For centuries, the god Amun served as the pre-eminent god in New Kingdom Egypt, and his priests enjoyed privileges and power. However, Akhenaten revolutionised religious life with his adoption of the cult of Aten and the introduction of monotheism to Egypt. Along with this religious change came many others, Akhenaten changed Egypt’s foreign policy, art and architecture.…
Did you know Thutmose III was the warrior king of Egypt, and he had the largest dynasty? Thutmose III was born on 1504 B.C.E in in Egypt. During the first twenty-two years of his reign he was a co-regent with his aunt and stepmother, Hatshepsut. He was the 6th Pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty, but he didn’t actually become a pharaoh until his aunt, Hatshepsut, died then that’s when he was an official Pharaoh. Thutmose ruled Egypt for almost fifty-four years.…
During the reign of the 18th Dynasty, Akhenaton had made his kingdom very wealthy and powerful, but at the same time he also changed art in his time period which became known as the Amarna Period. Art in the Amarna period was very different from the stiff and unemotional art from the earlier Egyptian dynasties. Akhenaton was very influential on the art; it seemed that he wanted the art to convey real life taking place. Even though portrayal of Akhenaton himself seems exaggerated it seems more life-like then the earlier art, all Pharaohs seemed to look exactly the same with the same body and the same stance. Amarna art shows Akhenaton with a very elongated face, full lips, cat-like eyes and a pudgy stomach. All of…
The cult of Amun God of the air, the sun, and sky, was followed by Egyptians during the beginning Amenhotep’s reign. Worshiping more than one God is referred to as polytheism. After the first few years of ruling, Amenhotep shifted his beliefs to a monotheistic religion, worshiping one god in the cult of Aten, as opposed to the worshiping of multiple gods as Egypt was accustomed. This belief changed Egyptian culture during the reign of Akhenaten. “Amenhotep IV outlawed the old religion and proclaimed himself the living incarnation of a single, all-powerful, deity known as Aten” (Ancient History Encyclopedia). Akhenaten as a ruler used forced conversion by outlawing past beliefs. The cult of Aten was the belief that “Aten was a being who represented the God or spirit of the sun, and the actual solar disk. He was depicted as a disk with rays reaching to the earth” (Ancient Egypt: The mythology). It was then that Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, “translated to mean `successful for' or `of great use to' the god Aten”. (Ancient History Encyclopedia). This belief can be closely related Jesus in Christianity, where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead three days later, just as Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, both symbolize the rebirth of the Son of…
Ramses was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled over Egypt from 1290 B.C.E to 1224 B.C.E. He was born around 1303 B.C.E and died 1213 B.C.E. Pharaoh Ramses II was born to his father, Pharaoh Sethi I, and his mother, Queen Tuya. His grandfather was Ramses I. As a pharaoh, Ramses had about 100 wives and over 100 children. Ramses had an older brother who was supposed to be pharaoh before him but he died at age 14 so Ramses became heir to the throne.…
Akhenaten; Radical success or dismal failure? Formerly known as Amenhotep the IV, he grew up in the most powerful family on earth. His father Amenhotep III died leaving a reign of peace and prosperity in the hands of his son. His son was a King of radical change. He changed many customary ideas of ancient Egypt like art for example. Akhenaten celebrated the vibrancy of the real world and taught his people how to make art in this fashion. Another radical idea of his was the religious revolution he imposed. In the second year of his reign Akhenaten abandoned the traditions of polytheism and only praised…
Another, yet subsidiary, argument the author makes relates to Ancient Egypt’s new Pharaoh in 1370 B.C. Pharaoh Akhenaton discarded tradition and religion in favor of new ideas. “He had no time for the Egyptian religion, with its many gods and its mysterious rituals. ‘There is only one God,’ he taught his people, ‘and that is the Sun, through whose rays all is created and all sustained. To Him alone you must pray’ (Gombrich 15).” As you can see, the Pharaoh created a new belief amongst the people, by stating that there is only one god that exists, which is the Sun. Akhenaton says the Sun’s rays is what created everything on Earth and sustains it even now. The new Pharaoh also changed the style of architecture from a “severe, rigid, and solemn”…
Akhenaton’s reign lasted from 1353 BC-1336 BC or 1351 BC–1334 BC (the dates are subject to debate). After 4 years of his reign he built a new capital of Egypt (Amarna) and dedicated the city to the supreme deity Aten. Akhenaton attempted to change the religion in Egypt and attempted to unite all of the traditional gods and goddesses of Egypt into one supreme deity (History records were careful not to mention Aten as a god but compared him to the sun and the stars to make him more important than a normal god.) Aten was the deity Akhenaton tried to convert everyone to. At the time many nobles changed their names to names related to Aten instead of names based on the traditional Egyptian gods. Akhenaton means: the effective spirit of Aten. His son Tutankhaten’s name means living…
Why would a pharaoh, already acknowledged as divine, attempt a religious revolution? Why did he fail? In the passage of “Hymn to the Aten” monotheism is expressed as one sun and God. It talks of how the sun gives life and light. It expresses God as the sun which gives live during the day and in the sunset we die. I do not really understand why a pharaoh would attempt a religious revolution but maybe he wanted power for one man. I think he was comparing himself to the one God and he wanted to become that one God. In my opinion he failed because he lacked power and control. He lacked followers and there were many who believed in many gods in ancient times. Many people saw Akhenaten as the…
-Thutmosis III was the first to utilize the sickle sword because he brought to Egypt from Syria.…
Ramses II was the son of Seti and is frequently called the greatest pharaoh as he ruled for a long time and was very strong militarily. He was known as the “Great Ancestor” or “Ramses the Great.”…
In Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, Naguib Mahfouz writes about a young man named Meriamun, who seeks a true and accurate record of the events surrounding the exile and death of the “heretic pharaoh.” He accomplishes this by interviewing all of Akhenaten’s living contemporaries, friends, and political figures. The effect on the reader through this method is the reading of a story through fourteen different points of view. This type of narration almost makes the book a mystery novel, a who-done-it of truth. Shortly after reading the first couple of narratives I began to wonder how truthful the speakers were being, because Meriamun begins with the very people who isolated and fought against Akhenaten, yet they try their best to paint…
Akhenaten was the Pharaoh of Egypt for 17 years during the Eighteenth Dynasty which took place from 1352 to 1336 B.C. He was born the son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tyie. His was originally named after his father, Amenhotep IV, but decided to change his name during the fifth year of his reign. During that year he changed his name to Akhenaten, which means “horizon of the sun,” or can also be translated to “He who is of service to Aten.” He had six daughters, Merytaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten-tasharit, Neferneferure, and Sotepenpre. Akhenaten was also suspected of having two more sons, Smenkhkare who succeeded him on the thrown, and Tutankhamun whom reigned after his brother. Both sons were born from different mothers. His first wife Neferiti, who was renamed to Nefernefruaten by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, which translated, means “beautiful is the beauty of Aten,” was also known as the “great royal wife” during the early years of his reign. He also had 3 consorts during…
The Pharaoh Amenhotep IV did not just change his name to Akhenaten and the religion of ancient Egypt creates the first known monotheism, but the artistic style made the immediate conversion from the traditional Egyptian style of depicting people with ideal physiques, to a unique and rather unsettling form. He utilized this art to show his objective of carrying out things abnormally.…
When Akhenaten ruled Egypt he created a new god. He wiped out all of Egypt’s main Gods and their religious beliefs and instead made all the Egyptians worship the Aten.…