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I have a game on my computer called "Beyond Time" Where you have to go through time and stop these people who are stealing artifacts or something like that (Fact: It's a hard game). Anyway, when you start the game you are in the Osiris Temple in Ancient Egypt, and when I was reading one of the readable scrolls I found the name Akhenaten in red. I have heard the name in my social studies class before, since we're studying Ancient Egypt, but so far I don't know who he is. Can anybody tell me something?

One of the reasons I heard there was a problem with protraying father and son together as the pharoh was suppose to be the incarnation of Horous and when he died he took on the attributes of Osiris. The problem with the father and son thing is then you had two incarnations of the same guy which the Egyptians may have found a little creepy. Another factor to consider is that Akhenaten was a little more open this must (probrably because he was a rule flouter) at allowing a "soft" family man portrayl of himself.

Actually, Akhenaten insisted that his portraits not be exagerated and that he be painted, or otherwise portrayed, as he really was. This meant pot bellied, droopy liped, encyphaletic head, bony arms and all. His major crime was elevating his family's personal god, Aten (Ra portrayed as a solar disc), over the established priesthood, especially Amun. This seriously damaged their prestige & power and also cut heavily into the offerings to their shrines. His major mistake was not destroying the Priests before he replaced their Gods. In the novel, Sinuhe, Horemheb recommends this but is told not to do it.

I know this is old news but I couldn't help but revive it when I came across this;

Allegedly written by Akhenaten himself, around 1360 BCE, this hymn of love and fervor conveys a vibrancy unparalleled in all the literature bequeathed to us from Ancient Egypt. Several versions and variations were discovered in the devastated tombs of the Tell el Amarna dignitaries. Below you will find the main excerpts from the completest version, found in the tomb of Ay:

Thou arisest fair in the horizon of Heaven,
O Living Aten, Beginner of Life.
When thou dawnest in the East,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty.
Thou art indeed comely, great, radiant and high over every land.
Thy rays embrace the lands to the full extent of all that thou hast made,
For thou art Re and thou attainest their limits
And subdues them for thy beloved son.
Thou art remote yet thy rays are upon the earth.
Thou art in the sight of men, yet thy ways are not known.

When thou settest in the Western horizon,
The earth is in darkness after the manner of death.
Men spend the night indoors with their head covered,
The eye not seeing its fellow.
Their possessions might be stolen, even when under their heads,
And they would be unaware of it.
Every lion comes forth from its lair
And all snakes bite.
Darkness lurks and the earth is silent
When their Creator rests in his habitation.

The earth brightens when thou arisest in the Eastern horizon, [...]
Thou drivest away the night when thou givest forth thy beams.
The Two Lands are in festival.
They awake and stand upon their feet
For thou hast raised them up.
They wash their limbs, they put on raiment
And raise their arms in adoration at thy appearance.
The entire earth performs its labors.
[...]

Thou appointest every man to his place and satisfiest his needs.
Everyone receives his sustenance and his days are numbered.
Their tongues are diverse in speech [...]
And their color is differentiated,
For thou hast distinguished the nations.
Thou makest the waters under the earth
And thou bringest them forth [as the Nile] at thy pleasure to sustain the people of Egypt
Even as thou hast made them live for thee,
O Divine Lord of them all, toiling for them,
The Aten Disk of the day time, great in majesty!
All distant foreign lands also, thou createst their life.
Thou hast placed a Nile in heaven to come forth for them
And make a flood upon the mountains like the sea
In order to water the fields of their villages.
How excellent are thy plans, O Lord of Eternity!
- a Nile in the sky is thy gift to foreigners
And to beasts of their lands;
But the true Nile flows from under the earth for Egypt.
[...]

When you rise you stir everyone for the King,
Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth.
You rouse them for your son who came from your body,
The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,
Neferkheperure, Sole-one-of Re,
The son of Re who lives by Maat, the lord of crowns,
Akhenaten, great in his lifetime;
And the great Queen whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands,
Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever.!»

Thank you Skatha, that is an excellent rendering of a most beautiful hymn.

Regarding Akhenaten's distinctive appearance, one perspective is that it was created intentionally to portrary him as both male & female. (With the full lips, prominent belly, etc.) This sort of implied to the public that in addition to being biologically male with the power to rule, he was further equiped with life-creating powers of the female gender. Hence different and superior to all his predecessors....

Personally, I interprete this as: It's a publicity gimick to enhance his reputation and feed his pharoah ego. But I guess more admiration & respect from the people would probably make his rule easier (if they were not already rolling on the ground and laughing their guts out!)

And a question: I read from somewhere that Akhenaten, in an attempt to make Aten the dominant god, invited all priests (of the other gods) to a conference. Once they were all gathered in the building, he ordered all exits sealed off and set fire to it. Not sure of the amount of truth in this story and I'm wondering if anybody else came across the same story? Or maybe I'm just mixed up over the different civilizations' histories....

I do hope someone remembers this story and has the answer, Stuka, because I vaguely recall hearing this, too.

Thanks for replying! At least I'm now certain that this story is not a fabrication of my imagination (or indoctrinated into my sub-consciousness through (i) whispering into my ear or (ii) playing a casette tape by my bed while I'm snoozing)

On this strategy of solving-the-problem-by-killing-it, I guess its effectiveness is discounted in resolving religion disputes. You can kill the protectors of the faith, but you can't kill the faith. But at least Akhenaten got the attention he always wanted, though for the wrong reasons. And you certainly can't miss his distinctive statue among the many.

I've never heard of that book, Nevetsnaya, but it sounds very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

Bloody Hellfire! Talk about old threads.

There's a Lew MK1 a Sunday, Stuka the banshee (always thought they were STUrzKamfflugzeugen) not grubby Irish demons; what a wealth of nostalgia for the literary challenged. Perverts.

akhenaten was known as the heretic king,his wife was nefertiti,i think they were the parents of tutankhamen,i do believe he made people worship the god aten,after his reign anything with his name on was destroyed,when king tutakhamen took over he returned everything back,akhenaten was in the 18th or 19th dynasty.

Akhenaten was late 18th dynasty.

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