The Birth of Monotheism: Great Hymn to the Aten

The Pharaoh Akhenaten worships the Aten (Wikipedia.com)

King Akhenaten (Pharaoh Amenhotep IV), with whom the Great Hymn of the Aten is associated, introduced Atenism: a new religious form that centered on a single god called Aten. This religious development was a radical change from the traditional polytheistic forms of ancient Egypt, which imagined Aten merely as a minor god in the pantheon of Ra, the sun god. Until Amenhotep's religious revolution, Aten was identified symbolically by a disc, representing the gods alliance with the god, Ra.

During the first years of his reign in the 14th century B.C.E., Akhenaten instituted a religious revolution--alternately referred to by scholars as the Atenist Revolution or the Armana Heresy, in which the Pharaoh ordered the sole worship of this god, erasing all references to polytheism on temples and public buildings; further, no longer was Aten represented by a disc, but through phonetic orthography.

In Year Five of his reign (ca. 1346 B.C.E.), King Amenhotep commenced building a capital city, Akhetaten in what is now Amarna, removing the locus of political and religious power from Thebes. Scholars observe that this removal metaphorized the king's realignment with the god. In observance of the divine rule of kings, Amenhotep IV officially rechristened himself Akhenaten, which translates to "Spirit of the Aten." Once there, the alignment was cemented and the hierarchy was clear: "the Egyptian people could worship Akhenaten; only Akhenaten and Nefertiti could worship Aten" (1).

There is controversy among Egyptologists concerning whether the cult of Aten was in fact truly monotheistic: The proto-monotheism that the Pharaoh introduced acknowledged only one god; however, some theorists believe the worshipers acknowledged the possible existence of other, minor gods. This practice is referred to as henotheism (Norton 29). 

The Hymn: According to scholars the hymn suggests that despite the presence of a priesthood "devoted to Aten, only to Akhenaten had the god revealed itself, and only the king could know the demands and commandments of Aten, a god who remained distant and incomprehensible to the general populace" (2). Although the 

hymn confers access to Aten exclusively to the king, the stele 

(pictured above) implies that "his family was part of his inner 

circle); in other words, that Aten was in fact accessible to the 

royal family. 

In this video an actor recites the Great Hymn to the Aten: As you listen to the recitation, think about how the lines are altered or extemporized. What do these alterations mean to your reading of the Hymn?