Akhenaten and the Religion of Light

by Erik Hornung

Book Overview

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801436583
• ISBN13: 9780801436581
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.7" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Akhenaten, the Einstein of Ancient Egypt

Stories on the ancient Egyptian civilization command the attention of many as no other ancient extinct civilization does, the Mayans, Aztecs and the Hindus included. May be this is ascribable to the relatively recent (less than 200 years) deciphering of the intricate Egyptian hieroglyphic script by the French mathematician Jean-François Champollion, a feat which expanded in more than 3.000 years the horizon of humankind, or maybe this is a kind of perverse and doctrinarian boomerang effect of old English colonies against its colonizers, demonstrating that whatever be the powerfull cultures - and armies - behing the colonizing Western powers, they would never attain the magic and the glory Egypt did at its apogee. The names of Cleopatra, Tutankhamen, Ramses, Champollion and many others somehow associated with Egypt culture and its glorious history are almost household names to many of us, demonstrating the intimacy Western and even Eastern (mostly specially Japanese, keen not to accept the supremacy of Chinese over them) readers have vis-'a-vis Egiptology. Sure, beneath all this there is a kind of "who first?" contest between the peoples, and most especially some governments, vying for the primacy of scientifically establishing who was the first craddle of civilization in the planet. See, in this regard, the recent efforts of the Chinese and even the Israeli government to find the earliest traces of civilization in their territories, thus displacing the Mesopothamia as the incumbent craddle of civilization. "Akhenaten and the religion of Light", written in the 1990's by the German scholar and Egyptologist Eric Hornung, and magnificently translated into English, is a very small booklet about the cultural revolution brought about by the pharaoh Akhenaten (son of Amenophis III) , who during his 30 + years reign changed many of the religious creeds and cult practices of the time, being referred to by many as the first true monotheistic ruler of the world. To some scholars, he was the first individual of the Planet Earth, in the sense that he made a giant step in the dark in order to advance human understanding about oneself. If this was exactly not so, given that many others scholars point out that Egypt was first and foremost monotheist in its origin before adhering to polytheism, at least the pharaoh Akhenaten was the bold founder of a new religious and cultural movement which sent rippling waves trough years to come, given the huge impact his reforms had in almost every aspects of the daily life of his time. In his view, the only and sole God was the god Aten, represented by the sun rays, being in its essence Light, the creator of all existent creatures of the world. The religious revolution set by Akhenaten (who was called Amenophis IV when ascended to the throne but changed his regal name to Akhenaten, thus dismissing the importance of the heretofore powerfull god Amen) had even a big impact in the concepts of the Egyptian Afterlife, almost d

The Pharoah Exohertics Love to Hate

"For the first time in history, an attempt was made to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a SINGLE principle. Like Einstein, Ahkenaten made light the absolute reference point, and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept in the 14th century B.C.E., making him in fact the first MODERN human being." (p. 125)Akhenaten's revolutionary change from polytheism to monotheistic belief in only one god helped unify Egypt.The subjective controversy that plagues the history of Akhenaten is an anticipative backlash from exoheretics to the academic practice of historiography. When emotional superfluous definitions to the meaning of heresy are discarded, it becomes obvious (for the right reasons) that Akhenaten was indeed a heretic. As a dissenter from orthodox religious beliefs, he was, by definition, a "heretic king".Hornung's book delves into Akhenaten's radical dissent from Egypt's traditional polytheism, and his establishment of the world's first instance of monotheism. The belief was in Aten, whom many mistakenly believe was depicted by the solar disk. This book makes it clear that Aten was actually not the sun disk, but rather the LIGHT that is in the sun and which, radiating from it, calls the world to life and keeps it alive. It was no more or less an icon than Judaism's Star of David, or Christianity's Cross of Jesus, or Islam's calligraphic symbol. Early text of a boundary stelae reads, "sculptors do not know him."The parallels Hornung draws between today's 3 major monotheistic religions and Akhenaten's precedent are many and presented in clear detail. But the author is careful to emphasize that the temporal interval is too great to infer a DIRECT influence from the Amarna Period on the monotheism of the Hebrew Bible over half a millennium later.Hornung's book is full of interesting details, such as Egypt's use of swine for street-side waste removal, the use of a bread and beer barter system pre-dating coinage, descriptions of Amarna-Period home construction techniques for efficient indoor climate control, the first-time use of the Hyksos-introduced war chariot for peacetime transportation by the Pharoah, the emergence of a new expressionistic art form in place of traditional static deptictions, the rise of new forms of architecture, the increased use of flower offerings in place of animal sacrifices, the meaning and mutation of Akehnaten's name, and much more.In regard to the new impressionistic art form of the Amarna Period, Hornung points out that Akhenaten's supposed "sickly" depiction in sculpture and painting, with his feminine hips, pot belly, swollen lips and chin, receding forehead, elongated neck and crown can be understood by comp0aring it with schools of modern art that deal freely with the human form. In his sub-chapter on "The Grotesque Pharoah", Hornung eloquently dispels emotional assumptions that the Pharoah had a "sick ugliness and nervous decadence" about him. Akhenaten's suppose

BRILLIANT

Any work by Hornung is always very good. Akhenaten's religion has always been problematic for historians, just as it was for the ancient Egyptians. There is also the modern problem of being biased in favor of monotheism. I found the book profound in the issues it discusses, clarifying and ultimately unconvincing.

excellent book on the subject

Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten) reigned during the Eighteenth Dynasty. He defied tradition and centered worship upon one deity, the sun god Aten. In this book, the author provides a concise, accurate and very readable account of his reign. A summary is also provided of the nineteenth-century scholars (Lepsius and Champollion to name a few) who discovered and first interpreted the ruins of Akhenaten. The author gives a religious background of Akhenaten and his father's beliefs; he also discusses the founding of the city of Akhenaten, the belief in monotheism and the processes by which Tutankhaten becomes Tutankhamen the successor. The book offers an excellent bibliography for further consultation of the subject. It is one of the best books on the subject of this heretic pharaoh. Recommended reading for all.

A must for Egyptophiles interested in Amarna

Hornung once again demonstrates his ability to pull together nuances of abstruse facets of Egyptian theology. I only wish this book was about twice as long with more extensive footnotes. Nevertheless, I couldn't put it down until it was finished and it provided me with new ways of looking at Akhenaten's extraordinary reign and its place, not only in Egyptian history, but in world History