Aten

As Dorman (2015) confirms, architectural developments which occurred at this time revolved around the Pharaoh’s radical religious reforms; this is visible particularly within his most extensive building program, which involved abandoning Thebes, Egypt’s capital city, and constructing a new one called Akhetaten - or the “Horizon of Aten” - on a virgin desert site. According to the Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten, his primary intention was to create a centre where his religion could flourish, separate from the established cults at Thebes. New building innovations and techniques emerged from Akhenaten’s projects; structures - especially at Akhetaten - began to be made with ‘talatat’, small blocks which made it easier to construct buildings within a shorter time span than the traditional large sandstone slabs used. The new central city, as Dunn (2015) pointedly identifies, was atypical also due to its carefully planned, programmatic layout and isolated location. However, as with Akhenaten’s religion, most infrastructure built during his reign was destroyed or forgotten soon after…

“The Hymn to the Aten” is a great poem. It gives me a different view on the sun. I didn’t know the sun can mean so much in our everyday lives or to other cultures around the world like Egypt. “Aten is regarded as a king with cartouches for his names and is considered to celebrate the royal jubilee festivals “(Wikispaces). The history of the poem begins in ancient Egypt with Amenhotep IV; From 1350 to 1334 BC, he became a monotheist by worshipping the sun god Aten. Aten, similar to the sun-disk,…

The Great Hymn to the Aten is an epic poem written during the reign of King Amenhotep IV in the 1300’s BC. The center of this was Aten, the sun god, and was is referred to as Atenism. This hymn was the description of Aten and praise of his power. “You made the earth as you wished, you alone, All peoples, herds and flocks;...” (Puchner 31). There are several references to creation in various forms, all attributed to Aten. Up until this point, Egypt, like many cultures were polytheistic…

The Hymn to the Aten is a poem written by pharaoh Amenhotep IV who, around 1346 BC in Egypt, created a monotheistic kingdom worshipping the god Aten, god of the sun disk. Amenhotep’s poem is one of praise for Aten as he claims that the god has created life for all and everything that exists on Earth, making him superior to all the other gods. The sun is a very powerful object as it not only provides light to the world but it is also a mean of survival. It appears odd that ruler Amenhotep would…

The Great Hymn to Aten was created by Egyptian king Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt from 1369 BCE to 1353 BCE, and it provided Egypt with an outlook at monotheism which means worshipping one god, Aten, instead of the past which focused more on polytheism which focused on the worship of many different gods. The purpose of the Great Hymn was to praise and worship the sun god Aten for being the creator by creating the world and providing humans with special needs like food and water. Egyptians…

quickly as possible, the mud and brick construction worked rather well for a hasty construction. The Great Temple of Aten was made to follow a new cult of Aten, the Sun disk, a small division from Ra the sun god. The temple was located right along the wall separating the public from the royal family. This was done to minimize travel from the palace to the most visited place in the city. There is also a small Aten palace which was used for lesser religious practices and more daily, without the…

Some say that he actually shared the position with his father for a few years, but there is not enough evidence proving it. In the first three to five years of his Kingship, he changed the main God, the capital, his name and art form. His reasons for changing the god from Amon to Aten were because he received a vision from Aten showing him a sun disc between two mountains. He felt that the God was guiding him to make this vast change. He believes that the God, Aten, was the Sun disc. He then…

Akhenaten’s ‘Worship of the Aten’ displayed concepts that were too anachronistically advanced for Ancient Egypt and its people. This resulted in the decline of the Ancient Egyptian Empire and Akhenaten’s purposeful exclusion from official records. Akhenaten founded a new religion that was completely divergent from the millennia old worship of Ma’at, moving the capital of Egypt and converting the Empire into a monotheistic society centred around the Aten - or sun. However the premise of the…

gods are represented differently. Each religion and culture has its own beliefs in ways, manners, and responsibilities of their deity/deities. I chose to analyze Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun and The Epic of Gilgamesh to show the similarities and differences between the Egyptian and Sumerian respected god(s). Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun is a poem that is very important to ancient Egypt. Through the use of imagery and personification, it is visible that Akhenaten is showing his devotion to Aten…

Akhenaten, the son of Amenhotep III, was an Egyptian king of the 18th Dynasty who brought many cultural reforms to Egypt during his reign. It is generally thought that Akhenaten acted through his reign without any precedent or foreshadowing. However, it has also been speculated that he may have drawn his ideas from the rule of his father. Akhenaten, with his revolutionary focus on Aten and being the first Egyptian king to truly embrace monotheism coupled with henotheism, revealed the importance…