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The Pharaoh Who Was Called Akhenaten By Bob Disherman A research paper
submitted to Mr. Touma in partial fulfillment of the requirements for World
Cultures Charlotte Country Day School Charlotte, North Carolina November 20,
2000 Akhenaten will always be remembered as a great heretic ruler, who uprooted
traditional Egyptian religions, and conjured a monotheistic religion that is
very close in nature to Christianity and Judaism. His political power was not
his strong point, but with the creation of the religion, and the vast change in
art forms, Akhenaten will never be forgotten. Amenhotep IV, the name Akhenaten
was born with, was the son of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and Amenhotep III’s
second wife Tiye (Vansten 6). Amenhotep III was the great-grandson of the famous
conquer Thutmose III (Editora, “Part I” 1), who had gained enormous amounts of
land and respect from North Africa and the Middle East, and because he was, the
glory that his great-grandfather produced, was laid onto him (Redford 34).
Therefore, his role in Egypt was somewhat diminished because he accomplished
no great victories or wars, but he did command the power of the people, and made
them believe that he was the Sun King (Redford 34). However, one of his most
significant ideas was the introduction of co-regency, (Aldred 178) which forever
changed the way that Pharaohs would rule. Amenhotep III first marriage was
slightly uncommon in traditional beliefs. Normally, a pharaoh would not be
allowed to marry a commoner, but that is exactly what Amenhotep III did, he
married Tiye (Editora, “Part 1” 1), a girl from the Middle Egypt whose father
was a foreigner named Yuya (Redford 36). Tiye was “the Great King’s Wife…” until
one of their daughters, Sat-amun, was elevated higher then she was (Redford 36).
During this marriage, Amenhotep III and Tiye produced two boys and six girls
(Redford 36). Amenhotep IV was the second of the boys, and was born c. 1385 BC
(Redford 36) Aminadab, the Hebrew equal to Amenhotep, lived and was educated in
the eastern delta region, where Egyptian priests of Ra taught him about Amun,
and the other important deities such as Aten (Vansten 6).
After he was educated in the eastern delta region, he went to live in Thebes
for his teenage years (Redford 24-25). Not much is known about his teenage or
adolescent years, but many scholars believe that during his stay in Thebes, he
became involved with a Ra cult, that worshiped the god Amun. Many believe this
is where Amenhotep IV began to believe in the iconology such as the sun disk
(Redford 170). During this time frame, circa 1368 BC, Amenhotep III became
seriously ill, and could not continue governing Egypt without help (Vansten 6).
Therefor, Amenhotep IV, who was the only male still in the direct hereditary
line, sense his older brother was dead, was pronounced to marry Nefertiti, who
was the daughter of Ay and Tey (Redford 222).
Nefertiti was a niece of Tiye and Ay was a close friend of Amenhotep III, so
it would easily come that Nefertiti and Amenhotep IV should rule as a co-regent
until the death of Amenhotep III, so that the “power could be buttressed” (Aldred
170). There is some speculation during the co-regency, as to whether Nefertiti
held a higher position then Amenhotep IV, but it is known that when Amenhotep
III died, Amenhotep IV took over as Pharaoh, with Nefertiti being his chief
queen (Aldred 178). After taking control of the throne in 1346, Amenhotep IV
transferred the city of rule from Thebes to a new city called Armana (Akhen-taten)(Giuliano
2). Supposedly, Armana was the only spot in Egypt where the “old” religion had
not tainted it (Hawkins “Who…” 1), and where the natural surroundings outlined
the city with a sun-disk-like design (Aldred 269). It took him a record four
years to bring the entire capital cabinet, statues, and citizen population from
the old city to the new (Ross 3).
Once Amenhotep IV had settled into his new city, he changed his name from
Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, in recognition of the sun god Aten in 1344 BC
(Hawkins Akhenaten's Life 2). Thus began the deconstruction period for ancient
Egyptian polytheistic religions. After Akhenaten renounced the former religion,
he concentrated his monotheistic belief around the sun god Aten (Aldred 262).
During the beginning reign of Akhenaten, presumably during the building of
Armana (1st-5th year of reign), Akhenaten started to destroy previous records of
the multi-deity religion (Aldred 263). His religious foundation is strikingly
similar to the foundations of today’s great monotheistic religions such as
Christianity and Judaism (Redford 173). One of the debated reasons for
Akhenaten’s sudden transfer of religions is because of the general notion that
Amun priests were gaining too much power, and that he wanted absolute power over
everything (Hawkins “Who…” 1). Beginning in Amun, Ra, and Re temples, Akhenaten
defaced sculptures, busts, and hieroglyphic recordings (Aldred 263). The Ra and
Re cults especially, did not show affability towards the pharaoh’s ideas (Aldred
264). These internal struggles between religions broke open a dominant
retraction in the land that Egypt had gained in the beginning of the 18th
dynasty (Redford 191). The amount of land conceived to the surrounding countries
furthermore states the amiability that the pharaoh possessed (Redford 191).
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