Akhenaten Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
, Cairo.]]- Amenhotep (IV.), (Personal name)
- Amenophis (Greek variant of personal name)
- Nefer-cheperu-Rê (Throne name)
- Naphu(`)rureya (Variant of throne name found in the Amarna letters)
- Alternative spellings of Akhenaten - Akhnaten, Akhenaton, Akhnaton, Ikhnaton (Name taken on conversion to Atenism)
Atenist revolution
A religious revolutionary, Amenhotep IV introduced Atenism in Year 4 of his reign, raising the previously obscure sun god Aten to the status of supreme god. This year is also believed to mark the beginning of his construction of a new capital, Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten'), at the site known today as Amarna. In Year 5 of his reign Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten ('Glorious Spirit of the Aten') as evidence of his new worship. The date given for the event has been estimated to fall around January 2 of that year. In Year 7 of his reign the capital was moved from Thebes to Akhetaten, though construction of the city seems to have continued for two more years. In honor of Aten he also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at Karnak, and is believed to have composed the Great Hymn to the Aten.Initially Akhenaten presented Aten as a variant of the familiar supreme deity Amun-Ra (itself the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun, resulting in Amun becoming merged with the sun god Ra), in an attempt to put his ideas in a familiar Egyptian religious context. However in Year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion by declaring Aten not merely the supreme god, but the only god, even staging the ritual regicide of Amun, as well as the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt. Aten's name is also written differently after Year 9, to emphasise the radicalism of the new regime, which included a ban on idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten (now no longer a sun god but rather a universal deity). The early stage of Atenism appears a kind of henotheism familiar in Egyptian religion, but the later form suggests a proto-monotheism. The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of monotheistic religion was promoted by Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) in his book Moses and Monotheism and thereby entered popular consciousness.
Styles of art that flourished during this short period are markedly different from other Egyptian art, bearing a variety of affectations, from elongated heads to protruding stomachs, exaggerated ugliness and the beauty of Nefertiti. Artistic representations of Akhenaten give him a very feminine appearance, giving rise to controversial theories such that he may have actually been a woman masquerading as a man, which had been known to happen in Egyptian politics once or twice, or that he was a hermaphrodite or had some other phenotypic sexual disorder. It is also suggested by Bob Brier, in his book "The Murder of Tutankhamen", that his family suffered from Marfan's syndrome, which is known to cause elongated features and may explain his appearance. However some sources suggest that private representations of Akhenaten, as opposed to official art, show him as quite normal; moreover other leading figures of the Amarna period, both royal and otherwise, are shown with some of these features, suggesting a possible religious connotation.
Similarly, although it is accepted that both Smenkhkare and Akhenaten himself died in year 17 of Akhenaten's reign, the question of whether Smenkhare became co-regent perhaps 2 or 3 years earlier is still unclear, as is whether Smenkhare survived Akhenaten. If Smenkhare outlived Akhenaten, becoming sole Pharaoh, it was for less than a year.
The next successor was certainly Tutankhaten (later, Tutankhamun), at the age of 8, with the country being run by the chief vizier (and next Pharaoh), Ay. Tutankhamun is believed to be a younger brother of Smenkhkare and a son of either Amenhotep III or Akhenaten.
With Akhenaten's death, the Aten cult he had founded almost immediately fell out of favor. Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun in year 3 of his reign (1348 BC or 1331 BC) and abandoned Akhetaten, the city falling into ruin. Temples Akhenaten had built were disassembled by his successors Ay and Horemheb (and reused as a source of easily available building materials and decorations for their own temples), and inscriptions to Aten defaced. Finally, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, and Ay were excised from the official lists of Pharaohs, which instead reported that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb. This is thought to be part of an attempt by Horemheb to delete all trace of Atenism and the pharaohs associated with it from the historical record.
This is an Article on Akhenaten. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Akhenaten Family
The dates of Amenhotep IV's marriage to Nefertiti are uncertain. However the couple had six known daughters. This is a list with suggested years of birth:
Of his known or suggested lovers the most memorable are:
Succession
There is some debate around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Amenhotep III, or whether there was a co-regency (of as much as 11 or 12 years according to some Egyptologists). Akhenaten in the Arts
Further reading
External links