Pharaoh of the New Kingdom Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, is still one of the most mysterious personalities in Egyptology. His name causes delight among writers and heated debate among scientists. Through the efforts of the first, the romantic myth of the "first monotheist", the reformer pharaoh, who dared to challenge the priests, was entrenched in the minds of the majority. However, this romantic image has little to do with reality. Years of research were able to shed some light on the secret of Akhenaten, and now it becomes clear why the ancient Egyptians made every effort to simply erase this pharaoh from their history.
Akhenaten's reign is known among Egyptologists as the Amarna period. El Amarna is the name of the Bedouin capital of Akhenaten, found among the hot sands. In ancient times, the city was called Akhetaton - "the horizon of Aton", and did not last long. After the death of the pharaoh, he was abandoned, covered by the sands, and many generations of Egyptians bypassed Akhetaton a mile away, considering him cursed. Akhenaten turned into a kind of Voldemort, who almost destroyed Egypt. The inhabitants of the Nile state fearfully called him "the enemy of Akhetaton." But it all started not from the city, and not even from Akhenaten himself. The origins of the Amarna tragedy should be sought in the past, during the reign of the famous Queen Hatshepsut.
Hatshepsut was the main wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II - but not the only one. From the second wife of Isis, Pharaoh had a son, Thutmose III, his heir. However, as a result of palace intrigues, it was not he who ended up in power, but his stepmother Hatshepsut. This can be partly explained by the young age of the heir - but only partly, because Hatshepsut, who had seized power, was not content with the post of regent. On the contrary, she appropriated all the regalia of the pharaoh, and from the regent she became a king, pushing her stepson away from the throne for many years. To carry out such an adventure, one needed, in the language of the nineties, a "roof". Of course, no one conducted stenography of palace conspiracies, but by circumstantial evidence, Egyptologists suggest that the powerful priests of Amun became the "roof" of this.
The Theban god Amon, the best friend of Queen Hatshepsut.
Ancient Egyptian religion is a funny and very complex thing. There was no single religion as such. In the North and South, different beliefs in different gods were in use, and there were about a hundred gods in total, and the Egyptians did not particularly soar with the unification of this motley splendor. One of the main tenets of the Egyptian religion was a multiple approach to a single one, so that the existing state of affairs was generally acceptable to everyone. But even in this position, the cult of the Theban god Amun, which came from the south, had tremendous influence. The cult of Amun gained power after the victory of the Egyptians in the war against the Hyksos invaders. All the successes of the pharaohs were credited to Amun, and the kings justly decided to thank the Theban god with generous gifts. The priesthood of Amun became a closed, but from this no less influential layer of Egyptian society. Therefore, the conclusion of an alliance between Hatshepsut and Thebes was a matter of time.
Hatshepsut became a kind of Catherine II of her time, only instead of nobles she had the priests of Amun. In exchange for money and political power, the priests supported Hatshepsut, and even declared her divine origin - before, only a real pharaoh could be considered the embodiment of God. The queen flirted with the Thebans, trying with all her might to stay in power, and at some point the followers of Amun received too much. Thus a new problem was born, which the pharaohs of the future had to deal with.
With a dexterous movement of the hand, the regent transforms, transforms & hellip; into Pharaoh Hatshepsut!
The overwhelmed priests of Amun discredited themselves very much, apparently forgetting that Hatshepsut is not eternal. Subsequent pharaohs - Thutmose III and his son Amenhotep II - quickly regained the prestige of royal power through a series of successful military campaigns. The grandson of Thutmose III, Thutmose IV, well remembered the whole mess that the priests of Amun had thrown in the presence of his grandfather’s stepmother, and flared up with tremulous love for Thebans. So tremulous that on the stele, which describes his ascent to the throne, the name of Amun is simply not mentioned. Pharaoh found himself other, much more accommodating allies.
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If Amon was the god of the South, then in the North the Egyptians worshiped Ra - the god with the head of a falcon, in whose honor the pyramids were erected. The stronghold of the northern priests was the city of Heliopolis - a city that was forgotten during the hegemony of Amun. It is not surprising that Thutmose IV decided to rely on the Heliopolis priests in the fight against Thebes, who had gone to the brink. Many pharaohs even before Hatshepsut slept and saw how to put the priestly state in the state in place. And apparently, Thutmose succeeded - from his reign in the ancient Egyptian religion, clear traces of sun worship inherent in the cult of Ra can be traced. The most important public offices were in the hands of the followers of Ra, and all the praises of Amun were done for show. It was under Thutmose IV that Aton gained wide popularity - one of the aspects of the sun god Ra, his visible body,depicted as a solar disk. This newly minted deity has yet to play its sinister role in Egyptian history.
Aton - the visible body of the god Ra. So far & hellip;
The reign of Amenhotep III - Akhenaten's father - was not rich in military victories. This pharaoh preferred diplomatic correspondence to force of arms. Life in the country became serene and stable, even the anti-Theban campaign calmed down - the priests of Amun finally understood who was in charge of the pyramids and stopped pumping their rights. For this they were awarded honorary places in the regency council, and Amon was returned to the state records. There were no bright deeds behind Amenhotep - he became famous only for his long reign, the improvement of Egypt and an irrepressible passion for female flesh. And he would have sunk into oblivion if not for one "but".
The nature of the power of the pharaohs is a thing no less interesting than the ancient Egyptian religion. Pharaoh was never a secular ruler - he was a demigod, a living embodiment of Horus, who after death became Osiris, the ruler of the afterlife. This crucial detail sets the pharaoh apart from the general mass of ancient monarchs. The main duty of the pharaoh was to create "maat" - a word that can be roughly translated into Russian as "the order of things that should be." Pharaoh's power was the guarantor of the prosperity of Egypt. However, this did not prevent the Egyptian nobles in the best traditions of "Game of Thrones" to weave intrigues and conspiracy. Cases when the pharaoh was "helped" to become Osiris were not so rare - and this is with such a religious justification for power. However, the wheel worked properly - until Amenhotep III.
The struggle against the priesthood of Amun was also a struggle to strengthen the power of the pharaohs. After neutralizing the Thebans, Amenhotep III apparently decided to further strengthen his authority. This can explain the fact that he ascended the throne as a demigod, and died already as a god - the living embodiment of Aton, who united with him after death. By the end of his reign, Amenhotep even had his own priesthood. Egyptologist Betsy Brian, who studied the records of that period, believes that the pharaoh did not just reunite with the Sun - no, Amenhotep III became the Sun himself.
Amenhotep IV was the son of his father. Moreover, he ruled with him for the past few years. Therefore, the approximate course of the future Pharaoh was clear and expected. However, hardly anyone could have imagined that Amenhotep IV would go so far: change his name to "Akhenaten", build himself a new capital in the desert and launch the most real religious persecution. His father's reign was the calm before the storm - the storm that came in the person of Akhenaten.