Akhenaten IV

Pharaoh

• Born: Unknown
• Birthplace: Egypt
• Died: c. 1335 BCE
• Place of death: Egypt

Also known as: Amenhotep IV

Significance: Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled Egypt from about 1353 BCE until his death circa 1335 BCE. Akhenaten dramatically reformed Egypt's religious system by replacing the numerous Egyptian gods and goddesses with a singular sun god called Aten. Akhenaten is also well known as the husband of Egyptian queen Nefertiti and the father of the pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Background

Akhenaten was born as Amenhotep IV in Egypt around the first half of the fourteenth century BCE. He was the son of Amenhotep III, pharaoh of Egypt, and Queen Tiye. Amenhotep III ruled Egypt as pharaoh from about 1390 to approximately 1353 BCE.

Amenhotep III was a powerful leader. He developed friendly relationships with neighboring kingdoms. He also built great temples and palaces to himself, his wife, and Egypt's many gods and goddesses. Amenhotep III eventually became irritated that Egypt's wealthy priests proclaimed themselves the only legitimate interpreters of the word of Amun-Ra, the king of the gods. Amenhotep III then began worshiping Aten, the Egyptian sun-disk god. Aten was a relatively minor figure in Egyptian mythology at the time, but he would become more prominent in Egyptian life with the rise of Akhenaten to the Egyptian throne.

Amenhotep III died about 1353 BCE. His oldest son, Prince Thutmose, was intended to have replaced him as pharaoh, but Thutmose had suddenly died years earlier. Therefore, Amenhotep III's younger son, Prince Amenhotep succeeded his father as pharaoh of Egypt in approximately 1353. He was originally known as Amenhotep IV. Just a few years after becoming pharaoh, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning "benevolent one of the Aten."

Life's Work

Akhenaten had unusual views of the Egyptian gods for his time. Soon after becoming pharaoh, he began building a series of lavish temples at Karnak, a religious complex in southwestern Egypt. However, the pharaoh's new temples were not dedicated to Amun-Ra, as the rest of the complex was. Instead, the temples were devoted to the sun-disk god, Aten. Like his father, Akhenaten disliked that priests held final authority on the will of the Egyptian gods. Akhenaten presented himself as a god-king who was the sole interpreter of Aten's actions.

Akhenaten was audacious in displaying his dismissal of Amun-Ra in exchange for Aten. His new Karnak complex faced east, toward the rising sun of Aten, while the rest of the Karnak structures faced west.

Akhenaten eventually forced all of Egypt to worship only Aten. He at first built temples to Aten near those of other gods but later simply closed these temples entirely and broke up their ranks of priests. Scholars later claimed that Akhenaten's worship of Aten was not actually a form of monotheism, or belief in only one god. This was because Akhenaten acknowledged the existence of other gods but did not believe them worthy of worship.

Akhenaten's replacing of Egypt's numerous gods and goddesses with Aten became a kingdom-wide project. The pharaoh had the names of Amun-Ra and his wife, Mut, erased from documents, statues, sculptures, and other surfaces. Akhenaten sometimes even destroyed writings of his own original name of Amenhotep, since the name referenced Amun-Ra. While worship of Aten was now official policy throughout Egypt, many Egyptian people continued worshiping their own gods privately. Evidence of this has been found in drawings from the period that portray numerous other gods.

Still unsatisfied with Aten sharing physical worship space near works originally dedicated to other deities, Akhenaten built a new Egyptian capital city in the deserts of central Egypt. He named the capital Akhetaten, meaning "horizon of the Aten." Cliffs flanked the city on three sides, while the Nile River was located to the west of the site. This is the present-day archeological site of Amarna, Egypt.

The infrastructure of Akhetaten was reserved mainly for buildings dedicated to Aten and living spaces for members of the royal family and wealthy classes. Open-roofed temples to Aten were located on the city's river side. A variety of palaces housed the pharaoh's family and other distinguished individuals. Storage areas and workshops provided these people with all they needed. High walls separated the wealthy areas of Akhetaten from the rest of the city. People in poverty and other commoners lived in small houses outside the walls.

Aside from these major religious reforms, Akhenaten is also famous in modern times for his personal relationships, particularly his marriage to Nefertiti. Akhenaten married Nefertiti around the time he became pharaoh. She thereby became queen of Egypt. Nefertiti might have been the daughter of an Egyptian government advisor, or a princess from an ancient kingdom in Syria.

Historians believe Nefertiti may have ruled Egypt alongside Akhenaten. The queen appears next to her husband in many drawings on temple walls from the period. Nefertiti is often shown displaying authority in the images, engaging in activities such as leading worship of Aten or killing enemies.

Historical records stopped mentioning Nefertiti after about twelve years of Akhenaten's seventeen-year rule. Historians have suggested that she actually became co-pharaoh of Egypt with Akhenaten using the name Neferneferuaten, meaning "beautiful are the beauties of Aten, a beautiful woman has come." In the 2010s, archeologists found an ancient writing dating to the sixteenth year of Akhenaten's reign that claims Nefertiti remained the pharaoh's chief wife.

Little is known about Akhenaten's last years and death. The pharaoh died around 1335 BCE.

Impact

After Akhenaten's death, his son, Tutankhamun, became pharaoh. He quickly reversed the religious changes his father had made throughout Egypt. Tutankhamun wrote that the gods Amun-Ra and Mut had forsaken Egypt because the Egyptian people stopped worshiping them. Tutankhamun denounced the Aten worship of his father's reign and returned Egypt to its traditional religious belief system.

The Egyptian people abandoned Akhetaten and reopened their temples to Egypt's various other deities. Some Egyptians who came after Akhenaten referred to the pharaoh as a heretic and omitted his name from lists of Egypt's kings. Consequently, Akhenaten remained mostly unknown to the world until the discoveries of the Akhetaten ruins and the tomb of Tutankhamun in relatively modern times.

Personal Life

Akhenaten and his chief wife, Nefertiti, had six daughters together. Akhenaten later had other wives. With his own sister, Akhenaten became the father of future pharaoh Tutankhamun, who is commonly referred to as King Tut.

Bibliography

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"Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton)." Ohio State University, ehistory.osu.edu/biographies/amenhotep-iv-akhenaton. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.

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Jarus, Owen. "Akhenaten: Egyptian Pharaoh, Nefertiti's Husband, Tut's Father." Live Science, 30 Aug. 2013, www.livescience.com/39349-akhenaten.html. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.

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Sooke, Alastair. "Akhenaten: Mad, Bad, or Brilliant?" Telegraph, 9 Jan. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10561090/Akhenaten-mad-bad-or-brilliant.html. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.

Spence, Kate. "Akhenaten and the Amarna Period." BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten‗01.shtml. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.

"Tutankhamen." PBS, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/tutankhamen. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.