Symbol of life

Symbol of life

The buildings of the city, which were largely mud-brick, mushroomed so rapidly that king, court and dependent populace were able to move in by Year 7. Its main roads ran north-south, parallel to the Nile; the central city was the official quarter. Close to the river rose the endless courts and reception-halls of the official palace. A bridge over the main street connected it to the king’s private residence which Akhenaton shared with his queen, Nefertiti, a woman as beautiful as her origins remain mysterious — and with their six daughters. Hard by were the great open-air temple and sanctuary of Aton, the police and military headquarters, and the records office for the ‘Foreign Office’ archives. The tombs of the court were cut in the cliffs, their chapel-rooms enlivened with reliefs of Akhenaton and the royal family in the service of Aton.

The ruins of Karnak, the great temple of Amun, the god most
Egyptians thanked for their victories. Akhenaton's prime task
was to break the power Amun's priests held over the people.

The worship of Aton was simply that of the sun-god manifest in the solar disc, and thus depicted as a disc with rays ending in hands that present the symbol of life to the king. The main emphasis was on the creative and sustaining power of the sun, as can be seen from the great Hymn to Aton, perhaps composed by the king himself. We finda general care for nature, and for Egyptians and foreigners alike, but no profound philosophy or moral concern. The superstitions of the old cults and all the deeper values of a long-developed civilization were largely discarded and nothing put in their place. Atonism thus remained a court fad, and never stirred the Egyptians as a whole.

Through Atonism, the king claimed a more exalted role. The people had no direct access to the god. The king and his family could worship Aton but the people were meant to worship the pharaoh — the god-king. He both served Aton and was identified with him, and they shared each other's attributes: other mortals served the king as embodiment of Aton on Earth. Living in truth’ was simply maintaining the world-order as Akhenaton conceived and decreed that it should be. In art, this. meant discarding conventional idealization of the king, so that at first the artists produced works which exaggerated the abnormal features of Akhenaton’s physique — long jaw, effeminate torso, heavy hips, symptoms of perhaps a glandular disorder. But as the artists recovered their poise, they produced a series of remarkably naturalistic statues and paintings. The latter, and the incised reliefs which adorned tomb-chapels and temples alike, were executed according to the basic conventions of Egyptian drawing, but with the addition of many lively details in the activities of lesser characters, in settings, and in plant and animal life. One sees the aged vizier panting along by the royal chariot, the reactions of bystanders at the reward of a high official, the layout of the palace or the great temple, waving heads of grain, or the spirited canter of chariot-horses. In language, the new movement brought about the use of current, colloquial speech, ‘late Egyptian’, and forms in hieroglyphic inscriptions and official usage alongside the classical idiomof centuries.

Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaton. She was
considered a great beauty of the time and this
limestone bust is one of the most admired
examples of Egyptians.

In Year 9, it seems that Akhenaton held a further jubilee of himself and Aton. This time, he gave a stricter form to the titles of Aton, eliminating names like Harakhte and Shu which were common also to the discarded mythology of the rest of the gods. The persecution of Amun was especially severe, and, it may well have been at this juncture also that Akhenaton took the final step of closing the temples of Amun and ordering the destruction of the name and image of Amun (and of other gods) throughout Egypt. By this act, Aton became in practice sole recognized god, and his worship a form of monotheism. Even the name of Akhenaton’s own father was not exempt; his titles of Nebmare Amenophis III were altered on the monuments to Nebmare Nebmare. Doubtless, the estates of the older temples were simply annexed to the service of Aton for his temples at Akhet-Aton and other centres. Now, it seemed, Akhenaton’s triumph was complete.

Year 12 witnessed a splendid Pageant of Empire, at which the king and royal family reviewed from a pavilion a grand parade of tribute from Syria and Nubia, symbolic of the royal power. But the bustling display was in truth little more than a showy facade, for the Syrian provinces were in a state of jeopardy; nor was all well in Akhet-Aton itself.

Akhenaton's eldest daughter whom he married after
Nefertiti's death. But he did not have the son
he longed for by her, only a daughter.

Akhenaton did almost nothing to cultivate the alliance with Mitanni or to quell the growing local strife between rival client-princes of Palestinian and Syrian city-states, who bombarded Egypt’s foreign office with claims and counterclaims. Some tried to procure the support of particular Egyptian officials for their cause, to influence the king in their favour. But Akhenaton’s interest was centred upon Aton alone. The long-standing enmity between the Hittite and Mitannian states erupted into open war, and by Year 12 or 13 of Akhenaton, the wily Hittite king Suppiluliuma had defeated Mitanni, taken over northernmost Syria, and imposed a Hittite protectorate upon the wealthy seaport of Ugarit - formerly a client of Egypt. Meanwhile, at home, the death of Akhenaton's second daughter was probably followed by that of his beautiful queen, Nefertiti. For a time, his eldest daughter became first lady and by herAkhenaton had a further daughter. But his constant failure to obtain a son, and,perhaps, failing health, led him at last to marry her off to Smenkh-ka-re (probably his half-brother) and to appoint the latter as joint-king.

Abroad, Akhenaton finally exerted the maximum diplomatic pressure to bring to heel Aziru, ruler of the key-state of Aynurru in Central Syria, whose loyalty to Egypt was more than suspect. Both the solutions to Syria and the succession were tragically short-lived. Probably within the last 18 months of Akhenaton’s life and reign (Years 16-17), Aziru became closely involved with Ugarit, now linked to the Hittite Empire, with the result that Sup piluliuma imposed on him also the status of subject-ally. Thus, at one blow, the important province of Amurru and all its allied territories were lost to Egypt forever.

Another example of the 'naturalistic' art of the
period - this time of Akhenaton, its patron. The
new movement also saw colloquial language
put on a par with the classical idioms.

At home, the machinery of government was creaking under the strain of graft and petty abuse of power. Discontent was no doubt rife at various levels, particularly among the dismissed priests and the military who had to watch the EgyptianEmpire in Asia disintegrate for lack of military intervention. Economic declineprobably was setting in due to the internal dislocations and the falling-off of Syrian tribute. At all events, as the reins of kingship passed from the dying hands of Akhenaton into those of Smenkh-ka-re, a youth of about 19, the open worship of the discarded gods — not least Amun — was resumed. In the young co-regent’s name a funerary temple for the cult of the king and of Amun was built in Western Thebes as of old. With the death of Akhenaton in Year 17, Aton’s outright supremacy was over. And with the death of Smenkh-ka-reperhaps only a few months before or after Akhenaton’s own decease, the royal succession was. again crucial. The throne passed to a nine-year-old boy, Tutankhaton, the last royal prince.