Akhenaten
A brief foray towards monotheism. (The Bus 3.27)
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The Stop
Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who reigned around 1351-1334 BCE, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The son of Amunhotep III, in the first four years of his reign he was known as Amunhotep IV. While to most people he is known because he was the father of Tutankhamun,1 Amunhotep IV also holds an important place in the history of religions. Over his relatively short reign, he imposed dramatic changes to Egyptian religion, reforms which got him branded by some as ‘revolutionary’ and still others as ‘heretic.’ Though these changes lasted only a short while, they are still recognised by scholars today as history’s first foray towards what would eventually become monotheism.
Soon after he succeeded his father, Amunhotep IV married Nefertiti - the chief queen of his tenure - and began a reign that initially appeared like any other. Pharaohs were expected to build monuments, and his earliest are traditional as they depict the worship of various deities in the same style as his predecessor. However, one notable exception hints at the radical changes to come: instead of remaining roughly equivalent to other members of the Egyptian pantheon, the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhte is given a more prominent role and accompanied with an ‘unusual epithet’ containing the phrase ‘who rejoices in his horizon, in his aspect of the light which is in the sun’s disk.’ Soon, Amunhotep IV introduced ‘sweeping changes’ in religion, architecture and art based around a new god - Aton - the light which is in the sun’s disk.
In the fifth year of his reign, Amunhotep (‘Amun is Content’) changed his name to Akhenaten (‘Beneficial to Aton’) and for his remaining thirteen years worked to establish a new religion centred on Aton. Best understood as the ‘light produced by the sun itself,’ Akhenaten’s depiction of Aton was unusual in that it did not take on an anthropomorphic form like the other deities, but was instead represented as the ‘sun’s disk itself, elevated to the heavens and extending its multiple rays down over the royal family.’ Each of the rays ended in a tiny hand, representing Aton’s offering of life to the king and queen and even ‘embrac[ing] their limbs and crowns.’
While most Egyptian deities were worshiped through elaborate rituals in ‘small, darkened sanctuaries in the innermost recesses of their temples,’ devotion to Aton was performed in the open sunlight by presenting ‘foodstuffs on large numbers of offering tables.’ Temples of Aton at Karnak consisted of ‘vast open-air courts’ and ‘virtually no interior space at all,’ though these courts were flanked by ‘porticos with colossal statues of the king placed against the pillars.’2 Aton quickly became elevated to the position of ‘state deity’ and Akhenaten set about reshaping the ‘religious sphere through the persecution of some traditional gods, most notably Amun – Egypt’s state deity for much of the 18th dynasty.’3
Although some scholars consider Akhenaten the world’s first monotheist, it is more accurate to describe his religion of Aton as monolatry, the ‘worship of one god in preference to all others.’ Not only is there no evidence that Akhenaten denied the existence of other gods, but he actually incorporated many aspects of the traditional divinised sun - Re-Harakhte (the rising sun), Shu (atmosphere and sunlight), and Ma’at (daughter of Re) - into his new cult. There is also ‘no evidence’ that his ‘idiosyncratic religion’ lasted beyond his death, or even that it was popular during his reign. Excavations of numerous homes, villages and public places from the time have revealed figurines of household and traditional deities were still popular and worshipped at the time.
Circumstances surrounding Akhenaten’s end are ‘murky.’ He is thought to have died during his 17th year on the throne, but his cause of death is unknown because it is unclear whether or not his remains have been located. His royal tomb did not contain a royal burial, prompting the ‘question of what happened to the body.’ A skeleton found in Tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings has been suggested to be his as it contains ‘numerous grave goods (including the coffin in which the remains were found) belonging to Akhenaten.’ However, this evidence is at best circumstantial and only adds to the mystery of the man who - for a brief moment - appears to have unleashed a rather radical idea on a world that was not yet ready.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. From 21 November 2022, this is a set (21:58) by Santigold. A great collection of five tracks, it showcases the ‘genre-straddling R&B and electro-pop’ singer in an environment that returns her to her roots. It’s great (even if she does spend a bit too much time talking), and worth a watch.
Santigold (NPR Tiny Desk Concert Series)
The Recommendation
Today’s Recommendation is Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Widely regarded as one of the greatest action-adventure films ever made, the film – directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman – stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a college professor and archaeologist adventurer. Set in 1936, Jones is pitted against the Nazis who are searching for the long-lost Ark of the Covenant in the belief it will make their army invincible.4 Teaming up with a former romantic interest, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), together they weather countless challenges including a chase through the streets of Cairo, an ancient well filled with poisonous snakes, Nazis, collapsing temples, swordsmen, more Nazis, poisonous dates, and the power of the Ark itself. Oh, and even more Nazis. Praised at the time for its non-stop action and unique blend of humour and suspense, it was the first in what would become the Indiana Jones franchise5 and was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 1999. It’s a great, fun film – and perfect for the summer.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Trailer
Raiders of the Lost Ark streams on multiple platforms.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is composed of five great tracks from five albums - all released in 1981, the year of Raiders of the Lost Ark:6 ‘Waiting for a Friend’ (The Rolling Stones, Tattoo You), ‘Mean Street’ (Van Halen, Fair Warning), ‘Stone in Love’ (Journey, Escape), ‘Centerfold’ (J. Geils Band, Freezeframe) and ‘For Those About to Rock We Salute You’ (AC/DC, For Those About to Rock We Salute You). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from Raiders of the Lost Ark. After escaping from the Nazis in Egypt and on their way to hopefully rescue the Ark, Marion Ravenswood looks at the beaten, bruised and exhausted Indiana and says, ‘You’re not the man I knew ten years ago.’ To which he replies:
'It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.'
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
Tut - who really didn’t do anything notable in his short life - is ironically one of the best-known Pharaohs purely because of the discovery of his tomb in 1922. I love Egyptology and the Ancient Near East - and have since I was a child. Other related Bus Stops include Thoth (1.18), Henotheism (1.29), Mummy (1.41), Tiglath-Pileser III (2.13), Hittites (2.28) and Anubis (2.45) (some paywalled). Sources for today’s Stop include Akhenaten (Britannica) and Akhenaten (ARCE).
In addition to changes in architecture, there were also radical changes to the artistic portrayal of the royal family. In comparison with the ‘standard conventions’ of Egyptian art at the time, the family’s ‘features … appear noticeably exaggerated: a prognathous jaw, a thin neck, sloped shoulders, a pronounced paunch, large hips and thighs, and spindly legs. Facial features were characterised by angular, slitted eyes, fleshy lips, nasolabial wrinkles, and holes for ear plugs, while the princesses are often each depicted with an inflated, egg-shaped cranium.’ Whether this reflects the actually physiognomy of the family or not is unclear, but a lot of time has been spent trying to diagnose the underlying pathology.
Not long after his fourth regnal year, Akhenaten ‘dispatched agents to erase the names and images of certain gods from existing texts and monuments.’ This didn’t go down well.
In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was the name given to the gold-plated wooden box said to contain the tablets of the Law (i.e., the Ten Commandments) to Moses by the Hebrew God. For more information, see: Ark of the Covenant (Britannica).
Temple of Doom (1984) – notable for leading to the creation of the PG-13 rating two months after its release due to its intensity - The Last Crusade (1989), The Crystal Skull (2008) and The Dial of Destiny (2023).
I was 12 and clearly remember all of these, though the one I recently sang along with note-for-note (I was in the car and I’d not heard it in easily over 25 years) was the brilliant ‘Centerfold.’ In ‘81 this song, along with the previous year’s ‘Turning Japanese’ (The Vapors), lifted a veil. Suddenly, certain things made sense.
I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and suggest that because indeed Akhenaten attempted to collate a number of adorational fetishes in one and abstract the imagery of the Gods as well as remove names and references that he was beginning to reconstruct polytheism in Egypt, he just ran out of time, perhaps in a calculated manner given the radicality of his actions which, as you, say, appeared to be popular. It was also a consolidation of the power of the cultic life itself, and thus any priesthood associated with newly marginalized figures or characters of a pantheon would resist.
There is evidence for all of this, yes, but not for my next statement, so hold on: the displaced followers of his new cult were ancestors of the ancient Hebrews.
The key text has always been Freud's 1938 (and final) book 'Moses and Monotheism'. Here is Amazon's blurb:
"To deny a people the man whom it praises as the greatest of its sons is not a deed to be undertaken lightheartedly--especially by one belonging to that people," writes Sigmund Freud, as he prepares to pull the carpet out from under The Great Lawgiver in Moses and Monotheism. In this, his last book, Freud argues that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman and that the Jewish religion was in fact an Egyptian import to Palestine. Freud also writes that Moses was murdered in the wilderness, in a reenactment of the primal crime against the father. Lingering guilt for this crime, Freud says, is the reason Christians understand Jesus' death as sacrificial. "The 'redeemer' could be none other than the one chief culprit, the leader of the brother-band who had overpowered the father." Hence the basic difference between Judaism and Christianity: "Judaism had been a religion of the father, Christianity became a religion of the son." Freud's arguments are extremely imaginative, and his distinction between reality and fantasy, as always, is very loose. If only as a study of wrong-headedness, however, it's fascinating reading for those who want to explore the psychological impulses governing the historical relationship between Christians and Jews. --Michael Joseph Gross
Moses was merely the liminal figure who corresponds with the timing of the 'Exodus' by which a dispossessed Egyptian cult becomes fully Hebrew. There are far too many resemblances between the Jewish ethics and that of the Egyptians to overlook, and even those Christian that maintain connection with the Decalogue, which point for point appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.