does not mean his artists were free to do what they wanted, for more than likely Pharaoh himself established the new artistic canon. Even the size of the represented individuals did not depend any longer on their relative importance within the scene (sometimes Pharaoh is depicted as smaller than his workers !).

We may speak of "Amarna culture", for Akhenaten also elevated the spoken language of the New Kingdom into a new written language (Late Egyptian). In Late Egyptian, the verbal system (coordinating the expression of movement) changed. It replaced Middle Egyptian developed at the end of the Old Kingdom. Although Middle Egyptian remained the religious & royal language, Late Egyptian literature arose soon after Akhenaten's reign. 

3.3 The singularity of divine mediation : Aten - King - Queen.

The Aten as the light of the Sun keeps the world alive. He creates the world again and again and this continually. The original creation of the world was not discussed, for Nun had to be avoided. Everlastingness (Nun, Osiris) was not the focus, but eternal recurrence (Atum, Re). The underworld, the nocturnal stride of Re, the defeat of Apopis, the bark of Re and the kingdom of Osiris were all ousted. The royal status of the Aten was promulgated with rigor, for the Aten had a royal titulary, wore an uræus and celebrated Sed-festivals ! 

So Akhenaten viewed the Aten, his father, as his Pharaoh. This Aten was more than just one of the deities. Never did the new god take the place of individual deities like Amun. Rather, the Aten took the place of the divine realm as a whole, with light as his "immanence", however with the exclusion of the hidden, the netherworld and the "zep tepi", the first time emerging in the Nun with the self-creation of Atum.

On the other hand, Pharaoh was co-substantially one with his father, the Aten. Previously, the title "son of Re" had been stressing the divine & filial origin of Pharaoh, but Akhenaten went further. This can be read in the Book of Gates, which may have been written during the Amarna Period.

In the 8th Hour, we read the following remarkable articulation of the co-substantial unity between Atum and Re : "I am the son who emerged from his father, I am the father who emerged from his son." ⁴⁰ Both are of the "same substance" (cf. the problem of the "homo(i)ousia" of Christ and the Heavenly Father in Christian theology more than fifteen centuries later !). Between the Aten and Akhenaten, the same co-substantiality existed as between the Christian God and His unique Son Christ.

This co-substantiality implied the Aten (as father) was not accessible to anyone but to Akhenaten (as his unique son). And so, Akhenaten (as father) was the personal god of the individual (as adoptive son Akhenaten). Hence, in Amarna religion, piety was a relationship between the Aten and Pharaoh (father versus son) on the one hand, and between Pharaoh and the people on the other hand. Pharaoh set out on processions, performed signs and wonders, and intervened in the destiny of the individual. He was the Great Father of the World. A clear return to the "cannibalistic" powers Pharaoh had in the Old Kingdom.

Hence, the mystical aspect of the religious continuum, part of a proto-rational mode of thought prone to naturalization and universalization, was projected (as it was in the Old Kingdom in a mythical, pre-rational and polytheistic context) on the person of Pharaoh. Total dependence implied personal piety consisted exclusively in absolute loyalty to Pharaoh, to Akhenaten as a divine person, an ego as sole god. In the Amarna Letters, his servants were often compared with the dirt under the feet of Pharaoh, and to fall at his feet was common practice.⁴¹

"Say to the king, my lord, my Sun, my god :
'Message of Zitriyara, your servant, 
the dirt under your feet, and the mire you tread on. 
It fall at the feet of the king, my lord, my Sun, my god.'
7 times and 7 times, both on the stomack and on the back."
Moran, 1992, p.283.

In the hymn of the architects Suti and Hor, the Sun god is called "mother of humans and deities". Akhenaten himself was often named "Nile of Egypt", embodying the annual inundation and the goods of nature. He is also called "mother who bears all". This role of the female element does not belong to the periphery, neither is it of a purely political importance. Although she was never officially co-regent, Akhenaten saw in his wife Nefertiti a goddess. 

As Assmann has rightly pointed out, the Old Kingdom triad : Atum - Shu - Tefnut shines through.⁴² Early in his reign Pharaoh Akhenaten wore the four-feathered crown of Shu (cf. the colossal statues at Karnak). The triad : Aten - Akhenaten - Nefertiti was represented on the stelæ of household altars and object of household cults & private devotions. In no other way was the Aten accessible to the individual. Pharaoh and his queen prayed to the Aten and the people prayed to the triad. Piety as placing a deity "in one's heart" was reserved for Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

What a reduction of the possible spiritual mediators ! Officially, all other deities were rejected. The Aten of Akhenaten was not only above them (with what is unknown revealed to his son, who had the Aten in his heart), but also and foremost against them. Furthermore, no sacred priesthood was put in place which could serve as valid replacement of the holy trinity. Only the latter could guarantee the commoners anything. And ... Akhenaten probably had no sons.

It was this singularity of divine mediation which lies at the root of Akhenaten's failure to establish a religion which would last longer than his reign. Is it probable he thought the Aten would provide for a son to continue his work ? His wives only gave birth to six daughters. As a result, when Akhenaten died, there was no direct line assuring the continuity of what had been realized. The fact of the exclusivity of the Aten (returning much later as the exclusive light, path and truth of the Messiah Jesus Christ) being the theo-ontological complement of this.

In what follows the "Aten-project" is analyzed from four perspectives : the cultic, the nomic, the cosmic & the mystic.

4 The Aten-project :

CULTIC : dictatorial eradications & an imposed religion

4.1 The brutal end of previous worship, especially of Amun.

"... Egyptian cult is not to be understood as communication between the human and divine realms, but as an act of communication that took place purely in the divine realm, with priests playing the roles of deities in the framework of set constellations."
Assmann, 2001, p.156.

At the time (or just a little later) when Akhenaten changed the didactical name of the Aten, he took the most radical step an Egyptian Pharaoh would ever make. The removal of Horus and Shu preluded, in principle, the end of all worship in the land not dedicated to the Aten ! Akhenaten was the first "founder" of a religion who had all the power of the state at his disposal to implement his revolution. Although he did not succeed, he went about in unseen ways.

His efforts implied the physical obliteration of the old deities by the erasure of their names and sometimes of their pictoral representation as well. An unseen iconoclasm ! Especially Amun and his consort Mut were targeted, but it sporadically affected other deities as well. The plural writing of the word "god" was rejected too. Thoth (the god of magic) was not touched and the persecution was not consistent. 

"We must imagine that the suppression of the old cults was not altogether consistent in the distant provinces, and that Thebes surely was a special case. (...) The discovery of figurines of traditional deities in the houses at Amarna is significant. They must stem from a time when these deities were officially persecuted, thus testifying to their continuing, albeit secret, worship ; at the same time, they touch on the area of magic, which was totally excluded from official religion in the Amarna Period."
Hornung, 1999, pp.86 and 111.

But the name of Amun was erased from the lettes of the diplomatic archive, scarabs, tips of obelisks & pyramids and even his own former name "Amenhotep" was mutilated. Akhenaten wanted to destroy Amun's role as "refuge of the poor", for only the holy triad could guarantee the individual anything.

"The founding of the religion must have been all the more shocking in that Akhenaten proceeded with unprecedented brutality. The new religion was not promoted, it was imposed. Tradition was not questioned, it was persecuted and forbidden. (...) To appreciate the tremendous and consciousness altering significance of these steps, we must bear in mind that this new religion did not make its appearance in a situation of competing doctrines of religious salvation or general lack of orientation, but rather set itself against plain reality and reduced it to an excluded alternative."
Assmann, 2001, pp.199-200.

4.2 New open temples with no statues, roofs or holy of holies.

The new temples erected by the king were totally different than what places of worship had been before. The Amarga religion had no cult statues, for the only form of the Sun god was the Aten, the physical disk of the Sun. Indwelling was done away with. Representations were in sunk relief and depicted the royal couple. The Aten is a disk with a bulge, suggestive of a sphere or globe. Rays emanate downward, ending in hands from which an Ankh-sign hangs, i.e. "giving life". They extend to Pharaoh and his queen, for they were no mere mortals, and were considered to receive the blessings from the Aten directly and then pass them on to their followers, who worshipped them.

the Royal Family adoring the Aten
panel in painted limestone - Tell el-Amarna, royal tombs

Before Amarna, temples were a shrine for the hidden cult image of a deity. Aside from the radiant Sun, the Aten had no image, and so the whole world was his shrine. As the only way to reach the Aten was through prayers and offerings to the holy family (who's central figures were part of the holy triad), no purification, anointment and clothing of the divine image were longer necessary (the daily service stopped). The new artistic style (movement & intimacy) was coupled with a new kind of architecture : the temple at Amarna remained sheltered by high walls from the outside but was open from above to the light of the Sun. The doorways had broken lintels and the processional way through the middle of the columned halls was unroofed. To reduce shadows doorways had raised thresholds. Every cultic act took place under the radiant Sun. That this caused some Assyrian messengers to die in the Sun was only acceptible for the Assyrian king if it profited Akhenaten. 

"Why should messengers be made to stay constantly out in the sun and so die in the sun ? If staying out in the sun means profit for the king, then let the messenger stay out and let him die right there in the sun, but for the king himself there must be a profit. Or otherwise, why should they die in the sun ? As to the messengers we have exchanged (...) do they keep my messengers alive ? They are made to die in the sun !"
Moran, 1992, p.39.

Aerial view of the Central City
the darker are at the bottom is the western edge

Because of this abundance of light, sunk reliefs were used even in the interior of the buildings. There was no need for a remote & dark holy of holies for the cult image of the deity made of costly materials. At dawn, the Aten filled the temple completely and that was his exclusive presence, except for his son Akhenaten, who was the only one to know his father and secure a place for him in his heart.

4.3 Flowers as the perferred offering.

The life-giving and life-sustaining hands of the Aten were everywhere. They could take hold of offerings everywhere they touched. The altars were overfilled with food and although there were still sacrificial offerings of cattle & geeze (the Aten temple had its own slaughterhouse), the offerings were decked with flowers, the preferred offering, still accompanied by the singing of hymns and by incense and music.

4.4 New dynamical representations : globe, Ankh, chariot.

The abolition of all cult statues was radical. The only representation made of the Aten was the shining, radiant globe with its hands extending downwards, giving life to everything touched.

The Ankh became the sign which represented the life-force of the Aten. The holy family riding on a chariot (introduced by the Hyksos, the "foreign kings") on which the Aten poured its rays being the crucial synthetical image of Amarna religion and its accent on movement and change, so typical for the Sun in its daily course (it replaced the barque processions on festival days).

the Royal Family in a Chariot and blessed by the Aten
after Davies, 1905, plate 32A

NOMIC : radical naturalization of the "old" religion

4.5 Only Aten is divine and there is no god but Aten.

Akhenaten "found" the Aten by discovering the world's dependence on light, to be understood as the foundational principle of his Amarna religion. All could be derived from it and it embraced everything. In the early years, this was put down in the formula "me qedef" or "there is none like him". In the rock tombs of El Amarna we find "wepu heref" or "there is no other but him". Likewise, Pharaoh was "unique like Aten, there being no other great one but him" (cf. tomb of Aya). In the Great Hymn we read that : "O sole god without equal !" (notice the absolutely singular use of "netjer"). The Aten had no enemies, no rivals and no spouse. He had only one son (who had none !).

With his insistence on one god, by affirming that there is no other god than the Aten and that Akhenaten is his messenger, Akhenaten came formally very close to the core of radical monotheism, as we find it rationally expressed in the Koran (cf. "tawhîd"). However, by stressing the physical light of the Sun, he content-wise limited the scope of his metaphysical outlook on the divine. For in the Koran, Allah is both King of the seen and the unseen (cf. Sufism). In the Recital, the idea of Pharaoh's divinity is also radically rejected (this being the main reason why in the Koran the wickedness of the king of Egypt is stressed so much as well as the insistence that Jesus Christ was not the son of God, Allah being without a second).  

However, in the explicit theological ideas which emerged after Amarna (during the Ramesside Period), a more all-comprehensive outlook came to the fore, which coupled the irreversible cognitive decentration & re-equilibration posed by Amarna culture (denaturalization and focus on the oneness of the Aten) with the mythical, pre-rational contexts of the old religion, for Amarna religion had literary denuded the mythologies of the old religion, i.e. the indwelling pantheon of the Old & Middle Kingdoms (nomes + state gods & their spouses, eventually assimilated by Osiris -the king of the dead- & Amun-Re -the king of the gods-). 

By strictly focusing on the visible and by removing his seal of royal approval from the old religion, Akhenaten had generated a massive trauma which explains why eighty years after his reign he was totally forgotten till the start of modern egyptology (cf. repression in the psychoanalytical views of Freud). This focus on the visible is also the main reason why this extremely remarkable Aten-project failed.

"The Amarna episode came to be completely forgotten within about eighty years, but the experience was traumatic enough to produce legendary traditions which -because of their unlocatability in the official cultural memory- became free-floating and thus susceptible to being associated with a variety of semantically related experience. They formed a 'crypt' in the cultural memory of Egypt."
Assmann, 1997, p.216.

4.6 Life-giving light is the only divine Presence.

The indwelling of the gods & goddesses was done with. Instead, an incarnational view was promoted. It was coupled with presence, the natural order of light and the unique divine son of the Aten. The Aten first and foremost manifested as the life-giving light. Because Akhenaten was the masculine pole of the Amarna Trinity, he alone was the son of the Aten, and his queen was his first beloved.

In this sense, the Amarna religion offers a very good example of the exclusivity of presence. Distinctions appear when light dawns, otherwise all is opaque as death. If we look for a definite trace of mythological thought in the naturalized Amarna Solar theology, we may find it in the eternalization of the mystery of the moment of dawn (& dusk), rejoiced by all creatures. However, by identifying the diurnal phase of the daily cycle of the Sun (actually the rotation of the Earth around its pole) with the universal deity, Amarna theology was incapable of dealing with the major concern of the Ancient Egyptians : a good afterlife. The nocturnal phase was not thematized. The netherworld and Osiris were left out of the picture, although the Duat was mentioned. The Aten "rested" in the West and as it were immediately "dawned" in the East, from "horizon" to "horizon".

4.7 Pharaoh is the only one with the Aten in his heart.

Akhenaten is the son of the Aten, his father. He alone knows him. Nobody else does. This exclusivity of the mediation is the second reason why the Aten-project failed. What would happen after Akhenaten left this world ? He would continue to exist in the City of Light for the realm of the dead lay in Akhetaten. So living in the City of Light or being dead were conceived as being identical. What came after death would be an exact copy of the conditions in which one already was. Hence death played no role whatsoever. The afterlife was here already. These teachings must have caused anxiety in the hearts of many Egyptians, used to associate the nocturnal phase with the netherworld and the regeneration of the Solar power (invoking the first time). Scepticism regarding the afterlife became a new literary genre.

"Where are their places ? Their walls have collapsed,
their places do not exist, as though they had never been made.
No one comes from there to describe their condition
and give tidings of their needs
and calm our hearts 
until we, too, arrive where they have gone."
Inyotef : Song, Papyrus Harris 500 (BM 10060), 19th dynasty, cited by Hornung, 1999, p.103.  

COSMIC : only light, presence and movement

4.8 Light without darkness.

Akhenaten removed all associations with pre-creation and the "zep tepi" :

1. "Re-Herakhty, who rejoices in the horizon in his name Shu, who is Aten". 
   At his ascension he identified his god as Re-Herakhty, associated with the East and the rising Sun (cf. Karnak complex). Akhenaten poses as Atum and gives his god the name "Shu", the god who separates Earth & sky and who maintains their division. The root of his name probably means "the void", "to raise oneself" or "to raise something". With this dogmatic statement, he was initiating a new era, raising his new god to the throne of unique, universal deity. But not without making a statement connecting the whole enterprise with the old pantheon and the grand ideals projected on the Old Kingdom and its theology, especially Heliopolitan theology ;

2. "Re, the ruler of the twin horizons, who rejoices in the horizon in his name Re as the father who returns as Aten."
   When the City of Light was under construction and major reforms were underway, Amenhotep IV changed his name and later the didactic name of the Aten. The titulary had only Re and Aten, the latter being the physical manifestation of the former. All bonds with the old pantheon had been broken. The new dawn had been heralded by Amenhotep IV, and now even that name itself could be mutilated in order to harm Amun. For only the Aten and his son reigned for all of eternity in the City of Light. 

4.9 Presence without absence.

What happened with the Sun after it had set was not discussed. When