Akhenaten

This lack of evidence for Akhenaten's early life is quite usual, because Egyp­tian princes tended to leave little mark before they became pharaoh: there are only three known references to Amunhotep III before his accession, for instance, oncc in the tomb of his tutor and twicc in graffiti. Yet biographers continue to propose that Akhenaten's invisibility on his father's monuments is bccause 'he was intentionally kept in the background becausc of a congenital ailment that made him hideous to behold'. ⁵' This kind of speculation comes partly from over- literal readings of Akhenaten's official iconography later in his reign, but also from presumptions about the shame and horror associated with disability that the Egyptians did not necessarily share. New Kingdom burials of severely disabled children show that great care had been taken of them during life, even by rela­tively poor parents. In death they were given the full ritual attentions which would enable them to be reborn.³⁸

Also, people whose bodies did not conform to conventional categories, such as dwarves and perhaps twins, could be regarded positively because they were believed to have solar or divine associations.'⁵⁹ So even if Akhenaten had been physically different - and there is absolutely no evidence that he was - the Egyptians may not a priori

have seen this as something bad.

Amunhotep and Tiyc had at least five other children who survived to maturity. Four were daughters - Satamun, Isis, Henuttaunebu and Nebetah. A princess called Baketaten is recorded at Akhet-aten in close association with Amunhotep and Tiye, though not actually named as their daughter. Instead of being a fifth daughter born late in life to Tiye, Baketaten may be one of these sisters given a new Aten-related name (Baketaten means 'She-who-scrves-Aten'): much name- changing went on at Akhet-aten. In their father's reign Akhenaten's sisters were depicted taking liturgical parts at important state occasions like the ^-festival, sometimes together, sometimes alongside Amunhotcp's other children by his co- wives (see Figure 2.5). The royal daughters shook sistra, percussion instruments

Figure 2.5 Akhenaten's parents Amunhotep III (in j«f-festival costume) and Tiye with daughters, from the temple of Amunhotep III at Soleb in Sudan. Redrawn from Lepsius 1849 III.

which were connected with the cult of the goddess Hathor, emphasising both their role in state ceremonies and the royal family's identification with the state gods. There was also a son Djehutmose, apparently older than Akhenaten: inscriptions call him s3 nesu semsu, 'king's elder son'.

When we think of Akhenaten, we think of him surrounded by his many female relatives - his mother, wife, daughters and sisters. The prominence of these women can easily lead one to forget how deeply patriarchal Egyptian society was, as indeed was Aten-worship itself.¹⁰ Yet Akhenaten's older brother Djehutmose is represented not as the heir to an empire in a system which privileged men, but as a sensitive intellectual, a proto-Akhenaten perhaps, with the implication that Akhenaten grew up somehow in Djehutmose's shadow.⁴¹ I prefer to see Djehut­mose as a reminder of how male-centred the royal family was, in spite of all its prominent women. The nuances of names hint at this. Both of Amunhotep's and Tiye's sons were named after members of the direct paternal line. These naming patterns integrated boys into the privileged male lineage, enrolling them into an endless succession of kings, a continuum of glorious ancestors. Tiye's non-royal forebears are not acknowledged in her sons' names. It is also important to remember why pharaohs' female relatives appear on monuments in the first place. It was theologically awkward to depict a living king and his succcssor together, because the living king was identified with Horus, who could only claim his throne from the dead king, identified with Osiris. Daughters therefore had important liturgical roles to play — but these were in ceremonies which helped to uphold the kingship, such as the W-festival. Tiye and the princesses appear bccausc they can perform acts of ritual benefit to the king. They are defined in terms of their relationship to the principal male figure, the pharaoh - and arc tiny in comparison to him. In fact, Akhenaten's sisters Satamun, Isis, Henut- taunebu and Nebctah disappeared from monuments after their father died and their religious importance had diminished.