did not attempt to remove from his mind the belief in which he
had been brought up, that as Pharaoh of Egypt he was himself
partly divine. Not only was he by reason of his religion the
representative, and hence, in a manner of speech, the “son” of
God, but by right of royal descent he was the “son of the Sun.”
The names of the Pharaohs were always surrounded by an oval band,
known as a cartouche, which was the distinguishing mark of a royal
name. Akhnaton wrote the name of the Aton within such an oval,
thus indicating that the Pharaoh’s royal rights were also held
by, and therefore derived from, God Himself. There was thus, as
Christ later taught His disciples to believe, a kingdom of heaven
over which God presided; and although impersonal, intangible, and
incomprehensible, the Aton was the very “King of kings, the only
ruler of princes.” Amon-Ra and other of the old deities had been
called at various times “King of the gods.” Akhnaton, however,
applied to Aton the words “King and God.”
Akhnaton is spoken of as “the unique one of Ra, whose beauties
Aton created,” and as “the beloved son of Aton,” whom “Aton bare.”
Addressing the Aton, his courtiers were wont to say, “Thy rays
are on Thy bright image, the Ruler of Truth (_i.e._, the King),
who proceeded from eternity. Thou givest to him Thy duration and
Thy years; Thou hearkenest to all that is in his heart, because
Thou lovest him. Thou makest him like the Aton, him Thy child, the
King.” “Thou lookest on him, for he proceeded[48] from Thee.”
“Thou hast placed him beside Thee for ever and ever, for he loves
to gaze upon Thee.... Thou hast set him there till the swan shall
turn black and the crow turn white, till the hills rise up to
travel and the deeps rush into the rivers.” “While heaven is,
he shall be.” Some of the Pharaohs had called themselves “the
beautiful child of Amon”; and Akhnaton, borrowing this phrase, was
sometimes spoken of as “the beautiful child of the Aton.”[49]
[Illustration: _Akhnaton and his Wife and Children._]
In his capacity as Pharaoh and “son of God,” Akhnaton demanded
and received a very considerable amount of ceremonial homage; but
he never blinded himself to the fact that he was primarily but a
simple man. He most sincerely wished that his private life should
be a worthy example to his subjects, and he earnestly desired that
it should be observed in all its naturalness and simplicity. He
did his utmost to elevate the position of women and the sanctity
of the family by displaying to the world the ideal conditions of
his own married life. He made a point of caressing his wife in
public, putting his arm around her neck in the sight of all men. As
we have seen, one of his forms of oath was, “As my heart is happy
in the Queen and her children....” He spoke of his wife always as
“Mistress of his happiness, ... at hearing whose voice the King
rejoices.” “Lady of grace” was she, “great of love” and “fair
of face.” Every wish that she expressed, declared Akhnaton, was
executed by him. Even on the most ceremonious occasions the queen
sat beside her husband and held his hand, while their children
frolicked around them; for such things pleased that gentle father
more than the savour of burnt-offerings. It is seldom that the
Pharaoh is represented in the reliefs without his family; and, in
opposition to all tradition, the queen is shown upon the same scale
of size and importance as that of her husband. Akhnaton’s devotion
to his children is very marked, and he taught his disciples to
believe that God was the father, the mother, the nurse, and the
friend of the young. Thus, though “son of God,” Akhnaton
preached the beauty of the human family, and laid stress on the
sanctity of marriage and parenthood.
6. THE CONNECTIONS OF THE ATON WORSHIP WITH OLDER RELIGIONS.
In developing his religion Akhnaton must have come into almost
daily conflict with the priesthoods of the old gods of Egypt;
and even the Heliopolitan Ra-Horakhti, from which his own faith
had been evolved, now fell far short of his ideals. He does not
seem, however, to have yet imposed the worship of the Aton upon
the provinces, nor to have persecuted the various priesthoods.
He hoped, no doubt, that he would be able to persuade the whole
country to his views as soon as those views were thoroughly
matured; and, secure in his new city, he was free to purge his
religion of its faults before declaring all other creeds illegal.
It is probable that the sacred bull, Mnevis, was banished from his
ceremonies at an early date, for no tombs seem to have been made
for these holy creatures, and they are not referred to after the
sixth year of the king’s reign. The priests of Heliopolis would
now have hardly recognised their doctrines in the exalted faith of
the Aton, though here and there some point of close contact might
have been observed. One may also detect slight resemblances to the
Adonis religions of Syria, from whence the Aton had originally
come. Mention has already been made of the worship of Adonis. So
widespread was that deity’s power that it very naturally affected
many other religions. In the Biblical Psalms one finds several
echoes of this old pagan worship, as for example in the lines from
Psalm xix., which read:--
The heavens declare the glory of God....
In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And he rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Here one surely must recognise the youthful Adonis, the bridegroom
of Venus. And similarly in the Heliopolitan worship, at the
commencement of Akhnaton’s reign, the sun, Ra, is referred to in
the following terms: “Thou art beautiful and youthful as Aton
before thy mother Hathor [Venus].”
In Akhnaton’s religion one may still catch a fleeting glimpse of
Adonis. One of the king’s courtiers, named May, held the office of
“Overseer of the House for sending Aton to rest.”[50] Akhnaton’s
queen is mentioned in the tomb of Ay under the peculiar title of
“She who sends the Aton to rest with a sweet voice, and with her
two beautiful hands bearing two systrums.” This “house” was, no
doubt, the temple at which the vesper prayers to the Aton were
said at sunset, and from the above title of the queen it would
seem that she had particular charge of these evening ceremonies.
One cannot contemplate the fact that it was a woman who officiated
at a ceremony which consisted of a lament[51] for the death of
the sun without seeing in it some connection, however faint,
with the story of Venus and Adonis. The lament of Venus for the
death of Adonis--_i.e._, the setting of the sun--was one of the
fundamental ceremonies of the Mediterranean religions. Here again
was a connection with an older religion for Akhnaton to consider
and perhaps to purge away; and one may suppose that all such
derivatives from earlier faiths were gradually eliminated as the
young king developed his creed. Soon not a scrap of superstition
remained in the religion; and one may credit this Pharaoh of three
thousand years ago with as great a freedom from the trammels of
traditional superstition as that of the advanced thinker of to-day.
7. THE SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.
“Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes
to behold the sun,” says Holy Writ in words which might have fallen
from the lips of Akhnaton; “but though a man live many years and
rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for
they shall be many.” As Akhnaton had completely revolutionised the
beliefs of the Egyptians as to the nature of God, so he altered
and purged their theories regarding the existence of the soul after
death. According to the old beliefs, as we have seen, the soul of
a man had to pass through awful places up to the judgment throne
of Osiris, where he was weighed in the balances. If he was found
wanting he was devoured by a ferocious monster, but if the scales
turned in his favour he was accepted into the Elysian fields. So
many were the spirits, bogies, and demigods which he was likely to
meet before the goal was reached that he had to know by heart a
tedious string of formulæ, the correct repetition of which, and the
correct making of the related magic, alone ensured his safe passage.
Akhnaton flung all these formulæ into the fire. Djins, bogies,
spirits, monsters, demigods, demons, and Osiris himself with all
his court, were swept into the blaze and reduced to ashes. Akhnaton
believed that when a man died his soul continued to exist as a kind
of astral, immaterial ghost, sometimes resting in the dreamy halls
of heaven, and sometimes visiting, in shadowy form, the haunts
of the earthly life. By some of the inscriptions one is led to
suppose that, as in the fourth article of the Christian faith, so
in the teachings of Akhnaton, the body was thought to take again
after death its “flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to
the perfection of man’s nature.” But just as there is some doubt
and some vagueness in the mind of Christian thinkers as to the
meaning of this article, so in Akhnaton’s doctrine there was some
uncertainty as to whether the body was entirely spiritual or in a
manner material in its hazy existence in the Hills of the West.
The disembodied soul still craved the pleasures of earthly life
and shunned its sorrows; still felt hunger and thirst and enjoyed
a draught of water or a meal of solid food; still warmed itself in
the sunshine or sought coolness in the shadows.
We hear nothing of hell; for Akhnaton, in the tenderness of his
heart, could not bring himself to believe that God would allow
suffering in any of His creatures, however sinful. The inscriptions
seem rather to indicate that there was no future life for the
wicked,--that they were annihilated; though in almost every man one
may suppose that there was enough good to recommend him to the
mercy of a God so loving as the Aton.
The first great wish of the deceased was that he might each day
leave the dim underworld in order to see the light of the sun
upon earth. This had been the prayer of the Egyptians from time
immemorial, and to suit the religion of the Aton its wording alone
was changed. The disciple of Akhnaton asked to be allowed “to go
out from the underworld in the morning to see Aton as he rises.”
He prayed insistently, passionately, in varied language, that his
spirit might “go forth to see the sun’s rays,” that his “two eyes
might be opened to see the sun,” that there might be “no failure
to see it,” that the “vision of the sun’s fair face might never be
lost to him,” that he “might obtain a sight of the beauty of each
recurring sunrise,” and that “the sun’s rays might spread over
his body.” Sometimes it is the Aton whom the soul thus craves to
see; sometimes it is Ra, the sun; but always it seems to be the
actual light and warmth of the sunshine which is so passionately
desired. The abstract conditions of the future life could but be
interpreted in terms of human experience; and in contemplating
that cold, desolate mystery of death, Akhnaton could find no better
means of banishing the gloom than by praying for a continuance of
the blessed light of the day. And the man who prayed that his soul
might see the sunshine but asked that he might still know the joy
of the presence of God, for God was the light of the world.
His second wish was that he might retain the favour of the king and
queen after death, and that his soul might serve their souls in the
palaces of the dead. He asks for “readiness in the presence of the
King” to do his bidding; he prays that he may be admitted into the
palace, “entering it in favour and leaving it in love”; that he may
“attend the King every day”; and that he may “receive honour in the
presence of the King.”
For his mental contentment in the underworld he earnestly desired
that “his name might be remembered and established on earth,” that
there might be “a happy memory of him in the King’s palace,” and
“a continuance of his name in the mouths of the courtiers,” where
he hoped that it “might be welcome.” “May my name thrive in the
tomb-chapel,” he says. “May my name not be to seek in my mansion.
May it be celebrated for ever.” So, too, at the present day the
words _In Memoriam_ are goodly words; and that a man’s memory may
be kept green is a thing very generally desired.
8. THE MATERIAL NEEDS OF THE SOUL.
In order that the soul might have its link with earth, the
worshipper of the Aton prayed that his mummy might remain “firm”
and uncorrupted, that the “flesh might live upon the bones,” and
that his limbs might remain “knit together.” The Egyptians of
other days believed that the body itself would live again at the
resurrection, this being the reason why they attempted so carefully
to preserve it; and Akhnaton does not appear to have altered this
conception of the nature of the material body. So, too, in the
Christian faith it is thought that at the last day the graves will
give up their dead.
The spiritual body retained the form and the individuality of the
material body, and therefore, in a somewhat vague manner, it was
thought that the needs of the soul would not be very dissimilar
from those of the body upon earth. Christ, after His resurrection,
asked for food; and the feasts of Paradise are more than allegory
to many a Christian. Likewise the follower of Akhnaton believed
that material food, or its spiritual equivalent, would be necessary
to the soul’s welfare in the next world. “May I be called by my
name,” says he, “and come at the summons, in order to feed upon the
good things provided upon the temple altar.” It would seem that
through fidelity to the Aton creed he might have the privilege of
partaking of the offerings made at the great ceremonies in the
temple; for, after these sacrifices had been offered, the food,
probably, was distributed to the priests and to those attached to
the tombs, who represented the interests of the dead. Thus the
deceased prays that he may enjoy “a reception of that which has
been offered in the temple”; “a reception of offerings of the
King’s giving in every shrine”; “a drink-offering in the temple of
Aton”; “food deposited on the altar every day”; and “everything
that is offered in the sanctuary of Aton in the City of the
Horizon of Aton.” He further asks that “wine may be poured out” for
him, and that “the children of his house may spill a libation for
him at the entrance of his tomb.”
While life lasted God was very apparent to those who sought Him.
Wherever the sun shone, wherever the great pulse of the earth beat
beneath one, wherever the river flowed or the garden bloomed, there
was God to be found; for God was happiness, was beauty, was love.
But when the cold mists of death had enveloped a man, when there
was no longer any spring-time nor any opening of the blossoms, how
should there be contentment any more? From the depths of his heart
Akhnaton urged his followers to pray God that He might provide this
happiness, though it could only be voiced in very human words. It
was not “sweet perfume” nor “the smell of incense” that the soul
required; but how else could the pleasure of light-heartedness
be worded? They prayed that their “limbs might be provided with
pleasure every day.” In the stagnant air of the tomb they craved
for the touch of the “sweet breeze,” for “the breath of the
pleasant airs of the north wind.” They hoped in shadowy form to be
able to visit the beloved scenes of their lifetime. “May I raise
myself up and forget languor,” prays one. “May I leave and enter
my mansion,” says another. “May my soul not be shut off from that
which it desires. May I walk as I will in the grove that I have
made upon earth. May I drink the water at the edge of my lake every
day without ceasing.” “May water be poured out from my cistern,”
cries a third; “may I receive fruit from my trees.” Incessantly
each man implores God to grant that he may cool his parched lips
with water. “A draught of water at the banks of the river,” is
his desire; “a draught of water at the swirl of the stream.”
While he smells “the scent of the wind” blowing amidst the petals
of “a bouquet of Aton,” and while there runs “a brook of water”
by his side, he need not know the horror of death. And thus, by
receiving “everything good and sweet,” he may hope for “health and
prosperity” in the hills and the valleys of the West; for a “happy
life, provided with pleasure and joy,” for “amusement, merriment,
and delight,” and for a “daily rejoicing” throughout eternity.
It may be argued that this material conception of the life after
death is not equal in purity of tone to the faith of the Aton.
But is it, then, less lofty to believe in a heaven in which there
is joy and laughter, a scent of flowers, and a breath of north
wind, than in one where the streets are paved with gold, and
where there are many mansions? By no religion in the world is
Christianity so closely approached as by the faith of Akhnaton; and
if the Pharaoh’s doctrines as to immortality are not altogether
convincing, neither are the Christian doctrines, as they are
now interpreted, altogether without fault. In the above pages
it has been necessary always to compare Akhnaton’s creed with
Christianity, since there is so much common to the two religions;
but it should be remembered that this comparison must of necessity
be unfavourable to the Pharaoh’s doctrine, revealing as it does
its shortcomings. Let the reader remember that Akhnaton lived some
thirteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, at an age when
the world was steeped in superstition and sunk in the fogs of
idolatry. Bearing this in mind, he will not fail to see in that
tenderly loving Father whom the boy-Pharaoh worshipped an early
revelation of the God to whom we of the present day bow down; and
once more he will find how true are the words--
“God fulfils Himself in many ways.”
Since writing the above, another point in Akhnaton’s teaching
has become apparent, from the scenes, recently discovered by the
present writer, in the tomb of Rames. There is a scene often
represented upon the walls of tombs of Dynasty XVIII. which seems
to represent human sacrifice. The figure of a man is seen dragged
to the tomb upon a sledge, and Sir Gaston Maspero has pointed out
that this can hardly be anything else than such a sacrifice. This
scene was shown on one of the walls of the tomb of Rames, and
evidently dated from a period previous to Akhnaton’s revolution.
When, however, the young king had formulated his religion of love
he could not tolerate a barbaric and cruel ceremony of this kind.
We thus find that the entire scene is here obliterated, almost
certainly by the king’s agents. The objection to human sacrifice is
closely in accord with his objection to human suffering as recorded
on page 175.
V.
THE TENTH TO THE TWELFTH YEARS OF THE REIGN OF AKHNATON.
“One must be moved with involuntary admiration for the young king
who in such an age found such thoughts in his heart.”--BREASTED:
‘History of Egypt.’
1. THE HYMNS OF THE ATON WORSHIPPERS.
In the tombs of rich persons who had lived and died previous to the
time of Akhnaton, a large portion of the walls had been covered
with religious inscriptions; and when at first the nobles of the
City of the Horizon of Aton were planning their sepulchres they
must have been at a loss to know what to substitute for these
forbidden formulæ. Soon, however, it became the custom to write
there short extracts from the hymns which were sung in the temples
of the Aton. In a few cases these inscriptions supply us with a
definite psalm which, although short, seems to be complete. In one
tomb--that of Ay--however, there is a copy of a much more elaborate
hymn; and it would thus seem that there were two main psalms in
use in the temples, a longer and a shorter version of the same
composition.
It was not unusual for the Egyptians to compose hymns in honour of
their gods, and a few such have been preserved to us upon the walls
of the old temples. Like the Hebrew psalms of later date, they are
not always of a very high moral tone. They are often but chants
of victory, dealing in battles, in thunders, and in tempests, and
glorying in the wrath of heaven. The longer hymn to the Aton, which
is here given in full, is quite unlike any of these compositions,
and both in purity of tone and in beauty of style it must rank high
amongst the poems of antiquity.
[52]“Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When Thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
Thou fillest every land with Thy beauty;
For Thou are beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all Thou hast made.
Thou art Ra, and Thou hast carried them all away captive;
Thou bindest them by Thy love.
Though Thou art afar, Thy rays are on earth;
Though Thou art on high, Thy footprints are the day.
When Thou settest in the western horizon of heaven,
The world is in darkness like the dead.
Men sleep in their chambers,
Their heads are wrapped up,
Their nostrils stopped, and none seeth the other.
Stolen are all their things that are under their heads,
While they know it not.
Every lion cometh forth from his den,
All serpents, they sting.
Darkness reigns,
The world is in silence:
He that made them has gone to rest in His horizon.
Bright is the earth, when Thou risest in the horizon,
When Thou shinest as Aton by day.
The darkness is banished
When Thou sendest forth Thy rays;
The two lands [of Egypt] are in daily festivity,
Awake and standing upon their feet,
For Thou hast raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing,
Their arms uplifted in adoration to Thy dawning.
Then in all the world they do their work.
All cattle rest upon the herbage,
All trees and plants flourish;
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to Thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet,
All winged things fly,
They live when Thou hast shone upon them.
The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike.
Every highway is open because Thou hast dawned.
The fish in the river leap up before Thee,
And Thy rays are in the midst of the great sea.
Thou art He who createst the man-child in woman,
Who makest seed in man,
Who giveth life to the son in the body of his mother,
Who soothest him that he may not weep,
A nurse [even] in the womb.
Who giveth breath to animate every one that He maketh.
When he cometh forth from the body ...
On the day of his birth,
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the chicken crieth in the egg-shell,
Thou givest him breath therein, to preserve him alive;
When Thou hast perfected him
That he may pierce the egg,
He cometh forth from the egg,
To chirp with all his might;
He runneth about upon his two feet,
When he hath come forth therefrom.
How manifold are all Thy works!
They are hidden from before us,
O Thou sole God, whose powers no other possesseth.
Thou didst create the earth according to Thy desire,
While Thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
All that are upon the earth,
That go about upon their feet;
All that are on high,
That fly with their wings.
The countries of Syria and Nubia
The land of Egypt;
Thou settest every man in his place
Thou suppliest their necessities.
Every one has his possessions,
And his days are reckoned.
Their tongues are divers in speech,
Their forms likewise and their skins,
For Thou, divider, hast divided the peoples.
Thou makest the Nile in the nether world,
Thou bringest it at Thy desire, to preserve the people alive.
O Lord of them all, when feebleness is in them,
O Lord of every house, who risest for them,
O sun of day, the fear of every distant land,
Thou makest [also] their life.
Thou hast set a Nile in heaven,
That it may fall for them,
Making floods upon the mountains, like the great sea,
And watering their fields among their towns.
How excellent are Thy designs, O Lord of eternity!
The Nile in heaven is for the strangers,
And for the cattle of every land that go upon their feet;
But the Nile, it cometh from the nether world for Egypt.
Thus Thy rays nourish every garden;
When Thou risest they live, and grow by Thee.
Thou makest the seasons, in order to create all Thy works;
Winter bringeth them coolness,
And the heat [the summer bringeth].
Thou hast made the distant heaven in order to rise therein,
In order to behold all that Thou didst make,
While Thou wast alone,
Rising in Thy form as Living Aton,
Dawning, shining afar off, and returning.
Thou makest the beauty of form through Thyself alone,
Cities, towns, and settlements,
On highway or on river,
All eyes see Thee before them,
For Thou art Aton of the day over the earth.