In
the history of the 18th dynasty saw another ruler called Amenhotep
IV who ruled for 17 years. Although he was traditionally raised by his parent
to worship Amen, he chooses Aten, the sun god that was worshipped in the
earlier times. Amenhotep IV is said to have break with traditional religion and
introducing the worship of the Aten, the sun god which is described as
monotheism and to prove his loyalty, he changed his name to Akhenaten, “He who
is of service to Aten.”[1]
He married Nefertiti the daughter of the vizer Ay who was of no royal blood and
also changed his queen’s name to Nefer- Nefru- Aten which is “Beautiful is the
Beauty of Aten”
Amenhotep
introduced a new monotheistic cult of the sun worship, Aten. He worship him in
his own way and he was accessible only Akhenaten and prevented any intermediary
priesthood. It was said that during his reign, he prevented people from
worshipping Anum so he built a temple to his god Aten outside the gate of the
temple of Amun at Karnak. And made illegal the cult of Anum and sent his
officials to destroy Anum Status. There was opposition against his actions so he left Thebes to a capital in middle
Egypt, half way between Memphis and Thebes and named the new site Akhenaten- The
horizon of the Aten which is now know as Amarna.
He
summed up the ethos of the Aten cult and made the concept that only him had
access to the god: “Thou arisest fair in the horizon of Heaven, O Living Aten,
Beginner of Life … there is none who knows thee save thy son Akehenaten. Thou
hast made him wise in thy plans and thy power.”[2]
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