“Living in truth,” which he took to himself in later years, and
which had reference to the religion of Aton which he was soon to
evolve, does not yet appear.
A large number of fragments from this shrine have been
discovered, and on these one sees references to the gods Horus,
Set, Wepwat, and others. The king is still called by the name
Amonhotep, which was later banned, and the names of Aton,
afterwards always written within the royal ovals or cartouches,
are still lacking in that distinction. The temple was called
“Aton-is-found-in-the-House-of-Aton,” a curious name of which
the meaning is not clear.[27] A certain official named Hataay was
“Scribe and Overseer of the Granary of the House of the Aton,”
by which this temple is probably meant; and in the tomb of Rames
a reference is made to the building by its full name, and a
picture of it is given, but otherwise one knows little about it.
The rapidity with which it was desired to be set up is shown by
the fact that the great, well-trimmed blocks of stone usually
employed in the construction of sacred buildings were largely
dispensed with, and only small easily-handled blocks were used. The
imperfections in the building were then hidden by a judicious use
of plaster and cement, and thus the walls were smoothed for the
reception of the reliefs. The quarter in which the temple stood was
now called “Brightness of Aton the Great,” and Thebes received the
new name of “City of the Brightness of Aton.”
There are two other monuments which date from these early years of
the king’s reign: both are tombs of great nobles. At this period
one of the greatest personages in the land was the above-mentioned
Rames, the Vizir of Upper Egypt. This official was now engaged in
constructing and decorating a magnificent sepulchre for himself in
the Theban necropolis. In the great hall of this tomb the artists
were busy preparing the beautiful sculptures and paintings which
were to cover the walls, and ere half their work was finished they
set themselves to the making of a fine figure of Amonhotep IV.
seated upon his throne, with the goddess Maat standing behind him.
The scene was probably executed a few months before the making of
the tablets at the quarries. The sun’s rays do not appear, and
the work was carried out strictly according to the canons of art
obtaining during the last years of Amonhotep III. and the first of
his son. But hardly had the figures been finished before the order
came that the Aton rays had to be included, and certain changes in
the art had to be recognised; and therefore the artists set to work
upon another figure of the king standing under these many-handed
beams of “heat,” and now accompanied by his, as yet, childless
wife. The two scenes may be seen by visitors to Thebes standing
side by side, and nowhere may the contrast between the old order
of things and the new be so clearly observed.
While Rames was providing a tomb for himself at Thebes, another
great noble named Horemheb, who ultimately usurped the throne, was
constructing his sepulchre at Sakkârah, the Memphite necropolis
near Cairo. Horemheb was commander-in-chief of the army, and in his
tomb some superb reliefs are carved showing him receiving rewards
in that capacity from the king. Some of the scenes represent the
arrival of Asiatic refugees in Egypt, who ask to be allowed to take
up their abode on the banks of the Nile, and the figures of these
foreigners rank amongst the finest specimens of Egyptian art. In
the inscriptions, Horemheb, who is supposed to be addressing the
king, states that the Pharaoh owes his throne to Amon,[28] but yet
we see that the figure of the king is drawn in that style of art
which is typical of the new religion.[29]
7. THE NEW ART.
This sudden change in the style of the reliefs which we have
observed in these two tombs and on the quarry tablets seems to be
attributable to about the fourth year of the king’s reign. The
reliefs which were now carved upon the walls of the new temple of
Ra-Horakhti at Karnak show us a style of art quite different from
that of the king’s early years. The figure of the Pharaoh, which
the artists in the tomb of Rames represented as standing below the
newly-invented sun’s rays, is as different from the earlier figure
there executed as chalk is from cheese. The Pharaoh whom we see
in the tomb of Horemheb and on the quarry tablets is represented,
according to canons of art, entirely different from those existing
at the king’s accession.
In the drawing of the human figure, and especially that of the
Pharaoh, there are three very distinct characteristics in this new
style of art. Firstly, as to the head: the skull is elongated;
the chin, as seen in profile, is drawn as though it were sharply
pointed; the flesh under the jaw is skimped, thus giving an upward
turn to the line; and the neck is represented as being long and
thin. Secondly, the stomach is made to obtrude itself upon the
attention by being drawn as though from a fat and ungainly model.
And thirdly, the hips and thighs are abnormally large, though
from the knee downwards the legs are of more natural size. This
distortion of human anatomy is marked in a lesser degree in all the
lines of the body; and the whole figure becomes a startling type
of an art which seems at first to have sprung fully developed from
the brain of the boy-Pharaoh or from one of the eccentrics of the
court.
The king was now fifteen years old, and seems to have been
extraordinarily mature for his age. It may be that he had objected
to be represented in the conventional manner, and had told his
artists to draw him as he was. The elongated skull, the pointed
chin, and even, perhaps, the protruding paunch, may thus have
originated. But the ungainly thighs could only be accounted for
by some radical deformity in the royal model, and that he was a
well-made man in this respect his recently discovered bones most
clearly show.
Purely tentatively a suggestion may here be offered to account for
this peculiar treatment of the human body. It is probable that the
king had now, in a boyish way, become deeply interested in the
religious contest which was beginning to be waged between Amon-Ra
and Ra-Horakhti Aton. Having listened to the arguments on both
sides, it may have occurred to him to study for himself the ancient
documents and inscriptions bearing on the matter. In so doing, he
would have found that Amon had become the state god only some few
hundred years before his own time, and that previous to his ascent
to this important position, previous even to the earliest mention
of his name, Ra-Horakhti had been supreme. Carrying his inquiries
back, past the days of the pyramid kings to the archaic Pharaohs
who reigned at the dim beginning of things, he would still have
found the Heliopolitan god worshipped. One of the Pharaohs’ most
cherished titles was “Son of the Sun,” which, as we have seen, had
been borne by each successive sovereign since the days of the Fifth
Dynasty, whose kings claimed descent from Ra himself. Such studies
would inevitably bring two matters into prominence: firstly,
that Amon was, after all, but a usurper; and, secondly, that as
Pharaoh he was the descendant of Ra-Horakhti, and was that god’s
representative on earth.
On these grounds, more than on any others, all things connected
with Amon would become distasteful to him. He was too young to
understand fully which of the two religions was the better morally
or theologically; but he was old enough to be moved by the romance
of history, and to feel that those great, shadowy Pharaohs who
lived when the world was young, and who at the dawn of events
worshipped the sun, were the truest and best examples for him to
follow. They were his ancestors, and as they were the sons of Ra,
so he, too, was the proud descendant of that great god. In his
veins there ran the blood of the sun, that “Heat-which-is-in-Aton”
pulsed through and through him; and the more he read in those old
documents the more he was stirred by the glory of that distant
past when men worshipped the god whose rights Amon had usurped.
Now the canons of art were regarded as a distinctly religious
institution, and the methods of treating the human figure then in
vogue had in the first place the sanction of the priesthood of
Amon; and few things would be more upsetting to their _régime_
than the abandoning of these canons. This was probably recognised
by those who were furthering the cause of Ra-Horakhti, and the
young king may have been assisted and encouraged in his views.
Presently it may have been brought home to him that, since he was
thus the representative of those archaic kings and the High Priest
of their god, it was fitting that the canons acknowledged by those
far-off ancestors should be recognised by him. Here, then, he would
both please his own romantic fancy and deal a blow at the Amon
priesthood by banning the art which they upheld, and by infusing
into the sculptures and paintings of his time something of the
spirit of the most ancient art of Egypt.
[Illustration: _The Art of Akhnaton compared with Archaic Art._
1. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing.
2. The head of a king. From an archaic statuette found by
Professor Petrie at Abydos.
3. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing.
4. The head of a prince. From an archaic tablet found by
Professor Petrie at Abydos.
5. An archaic statuette found by Professor Petrie at Diospolis,
showing the large thighs found in the art of Akhnaton.]
In the old temples of Heliopolis and elsewhere a few relics of
that period, no doubt, were still preserved; and the king was thus
able to study the wood and slate carvings and the ivory figures of
archaic times. We of the present day can also study such figures,
a few specimens having been brought to light by modern excavators;
and the similarity between the treatment of the human body in this
archaic art and the new art of Akhnaton at once becomes apparent.
In the accompanying illustrations some archaic figures are shown,
and one may perhaps see in them the origin of the idiosyncrasies
of the new school. Here and in all representations of archaic men
one sees the elongated skull so characteristic of the king’s style;
in the ivory figure of an archaic Pharaoh one sees the well-known
droop of Akhnaton’s head and his pointed chin; in the clay and
ivory figures is the prominent stomach; and here also, most
apparent of all, are the unaccountably large thighs and ponderous
hips.
Akhnaton’s art might thus be said to be a kind of renaissance--a
return to the classical period of archaic days; the underlying
motive of this return being the desire to lay emphasis upon the
king’s character as the representative of that most ancient of all
gods, Ra-Horakhti.
Another feature of the new religion now becomes apparent. In the
worship of Ra-Horakhti Aton there was an endeavour to do honour to
the Pharaoh as the son of the sun, and to the god as the founder of
the royal line. Tradition stated that Ra or Ra-Horakhti had once
reigned upon earth, and that his spirit had passed from Pharaoh to
Pharaoh. This god was thus the only true King of Heaven, and Amon
was but a usurper of much more recent date. It was for this reason
that the names of the new god were placed within royal cartouches;
and for this reason the king was so careful to call Ra-Horakhti
his “father,” and to name him “god and king.” For this reason also
Akhnaton often wore the crown of Lower Egypt which was used at
Heliopolis, but never the crown of Upper Egypt, which history told
him did not exist when Ra ruled on earth.[30]
Apart from the representation of the human form, the new art is
chiefly characterised by its freedom of poses. An attempt is made
to break away from tradition, and a desire is shown to have done
with the conventions of the age. Never before had the artists
caught the swing of a walk, the relaxation of a seated figure, so
well or so truthfully. Sculpture in the round now reached a height
of perfection which places it above all but the art of the Greeks
in the old world; and there is a grace and naturalness in the
low-reliefs which command one’s admiration.
There are only two artists of the period who are known by name.
The one was a certain Auta, who is represented in a relief dating
from some eight years after the change in the art had taken place.
It is a significant fact that this personage held the post of
master-artist to Queen Tiy; and it is possible that in him and his
patron we have the originators of the movement. The king, however,
was now old enough to take an active interest in such matters; and
the other artist who is known by name, a certain Bek, definitely
states that the king himself taught him. Thus there is reason to
suppose that the young Pharaoh’s own hand is to be traced in the
new canons, although they were instituted when he was but fifteen
years old.
8. THE NEW RELIGION DEVELOPS.
There is an interesting record, apparently dating from about
this period, which is to be seen upon the rocks near the breccia
quarries of Wady Hammamât. Here there are three cartouches standing
upon two _neb_ signs, symbolic of sovereignty, and above them is
the disk and rays of the new religion. One of these cartouches,
surmounted by the tall feathers worn by the queens of this period,
contains a very short name, which can only be that of Queen
Tiy.[31] The other two cartouches contain the names Amonhotep (IV.)
and the Pharaoh’s second designation. Thus we see that after the
new religious symbol had been introduced, and just before the king
took the name of “Akhnaton,” Queen Tiy still held equal royal rank
with him, and was evidently Regent.
[Illustration: _The Artist Auta._]
During the fifteenth to the seventeenth years of his age the king
devoted a considerable amount of time and thought to the changes
which were taking place. With the enthusiasm of youth he threw
himself into the new movement, and one may suppose that it required
all Queen Tiy’s tact and diplomacy to keep him from offending his
country by some rash action against the priesthood of Amon. Those
priests were by no means reconciled to the king’s devotion to
Ra-Horakhti; and although he still nominally served the Theban god,
they felt that every day he was becoming more estranged from that
deity. No doubt there were many passages of arms between the High
Priest of Amon-Ra and this royal High Priest of the sun, young as
he was. The new art, upsetting all the old religious conventions,
was distasteful to the priests; the new religious thought did not
conform to their stereotyped doctrines; and much that the king said
was absolutely heretical to their ears. The tide of new thought,
directed in so eager and boyishly unreserved a manner, was sweeping
them from their feet, and they knew not whither they were being
carried.
The court officials blindly followed their young king, and to
every word which he spoke they listened attentively. Sometimes
the thoughts which he voiced came direct from the mazes of his
own mind; sometimes perhaps he repeated the utterances of his
deep-thinking mother; and sometimes there passed from his lips the
pearls of wisdom which he had gleaned from the wise men of his
court. It had been the boy’s desire to listen to the dreams of
the East, to receive into his brain those speculations which ever
meander so charmedly through the lands more near the sunrise. At
his behest the dreamers of Asia related to him their visions; the
philosophers made pregnant his mind with the mystery of knowledge;
the poets sung to him harp-songs in which echoed the cry of the
elder days; the priests of strange gods submitted to him the
creeds of strange people. To him was made known the sweetness of
the legends of Greece. The laughter of the woods rang in his ears,
though never in narrow Egypt had he felt the enchantment of great
forests. He had not seen the mountains, and the wooded slopes which
rise from the Mediterranean were scenes but dreamed of; and yet it
was the flute of Pan and the song of the nymphs in the mountain
streams which set the thoughts dancing within his misshapen skull.
He had not walked in the shadow of the cedars of Lebanon, nor had
he ascended the Syrian hills; but nevertheless the hymns of Adonis
and the chants of Baal were as familiar to him as were the solemn
chants of Amon-Ra. The rose-gardens of Persia, the incense-groves
of Araby, added their philosophies to his dreams, and the
haunting lips of Babylon whispered to him tales of far-off days.
From Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, and Cyprus there came to him the
doctrines of those who had business in great waters; and Libya and
Ethiopia disclosed their mysteries to his eager ears. The fertile
brain of the Pharaoh was thus sown at an early age with the seed of
all that was wonderful in the world of thought.
It must always be remembered that the king had much foreign blood
in his veins. On the other hand, those men to whom he spoke, though
highly educated, were but superstitious Egyptians who could not
relieve themselves of the belief that a divine power rested upon
the Pharaoh. Thus his speculative young brain poured its fantasies
into attentive minds unbiassed by rival speculations, though
narrowed by conventions. Egyptians, ever lacking in originality,
have always possessed the power to imitate and adapt; and those
nobles whose fortunes were dependent upon the royal favour soon
learnt to attune their minds to the note of their king. Daily they
must have gone about their business, ostentatiously attempting to
hold to the difficult path of truth; laboriously telling themselves
what wonders the new thought revealed to them; loudly praising the
wisdom of the boy-Pharaoh; and nervously asking themselves whether
and when the wrath of Amon would smite them.
Thus encouraged, the king and his mother developed their
speculations, and drew into their circle of followers some of
the greatest nobles of the land. A striking example of this
proselytising is to be found in the tomb of the Vizir Rames. It has
already been stated that that official had constructed for himself
a sepulchre in the Theban necropolis, upon the walls of which he
had first caused a portrait of the young king to be sculptured in
the old conventional style, and later had added another portrait
of the Pharaoh standing beneath the radiating beams of the sun,
executed in the new style. Rames now added various other scenes and
inscriptions, and he records a certain speech made by the king to
him, and his own reply.
“The words of Ra,” the king had said, “are before thee.... My
august father[32] taught me their essence and [revealed] them
to me.... They were known in my heart, opened to my face. I
understood....”
“Thou art the Only One of Aton; in possession of his designs,”
replied Rames. “Thou hast directed the mountains. The fear of
thee is in the midst of their secret chambers, as it is in the
hearts of the people. The mountains hearken to thee as the people
hearken.”
Thus one sees how the king was already formulating some kind of
doctrine in his head, and that the nobles were receiving it; but it
is significant that there are here representations of Rames loaded
with gifts by the Pharaoh, as though in reward for his allegiance.
The Pharaoh seems, indeed, to have showered honours upon those
who appeared to grasp intelligently the thoughts which were
still immature in his own head; and there must have been many an
antagonist who rallied to his standard from the sheer love of gold.
The king was in need of all the support which he could muster,
for an open break with the priesthood of Amon-Ra grew more and
more probable as his doctrines shaped themselves in his mind; and
although the people of Egypt as a whole would, without question,
follow their Pharaoh for the one reason that he _was_ Pharaoh,
there was every probability that the Amon priesthood and the Theban
populace would make something of a stand against any infringement
of the rights of their local god.
The young Pharaoh seems to have been very popular, and one may
presume that he inherited, from his illustrious fathers, the
charm of manner which there is not a little evidence to show they
possessed. Throughout his life, and for some years after his death,
he retained the affection of his people; and when one considers
how faithfully his nobles followed him so long as he had strength
and health to lead them, and how completely lost they were at his
death, one realises how great an influence he must have exerted
over them. Even at this early age they seem to have possessed a
deep regard for the grave, thoughtful boy; and behind all the
pretence, the hypocrisy, and the merely conventional loyalty, one
surely catches a glimpse of a strong, personal affection for the
king.
We must here record the birth of the king’s first daughter, which
occurred in about the fifth year of his reign, when he was some
sixteen years of age, and when Nefertiti was about thirteen years
old. The child was named Merytaton, “Beloved of Aton”; and though
the advent of a daughter instead of a son must have been a
grave disappointment to the royal couple, a remarkable degree of
affection was lavished upon the little girl, as will be apparent in
the sequel.
9. THE NATURE OF THE NEW RELIGION.
There was nothing strikingly exalted in the religion which was
now so filling the king’s mind. Ra-Horakhti Aton was in no
wise considered as the only god: there were as yet no ideas of
monotheism in the doctrine. In the new temple at Karnak, as we have
seen, Horus, Set, Wepwat, and other gods were named; and elsewhere
Amon was reluctantly recognised. The goddess Maat, in the tomb
of Rames, was not obliterated from the walls, but still stood
protecting the king; and in the same tomb Horus of Edfu is invoked.
In the tomb of Horemheb, Horus, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Hathor
are mentioned, and the gods of the Necropolis still receive honour;
Horemheb himself still holds the honorary post of High Priest of
Horus, Lord of Alabastronpolis; Thoth and Maat are referred to;
and there is a magical prayer to Ra, which is by no means of
lofty character. Scarabs of this period speak of the Pharaoh as
beloved of Thoth. And in a letter to the king dated in the fifth
year of his reign, Ptah and “the gods and goddesses” of Memphis are
referred to.
This letter is of such interest that a fuller account of it must
here be given. It was addressed to the king, who is still called
Amonhotep, by a royal steward named Apiy, who lived at Memphis.
Two copies of the letter were found at Gurob,[33] both dated in
the fifth year of the king’s reign, the third month of winter,
and the nineteenth day. The letter begins with the full titles of
the Pharaoh, including the phrase “living in truth,” which from
this time onwards was always added to his name. Then follows the
invocation: “May Ptah of the beautiful countenance work for thee,
who created thy beauties, thy true father who raised (?) thee from
his house to rule the orbit of the Aton.” Next comes the real
business of the letter: “A communication is this to the Master,
[to whom be] life, prosperity, and health, to give information
that the temple of thy father Ptah ... is sound and prosperous; the
house of Pharaoh ... is flourishing; the establishments of Pharaoh
... are flourishing; the residence of Pharaoh ... is flourishing
and healthy; the offerings of all the gods and goddesses who are
upon the soil (?) of Memphis are ... complete; complete [are they]
there is nothing delayed from them.” Again the titles of the king
are given, and the letter ends with the date.
Thus in the fifth year of the king’s reign, when he was about
sixteen years of age, the various gods of Egypt were still
acknowledged; and, though the art had been changed and the worship
of Ra-Horakhti under the name of Aton had made great strides
towards supremacy, there is as yet no sign of the lofty monotheism
which the Pharaoh was soon to propound.