117: Adoring Ra (or Where Did Akhenaten Get His Ideas?)

Precursors to Atenism.

The god Aten has a long history; and in the 18th Dynasty, many Egyptians were praising the sun god in a variety of forms (Ra, Atum, Horakhty, Aten, Khepri etc). Akhenaten's reforms were radical, but they have some obvious roots. Looking at several religious texts, side by side, we can see how the sun god became a major, universal deity at this time...

• Date = 1400-1360 BCE
• King = Akhenaten
• Queen = Nefertiti
• Location = Thebes and Amarna
• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
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• Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com
• Sistrum by Hathor Systrum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7pYdPOS4yw.

Select Bibliography:

• Jan Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom, 1995.
• Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna, Vol. IV: The Tombs of Penthu, Mahu and Others, 1906. Online edition at Archive.org.
• Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna, Vol. VI: The Tombs of Parennefer, Tutu, and Aye, 1908. Online edition at Archive.org.
• Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise, 2014.
• Jean Saint Fare Garnot, “Notes on the Inscriptions of Suty and Ḥor (British Museum Stela No. 826),” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 35 (1949): 63-68.
• James K. Hoffmeier, Akhenaten & The Origins of Monotheism, 2015.
• Erik Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, 1999.
• Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 2, 1976.
• William J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt, 1995.
• OIP, The Tomb of Kheruef, 1980. Online edition at University of Chicago.
• Donald B. Redford, Akhenaten the Heretic King, 1987. Online edition at Archive.org.
• H.M. Stewart, “A Possibly Contemporary Parallel to the Inscription of Suty and Hor,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 43 (1957): 3-5.
• Stephen Quirke, The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt, 2001.

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