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Los textos se refieren a Pa-Iten-Ankh, es decir, "el Aton viviente", el Disco viviente. Pero esto no es más que la abreviación de un nombre oficial y didáctico más largo, verdadera explicación teológica Así, del año 1 al 9 del reinado éste será: « Ré-Horakhty-que
se regocija en el horizonte en su nombre de Shu-que-reside -en- el disco
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Nombre de Ankh en Aton, "Lo que es útil al disco", |
Hay
que señalar que por primera y única vez, los nombres divinos se han
encerrado en un cartucho , reservado exclusivamente para el faraón, lo
que se ha querido explicar como que Atón gobierna el mundo como un
faraón de Egipto, del Doble País. Y sería una forma de proclamar
la consustancialidad de Akhenatón y el dios del que el faraón es
emanación : la realeza de Aton en el cielo es de la misma
naturaleza que la de Akhenatón en la tierra .
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consideraba que el Aten era la fuerza creativa en el universo y el
único dios digno de adoración e hizo el esfuerzo de intentar
unir a todas las gentes de Egipto en el culto de su dios. Trató de
suprimir los cultos tradicionales de Egipto y substituirlos
por el Aten.
Lamentablemente para Akhenatón, no todos los egipcios deseaban ser unidos en esta manera.
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Neferneferu Re- Uanre "Perfectas son las perfecciones de Re"
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Titulatura tardía
A partir del año nueve de reinado de Akhenatón, el disco solar o Aton, modifica su nombre con la finalidad de desprenderse de toda mitología o ascendencia mítica anterior y, de esta manera, separar definitivamente la adoración del Aton, de las formas tradicionales del Egipto politeista.
En esta etapa el primer cartucho puede traducirse de la siguiente forma:
"Que viva Ra, Gobernador de los dos Horizontes, quien se regocija en el Horizonte".
El segundo cartucho recoge el segundo nombre:
"En su nombre de luz (en lugar de Shu) que está en el Aton".
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Adoration of the king Limestone Overseer
of Works User-Seth |
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Nefer-Kheperu_Re
Akhenatón
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Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten |
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The royal family at Amarna
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Nefertiti, full name: Neferneferuaten Nefertiti the 'great wife of the king'
UC 2261, wall painting fragment from the palace at Amarna see depictions of Nefertiti in the Petrie Museum |
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Kiya Reeves 1988 (discussing fragment with the name of the queen in the British Museum, mention of the fragments in the Petrie Museum). Kiya had a special titulary: the beloved great wife of the king of Lower and Upper Egypt, living in truth. Year 11 is her last dated appearance; soon after that she might have died (van Dijk 1997: 36) UC 24283 (Samson
1978: 118-119, pl. 60; click on the picture to see a
reconstruction of the inscription) |
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the oldest daughter: Merytaten She is often show as first daughter behind Akhenaten and Nefertiti. UC 401 (Samson 1978: 44, pl. 20) (other objects with her name: UC 589, UC 592) |
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the second daughter: Meketaten
UC 2287 wall painting fragment with the name, title and filiation of Meketaten (from the name only Maket survived) |
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the third daughter: Ankhesenpaaten (later Ankhesenamun The wife of king Tutankhamun UC 16021, vessel found at Gurob with the names of Tutankhamun and the name of Ankhesamun; other fragment with her name: UC 600 |
| Nefernefruatentasherit. The fourth daughter. She is not very well attested. | |
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Nefernefrure. The fifth daughter. There is a seal impression from Amarna, which mentions her tomb chamber (Khouly/Martin 1987: 8). Therefore it can be assumed that she died early.
UC 064 limestone fragment with part of the name Nefernefrure |
| Setepenre. The last daughter. She is not very well attested. | |
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Tutankhaten. A king's son Tutankhaten is mentioned on a block found at Hermopolis. Tutankhaten later became king and his name was then changed to Tutankhamun. |
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Baketaten. King's daughter with unknown position. She is mentioned
on wine dockets (van
Dijk 1997: 37)
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Semenkhkare King at the end of the Amarna period; only known from a few sources. On some monuments he is mentioned together with Merytaten. Rings Petrie 1894: pl. XV, 103, 104 |
For a very long period of time, the worship of the Aten (also spelled Aton) was held to be a heretical doctrine invented by Akhenaten, source of such upheavals that religious tradition in Egypt never fully recovered. A few comments on certain aspects of the problem will suffice to set the picture straight.
Dynasty XVIII Nefertiti making an offering to the Aten
Low relief from the antechamber
Tell el Amarna, civilian necropolis, the tomb of Mahu
www.bergerfoundation.ch/
In the first place, Akhenaten did not invent the
Aten. His name appears as early as in the Old Empire Pyramid Texts,
where it is listed under the Litanies as one of the avatars of Re, manifested
in the form of a Disk. Moreover, it is a fact that worship of the Disk took
root in Thebes well before Akhenaten's arrival on the scene. It seems that
Tuthmosis IV already embraced this old Heliopolitan doctrine with great
fervor. Although one cannot go so far as to say he abandoned the official cult
of Amon (also spelled Amun), it is interesting to note that he was one of the
first pharoahs of the New Empire to recognize the authority of Re, thus
linking up with an already millenary theological system. By having the famous
"Dream Stela" carved between the paws of the Giza Sphinx, he
asserted that he owed his throne to Re-Harakhty, Re of the Two Horizons: "I
shall give you," the god says, "royalty on earth at the head of the
living, you will wear the White Crown and the Red Crown." Thus, at a
time when orthodoxy still held a firm grip, Amon was deprived of his basic
right of deciding for himself who was worthy of manifesting him on earth, who
was his son the sovereign. After Thutmose IV, Amenophis III went even a step
further, as testified by a block found in the foundations of the tenth pylon
at Karnak. Here the king is shown in the company of the same Re-Harakhty,
designated as the "Jubilant in the Horizon in his name of Shu which is
the Aten."
Why, one wonders, did this return to the doctrines of
Heliopolis occur. Most certainly it was an attempt by the kings to escape the
Amon clergy, whose members were becoming more insolent by the day and were
gradually taking over everything. But beyond this, it was above all out of a
need for authenticity, as experienced in the learned circles of the capital
towards the end of Dynasty 18. Under the influence of Amenophis-son-of-Hapu (who,
in turn, belonged to the Heliopolitan colleges), the ancient writings were re-studied,
the old rituals re-honored. We know, for instance, that the celebration of
Amenophis III's first jubilee instigated an enormous compilation one month
prior to the event, in order to ensure that everything would take place in the
right tone. There is much reason to believe that all the painstaking research
involved allowed theologians to rediscover the pure source of early sun
worship, long since eclipsed by the cult of Amon. This could only lead to the
reassertion of the primordial deities Re-Harakhty and the Aten.
If in effect, then, Akhenaten did not invent the Aten, but
merely adopted the ideas of his forefathers, where does the heresy lie? It
lies with the fact that he claimed it as absolute, devoting himself
exclusively to celebrating the Aten and proclaiming himself prophet thereof by
adopting the epithet ur mau, from Chief Prophet, as borne traditionally by the
highest pontiffs of Heliopolis. As master of the rituals, he asserted himself
as the living aspect of the Aten, identifying with that god to the point of
having himself represented, in the upper part of the civil stelae, as the
unique vehicle of popular piety. Nefertiti and the royal daughters were
subsequently linked to this myth: the familiar scenes uniting the king, the
queen and the princesses in the intimacy of their apartments are not in the
least anecdotal: their figuration was intended as a reminder that, beyond his
basic unity, the Aten is at once father, mother and child - that is, the
principal creator and creature.
Hand
of Akhenaten making an offering to the Aten
Sandstone - H 0.235
From Ashmunein
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
As a child of the Aten, Akhenaten assumed the prerogatives
which, until that time, had been reserved to the prohets and grand priests.
And, truly a first in Egyptian history, he even claimed to guide his people
along the way to revelation. Many a courtier from Tell el Amarna had the
stelae at the entrance to their tombs carved with the boast of "having
been taught the doctrine by the King himself" or "having listened to
the doctrine day by day from the lips of the King himself."
Divested of their basic powers, the traditional clergy openly challenged the King, transforming what might have been but a positive cleansing of the dogma into a fierce battle for prestige between partisans of the Heliopolitan tradition and the upholders of Theban orthodox doctrine.
The struggle gradually grew into a conflict between Re in his aspect of the Aten and Amon, and, finally, between the King and the priests.
It was at this point that matters became dramatic, since Akhenaten, forced into a defensive position by the events, had to adopt a policy that was certainly more intransigent than he would have desired: in his fourth regnal year, he changed his name from Amenophis, Satisfaction of the Aten, to Akhenaten, Acting Spirit (that is, incarnation) of the Aten.
Less than two years later, he left Thebes to found, "at
a site belonging to no god or goddess, to no sovereign, to which no one had
any rights," a new capital, a new epicenter of his authority, Akhetaten,
Horizon of the Aten.
Aak
-en-Aten
The period during which the King set up his court at Tell el Amarna coincided with extremely serious troubles in Thebes: the holy city's temples were shut down, its priests banned from office.
All images of Amon were desecrated, and his name and epithets hammered out; his wife Mut was subject to the same fate. I
Indeed, fanatics beyond all limits, the partisans went so far as to break into the necropolises to erase, at the very bottom of the tombs, all mention of that contemptible god.
Still others heaved themselves up to the top of the
obelisks to attack the sun symbols. Evidence was even found of a scribe who
had gathered together all the archival documents under his responsibility in
order to wrathfully cross off all the words in any way analogous to the names
Amon and Mut; not even the word mut, mother, was spared! Akhenaton
could do nothing to avoid having his own father Amenophis's cartouches defiled.
The cult of the Aten was hardly the love doctrine it purported to be!
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