Akhenaten

Before looking at the 'hymns', I want to mention another problem with ter­minology. To describe the royal eulogies to the Aten as 'hymns' immediately superimposes fields of meaning which confuse understanding of the texts and their purpose. 'Hymns' seems an unsuitable word, because it suggests a congre­gation of ordinary people singing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' or 'Salve Regina'. Nothing whatever is known about how (if at all) these poetic composi­tions were performed: communal singing is improbable, as the 'hymn' is said to be an adoration (dw3) of the Aten spoken in Akhenaten's words. Describing these compositions as 'hymns' was popularised by the American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, who believed them to be 'a gospel of the beauty and benefi­cence of the natural order, a recognition of the message of nature to the soul of man'.⁴" Akhenaten's formal poems are not ecstatic celebrations of nature, and Akhenaten is not the Egyptian Wordsworth: the 'hymns' ultimately honour the Aten and royal couple in a rigid and formulaic way. I prefer to think of the 'hymns' to the Aten as eulogies, formal and rhetorical statements of praise, rather than outpourings of emotion, although for the sake of familiarity I continue (reluctantly) to use 'hymn'.

Much has been made of the supposed similarities between the 'hymns' and Psalm 104:16-23. Both describe the natural world waking and sleeping under god's beneficcnt eye. Akhenaten says to the Aten:

The land grows bright when you are risen from the horizon . . . All flocks are content with their pasturage, Trees and grasses flourish,

Birds fly from their nests, their wings adoring your ka, All small cattle prance on their legs,

All that fly up and alight, they live when you rise for them.¹'¹

The 'hymn's' nature segments are often quoted in vacuo,

distorting the strength of its political statements. The 'hymn' is addressed to the Aten and the royal couple as almost equal entities, and its climax comes only with the barrage of royal titles at the end. This emphasises their intimate relationship with the Aten and the way he maintains their rule, on earth. Although everyone can sec the Aten and receive its benefits, only Akhenaten knows its secrets. Even the Aten's performance of creation itself is ultimately for Akhenaten's benefit:

You are in my heart and there is none who knows you but your son alone (titles ofAkhenaten),

For you make him aware of your plans and your strength . . .

You rise up and make [all creation] grow for the King, and everyone who

hurries about on foot since you founded the land. You raise them up for your son who issued from your body, who lives on Ma'at (titles of Akhenaten and Nefertiti).

The shorter versions of the 'hymn' illustrate the same phenomenon. It's inter­esting to note their physical setting in the tombs of the courtiers at Amarna. They are inscribed in the same parts of the tomb that would be inscribed with a eulogy to the sun in the Theban necropolis. Yet the Theban compositions are not about the king in the same way as the Amarna 'hymns'. The 'hymn' preserved in the tomb of Ay at Amarna starts off,

Adoration of Aten (titles of Aten in form b), given life continually, by the king who lives on Ma'at, the Lord of the Dual Kingdom (titles of Akhen­aten): 'You appear beautifully, O living Aten, Lord of Eternity, dazzling, beautiful, mighty

and continues:

'O living Aten, who is born in the sky daily, so that without ceasing he might give birth to his august son, just like himself - the son of Re' who exalts his beauty (titles of Akhenaten).^,5"

Everything is focused on the king, who acts as the upholder of Ma'at, a thor­oughly conventional component of pharaohs' political role. In this sense the 'hymns' sum up what was truly different from before and where Akhenaten's real innovation lay. They are a traditional type of text, even carved in the usual place in the tomb, but completely rc-cmphasised to intensify the traditional supports of royal power. They show how 'Amarna religion was a religion of god and king, or even of king first and then god'.^1,1