The Reign, life, and Philosophy of King Akhenaten-gctid525376

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This forum will be a collection of interesting information about Akhenaten king of Kemet.

John Henrik Clarke summarizes the reign of Akhenaten

"Sometime around 1386 B.C. Queen Tiyi gave birth to a boy who was first named Amenhates after his father. There was great rejoicing in the court and throughout the Nile valley because he was the King and Queen's first son. very little is known of his childhood except that he was sickly from birth. He developed an interest in art, poetry, and religion. His closest companion was said to be Nefertiti, his beautiful little cousin (some archaeologists believed she was his sister) when the crown prince was about twenty one years of age, he and the lovely Nefertiti were married. Three years later his aging father, Amenhotep III, named him co-regent of Egypt and crowned him Amenhotep IV. After the death of his father, he came into full power of Egypt and took the name Akhenaton. In full partnership with his beautiful wife, Nefertiti, he had a profound effect on egypt and the entire world of his day. Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaton, and often referred to as "the heretic king," is in some respects one of the most extraordinary monarchs who ever sat on the throne. Centuries before king David he wrote beautiful poems like those of the Judean monarch. thirteen hundred years before christ he preached and lived a gospel of love, brotherhood, and truth. he has been called the worlds first idealist, the first temporal ruler ever to lead his people toward the worship of a single god."pg 32 Worlds great men of color by J.A. Rogers, commentary by John Henrik Clarke.   

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Statues and Portraits of Akhenaten

   
   
   
   
   

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The Royal Titulary of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)

   
   
HORUS NAME: Ka nakht qa shuty- The strong bull, high of plumes

   
   
NEBTY NAME: Wer nesyt em Ipet-sut- Great of kingship in Karnak

   
   
GOLDEN HORUS NAME: Wetjes khau em Iunu shemau- Elevated of appearances in southern Heliopolis (Thebes)

   
   
THRONE NAME: Nefer kheperu Ra, wa en Ra- The beautiful one of the manifestations of Ra, the unique one of Ra

   
   
BIRTH NAME: Amenhotep, netjer heqa Waset- Amenhotep, God and ruler of Thebes

 

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The Great Hymn of Aten

   
   
"Praise of Re Har-akhti, Rejoicing on the Horizon, in His Name as Shu Who Is in the Aton-disc, living forever and ever; the living great Aton who is in jubilee, lord of all that the Aton encircles, lord of heaven, lord of earth, lord of the House of Aton in Akhet-Aton; (and praise of) the King of Upper and Lower Kemet, who lives on truth, the Lord of the Two Lands: Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re; the Son of Re, who lives on truth, the Lord of Diadems: Akh-en-Aton, long in his lifetime; (and praise of) the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved, the Lady of the Two Lands: Nefer-neferu-Aton Nefert-iti, living, healthy, and youthful forever and ever; (by) the Fan-Bearer on the Right Hand of the King ... Eye.

He says:

Thou appearest beautifully on the horizon of heaven,
Thou living Aton, the beginning of life!
When thou art risen on the eastern horizon,
Thou hast filled every land with thy beauty.
Thou art gracious, great, glistening, and high over every land;
Thy rays encompass the lands to the limit of all that thou hast made:
As thou art Re, thou reachest to the end of them;
(Thou) subduest them (for) thy beloved son.
Though thou art far away, thy rays are on earth;
Though thou art in their faces, no one knows thy going.

When thou settest in the western horizon,
The land is in darkness, in the manner of death.
They sleep in a room, with heads wrapped up,
Nor sees one eye the other.
All their goods which are under their heads might be stolen,
(But) they would not perceive (it).
Every lion is come forth from his den;
All creeping things, they sting.
Darkness is a shroud, and the earth is in stillness,
For he who made them rests in his horizon.

At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon,
When thou shinest as the Aton by day,
Thou drivest away the darkness and givest thy rays.
The Two Lands are in festivity every day,
Awake and standing upon (their) feet,
For thou hast raised them up.
Washing their bodies, taking (their) clothing,
Their arms are (raised) in praise at thy appearance.
All the world, they do their work.

All beasts are content with their pasturage;
Trees and plants are flourishing.
The birds which fly from their nests,
Their wings are (stretched out) in praise to thy ka.
All beasts spring upon (their) feet.
Whatever flies and alights,
They live when thou hast risen (for) them.
The ships are sailing north and south as well,
For every way is open at thy appearance.
The fish in the river dart before thy face;
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.

Creator of seed in women,
Thou who makest fluid into man,
Who maintainest the son in the womb of his mother,
Who soothest him with that which stills his weeping,
Thou nurse (even) in the womb,
Who givest breath to sustain all that he has made!
When he descends from the womb to breathe
On the day when he is born,
Thou openest his mouth completely,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the chick in the egg speaks within the shell,
Thou givest him breath within it to maintain him.
When thou hast made him his fulfillment within the egg, to break it,
He comes forth from the egg to speak at his completed (time);
He walks upon his legs when he comes forth from it.

How manifold it is, what thou hast made!
They are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Kush, the land of Kemet,
Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people (of Kemet)
According as thou madest them for thyself,
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
The Aton of the day, great of majesty.

All distant foreign countries, thou makest their life (also),
For thou hast set a Nile in heaven (rain),
That it may descend for them and make waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
To water their fields in their towns.
How effective they are, thy plans, O lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven, it is for the foreign peoples
And for the beasts of every desert that go upon (their) feet;
(While the true) Nile comes from the underworld for Kemet.

Thy rays suckle every meadow.
When thou risest, they live, they grow for thee.
Thou makest the seasons in order to rear all that thou hast made,
The winter to cool them,
And the heat that they may taste thee.
Thou hast made the distant sky in order to rise therein,
In order to see all that thou dost make.
Whilst thou wert alone,
Rising in thy form as the living Aton,
Appearing, shining, withdrawing or aproaching,
Thou madest millions of forms of thyself alone.
Cities, towns, fields, road, and river --
Every eye beholds thee over against them,
For thou art the Aton of the day over the earth....

Thou are in my heart,
And there is no other that knows thee
Save thy son Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re,
For thou hast made him well-versed in thy plans and in thy strength.

The world came into being by thy hand,
According as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest they die.
Thou art lifetime thy own self,
For one lives (only) through thee.
Eyes are (fixed) on beauty until thou settest.
All work is laid aside when thou settest in the west.
(But) when (thou) risest (again),
[Everything is] made to flourish for the king,...
Since thou didst found the earth
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy body: the King of Upper and Lower Kemet, ... Ak-en-Aton, ... and the Chief Wife of the King ... Nefert-iti, living and youthful forever and ever."

"The countries of Syria and Kush, the land of Kemet, Thou settest every man in his place, Thou suppliest their necessities: Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned. Their tongues are separate in speech, And their natures as well; Their skins are distinguished, As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples."

(Akhenaten appears to preach that all people are equal under Aten (god) and that no one is favored over the other)?

Akhenaten may not be the first man to preach this message but he certainly was the most powerful and popular one to do it. This philosophy seems to have still existed in Ancient kemet way after the death of Akhenaten.

Ex. The Greek historian Plutarch points out that Alexander III of Macedon learned his unity of mankind philosophy from a Kemetian philosopher named Psammon.

" We are told, also, that he (Alexander) listened to the teachings of Psammon the philosopher in Egypt, and accepted most readily this utterance of his, namely, that all mankind are under the kingship of God, since in every case that which gets the mastery and rules is divine. Still more philosophical, however, was his own opinion and utterance on this head, namely that although God was indeed a common father of all mankind, still, He made peculiarly His own the noblest and best of them." Plutarch, Alexander xxvii (it was because of this that Alexander had a falling out with Aristotle who preached that Greeks are superior to none Greeks.)