There is no other that knoweth Thee,
Save Thy son Akhnaton.
Thou hast made him wise in Thy designs
And in Thy might.
The world is in Thy hand,
Even as Thou hast made them.
When Thou hast risen they live;
When Thou settest they die.
For Thou art duration, beyond mere limbs;
By Thee man liveth,
And their eyes look upon Thy beauty
Until Thou settest.
All labour is laid aside
When Thou settest in the west.
When Thou risest they are made to grow....
Since Thou didst establish the earth,
Thou hast raised them up for Thy son,
Who came forth from Thy limbs,
The King, living in truth, ...
Akhnaton, whose life is long;
[And for] the great royal wife, his beloved,
Mistress of the Two Lands, ... Nefertiti,
Living and flourishing for ever and ever.”
2. THE SIMILARITY OF AKHNATON’S HYMN TO PSALM CIV.
In reading this truly beautiful hymn one cannot fail to be struck
by its similarity to Psalm civ. A parallel will show this most
clearly:--
AKHNATON’S HYMN.
The world is in darkness
like the dead. Every lion
cometh forth from his den;
all serpents sting. Darkness
reigns.
When Thou risest in the
horizon ... the darkness is
banished.... Then in all
the world they do their work.
All trees and plants flourish,
... the birds flutter in their
marshes.... All sheep dance
upon their feet.
The ships sail up-stream and
down-stream alike.... The
fish in the river leap up before
Thee; and Thy rays are in the
midst of the great sea.
How manifold are all Thy
works!... Thou didst create
the earth according to Thy desire,--men,
all cattle, ... all
that are upon the earth....
Thou hast set a Nile in
heaven that it may fall for
them, making floods upon the
mountains ... and watering
their fields. The Nile in
heaven is for the service of
the strangers, and for the
cattle of every land.
Thou makest the seasons....
Thou hast made the
distant heaven in order to
rise therein, ... dawning,
shining afar off, and returning.
The world is in Thy hand,
even as Thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live;
when Thou settest they die....
By Thee man liveth.
PSALM CIV.
Thou makest the darkness
and it is night, wherein all
the beasts of the forest do
creep forth. The young lions
roar after their prey; they seek
their meat from God.
The sun riseth, they get them
away, and lay them down in
their dens. Man goeth forth
unto his work, and to his
labour until the evening.
The trees of the Lord are
full of sap, ... wherein the
birds make their nests....
The high hills are a refuge for
the wild goats.
Yonder is the sea, great and
wide, wherein are ... both
small and great beasts. There
go the ships....
O Lord, how manifold are
Thy works! In wisdom hast
Thou made them all. The
earth is full of Thy creatures.
He watereth the hills from
above: the earth is filled with
the fruit of Thy works. He
bringeth forth grass for the
cattle, and green herb for the
service of men.
He appointed the moon for
certain seasons, and the sun
knoweth his going down.
These wait all upon Thee....
When Thou givest them [food]
they gather it; and when Thou
openest Thy hand they are filled
with good. When Thou hidest
Thy face they are troubled:
when Thou takest away their
breath they die.
In face of this remarkable similarity one can hardly doubt that
there is a direct connection between the two compositions; and it
becomes necessary to ask whether both Akhnaton’s hymn and this
Hebrew psalm were derived from a common Syrian source, or whether
Psalm civ. is derived from this Pharaoh’s original poem. Both
views are admissible; but in consideration of Akhnaton’s peculiar
ability and originality there seems considerable likelihood that he
is the author in the first instance of this gem of the Psalter.
When the young Pharaoh composed this hymn he was probably neither
much more nor less than twenty or twenty-one years of age,--a
period of life at which many of the world’s greatest poets have
written some of their fairest poems. One sees that he believed
himself to be the only man to whom God had revealed Himself; and
the fact that he never admits that he was in any way taught to
regard God as he did, but always speaks of himself, and is spoken
of, as the originator and teacher of the faith, indicates that the
ideas expressed in the hymn were entirely his own.
3. MERYRA IS MADE HIGH PRIEST OF ATON.
The religion of the Aton had now assumed shape and symmetry, and
had been firmly established in the new capital as the creed of the
court. Akhnaton was thus able to intrust its administration and
organisation there to one of his nobles who had hearkened to his
teaching, and to turn his attention to other affairs, and more
especially to the conversion of the rest of Egypt. As head of the
state a thousand matters daily claimed his consideration, and his
high principles led him to stray further along the by-paths of
administration than had been the wont of the Pharaohs before him.
His ill-health did not permit him to tax his brain with impunity,
and yet there was never a king of Egypt before or after him whose
mind was so fruitful of thoughts and of schemes. The young king
himself expounded to his followers the doctrines which he wished
them to embrace, and one may suppose that he sat for many an hour
in the halls of his palace, or under the trees in the gardens
beside the Nile, earnestly telling of the beauties of the Aton to
officials and nobles.
No one had accepted the king’s teaching with greater readiness
than a certain Meryra, who seems to have early associated himself
with the movement; and it was to him that Akhnaton now handed
over the office of “High Priest of the Aton in the City of the
Horizon of Aton,” in order to free himself for the great task of
administering his kingdom and converting it to his way of thinking.
Unfortunately we know very little of the career of Meryra, but on
the walls of his tomb in the hills behind the capital there are a
few reliefs which may here be described as illustrating events in
his life and in the life of Akhnaton.
One of these scenes shows us the investiture of Meryra as High
Priest. The king is seen with his wife and one of his daughters
standing at a window of the gaily decorated _loggia_ of the palace.
The sill of the window is massed with bright-coloured cushions,
and over these the royal personages lean forward to address
Meryra and the company assembled in the pillared gallery outside.
The outer surface of the _loggia_ wall is brightly ornamented
either with real or painted garlands of lotus-flowers, and with
the many-coloured patterns usual upon such buildings in ancient
Egypt. Ribbons, fluttering in the breeze, hang from the delicate
lotus-pillars which support the roof, and vie in brilliancy with
the red and blue ostrich-plume fans and standards carried by the
officials.
Leaning from the window, with arm outstretched, Akhnaton bids
Meryra rise from his knees, on to which he had cast himself on
reaching the royal presence. Then solemnly the king addresses his
favoured disciple in the following words:--“Behold, I make thee
High Priest of the Aton for me in the Temple of the Aton in the
City of the Horizon of Aton. I do this for love of thee, and I say
unto thee: O my servant who hearkenest to the teaching, my heart is
satisfied with everything which thou hast done. I give thee this
office, and I say unto thee: thou shalt eat the food of Pharaoh,
thy lord, in the Temple of Aton.”
Immediately the assembled company crowd round Meryra and lift him
shoulder-high, while the new High Priest cries, “Abundant are the
rewards which the Aton knows to give when his heart is pleased.”
The king then presents Meryra with the insignia of his office,
and with various costly gifts, which are taken charge of by the
servants and attendants who stand outside the gallery. Behind these
attendants, at the outskirts of the scene, one observes the chariot
which is to convey the High Priest back to his villa; fan-bearers
who shall run before and behind him; women of the household who
shall beat upon tambourines at the head of the procession, and who
already dance with excitement as they see Meryra hoisted on to his
friend’s shoulder; and still other women who shall make the roadway
rich with flowers.
This is no solemn and occult initiation of an ascetic into the
mystery of the new religion, but rather the elevation of a good
fellow to a popular post of honour. There was no mystery in the
faith of the Aton. Frankness, openness, and sincerity were the
dominant themes of Akhnaton’s teaching,--a worship of God in the
blessed light of the day, the singing of merry psalms in the
open courts of the temple; and the chosen High Priest was more
likely to have been a deep-thinking, clean-lived, honest-hearted,
God-fearing, family man, than an ascetic who had abandoned the
pomps and the vanities of this world. The point at which Akhnaton’s
religion differs most widely from Christianity is here to be
observed: the Pharaoh, while encouraging the Simple Life, did
not preach the mortification of the flesh, but only the control
of the body. The comforts of life, the brilliancy of decoration,
the charms of music, the beauties of painting and sculpture,
the pleasure of good company, the tonic of a bowl of wine, were
all as acceptable to him, in moderation, as to the Preacher in
Ecclesiastes.
4. THE ROYAL FAMILY VISIT THE TEMPLE.
When Meryra had been installed, the king and royal family made
a formal visit to the temple at the time of sunset, and this is
likewise represented in the High Priest’s tomb. For the first time
in the history of Egypt one is permitted to see the Pharaoh as he
drove through the streets of the capital in his chariot. No king
before Akhnaton had allowed an artist to represent him in aught but
celestial poses; but out of his love for truth and reality Akhnaton
had dispensed with this convention, and encouraged the regarding of
himself as a mortal man. On this occasion we see him standing in
his gorgeously decorated chariot, reins and whip in hand, himself
driving the two spirited horses, the coloured ostrich plumes on
whose heads nod and toss as the superb animals prance along. The
queen, also driving her own chariot, follows close behind; and
after her again come the princesses, heading a noble group of
chariots belonging to the court officials and ladies-in-waiting,
these being driven by charioteers. The shining harness, the dancing
red and blue plumes of the horses, the many-coloured robes, the
feathered standards of the nobles, the fluttering ribbons, all go
to make the cavalcade a sight to bring the townspeople running from
their houses. A guard of soldiers, armed with spears, shields,
battle-axes, bows, and clubs, races along on foot in front of the
royal party to clear the road. Here, besides Egyptians, are bearded
Asiatics from the king’s Syrian dominions, befeathered negroes from
the Mazoi tribes of Nubia, and Libyans from the west, wearing the
plaited side-lock of hair hanging from their heads.
The party is seen to be nearing the temple, and Meryra stands
before the gateway ready to greet his lord. Four men kneel near
him holding aloft the coloured ostrich-plume fans, which will be
wafted to and fro above the king’s head when he has alighted from
his chariot; and others kneel, lifting their hands in reverent
salutation. Great bulls, fattened like the prize cattle of modern
times, are led forth, garlands of flowers thrown around their huge
necks, and bouquets of flowers fastened between their horns. These
are attended by grooms, also bearing bunches of flowers. Two groups
of female musicians, clad in flowing robes, wave their arms and
beat upon tambourines.
The temple, which will be described later, is this day garlanded
with flowers, and every altar is heaped high with offerings. Now
the king has entered the building, and a further scene shows the
royal family worshipping at the high altar, which is piled up with
offerings of joints of meat, geese, vegetables, fruit, and flowers,
surmounted by bronze bowls filled with burning oil. Akhnaton and
Nefertiti stand before the altar, each with the right arm raised in
the act of sprinkling the fragrant gums of Araby upon the flames.
The upper part of the king’s body is bare, but from his waist
depends a graceful skirt of fine linen, ornamented with sash-like
ribbons of a red material, which flutter about his bare legs. The
queen’s robe covers the whole of her body, but is so transparent
that one can see her fair form with almost the distinctness of
nudity. A red sash is bound round her waist, and the two ends fall
almost to the ground. Neither of the two wears any jewels; and
the simplicity of the soft, flowing robes, with their bright-red
sashes, is extremely marked. Two little princesses stand behind the
king and queen, each shaking from a systrum a note of praise to
God. Meryra, accompanied by an assistant, stands bowing before the
king, and near by another priest burns some sweet-smelling incense.
Not far away there sits a group of eight blind musicians,--fat
elderly men, who clap their hands and sing to the accompaniment
of a seven-stringed harp, giving praise to the sunlight which
they cannot see, but yet can feel as “the heat which is in Aton”
penetrates into their bones.
In still another series of reliefs we are shown a scene
representing the reward of Meryra by Akhnaton on some occasion
when he had been particularly successful in collecting the yearly
dues of the temple from the estates on the opposite bank of the
river. The ceremony took place in the granary buildings at the edge
of the water. One sees a group of boats moored at the quay, and on
the shore are several cattle-pens filled with lowing cattle. The
granaries are stored with all manner of good things, and Meryra
stands triumphant in front of them as the king addresses him.
“Let the Superintendent of the Treasury of the Jewels take Meryra,”
says Akhnaton, “and hang gold on his neck at the front, and gold
on his feet, because of his obedience to the teaching of Pharaoh;”
and immediately the attendants literally heap the gold collars and
necklaces one above the other upon the High Priest’s neck. Scribes
write down a rapid summary of the events; the attendants and
fan-bearers bow low; and Meryra is conducted back to his village
with music and with dancing, while Akhnaton returns to his palace,
and, no doubt, sinks exhausted on to his cushions.
5. AKHNATON IN HIS PALACE.
The reliefs and paintings upon the tombs often show the Pharaoh
reclining thus, in a languid manner, as though the duties of his
high calling had sapped all the strength from him. Never before had
a Pharaoh been represented to his subjects in such human attitudes.
The privacy of the palace is penetrated in these scenes, and we
see the king, who loved to teach his followers the beauty of
family life, in the midst of his own family. One or two of these
representations must here be described. In one instance the royal
family is shown inside a beautiful pavilion, the roof of which is
supported by wooden pillars painted with many colours and having
capitals carved in high relief to represent wild geese suspended by
their legs, and above them bunches of flowers: just such a grouping
as one might see in some sporting house of the present day. The
pillars are hung with garlands of flowers, and from the ceiling
there droop festoons of flowers and trailing branches of vines. The
roof of the pavilion on the outside is edged by an endless line of
gleaming cobras, probably wrought in bronze.
Inside this fair arbor stand a group of naked girls playing upon
the harp, the lute, and the lyre, and, no doubt, singing to that
accompaniment the artless love-songs of the period. Servants are
shown attending to the jars of wine which stand at the side of the
enclosure. The king is seen leaning back upon the cushions of an
arm-chair, as though tired out and sick at heart. In the fingers
of his left hand he idly dandles a few flowers, while with his
right hand he languidly holds out a delicate bowl in order that the
wine in it may be replenished. This is done by the queen, who is
standing before him, all solicitous for his comfort. She pours the
wine from a vessel, causing it to pass through a strainer before
flowing into the bowl. Three little princesses stand near by: one
of them laden with bouquets of flowers, another holding out some
sweetmeat upon a dish, and a third talking to her father.
In another scene the king and queen are both shown seated upon
comfortable chairs, while a servant waits upon them. The king is
eating a roasted pigeon, holding it in his fingers; and Nefertiti
is represented drinking from a prettily shaped cup. The light,
transparent robes which they wear indicate that this is the midday
meal; but unfortunately the painting is so much damaged that
nothing but the royal figures remains.
6. HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THIS PERIOD OF AKHNATON’S REIGN.
There is very little historical information to be procured for
these years of the king’s reign. When he had been about ten or
eleven years upon the throne, and was some twenty-one years of
age, his fourth daughter, Nefernefernaton, was born. The queen had
presented no son to Akhnaton to succeed him, but he does not seem
in this emergency to have cared to turn to any secondary wives;
and, as far as we can tell, he remained all his life a monogamist,
although this was in direct opposition to all traditional custom.
Steadily during these years the king’s health seems to have grown
more precarious, for almost daily he must have overtaxed his
strength. His brain was so active that he could not submit to be
idle; and even when he reclined amidst the flowers in his garden,
his whole soul was straining upwards in the attempt to pierce the
barrier which lay between him and the God who had caused those
flowers to bloom. The maturity of his creed at this period leads
one to suppose that he had given to it his very life’s force; and
when it is remembered that at the same time his attention was
occupied by the administration of a kingdom which he had twisted
out of all semblance to its former shape, the wonder is that his
brain was at all able to stand the incessant strain. Rare indeed
must have been those idle moments which the artists of the City of
the Horizon attempted to represent.
In the twelfth year of his reign, the tribute of the vassal
kingdoms reached such a high value that a particular record was
made of it, and scenes showing its reception were sculptured in the
tombs of Huya and Meryra II.[53] An inscription beside the scene
in the tomb of Huya reads thus:--
Year twelve, the second month of winter, the eighth day.... The
King ... and the Queen ... living for ever and ever, made a
public appearance on the great palanquin of gold, to receive the
tribute of Syria and Ethiopia, and of the west and the east. All
the countries were collected at one time, and also the islands
in the midst of the sea; bringing offerings to the King when he
was on the great throne of the City of the Horizon of Aton, in
order to receive the imposts of every land and granting them [in
return] the breath of life.
The king and queen are shown seated in the state palanquin side
by side; and although Akhnaton holds the insignia of royalty,
and is evidently very much upon his dignity, the queen’s arm has
found its way around his waist, and there lovingly rests for all
the world to see. The palanquin, probably made of wood entirely
covered with gold foil, is a very imposing structure: a large
double throne, borne aloft by stout poles upon the shoulders of the
court officials. The arm-rests are carved in the form of sphinxes,
which rise above a glistening hedge of cobras, and the throne is
flanked on either side by the figure of a lion carved in the round.
A priest walks in front of the palanquin sending up a cloud of
incense from a censer, and professional mummers dance and skip in
the roadway in advance of the procession. Behind the royal couple
walk the princesses, attended by their nurses and ladies; and on
all sides are arrayed courtiers, officers, soldiers, and servants.
Soon the ground marked out for the ceremony is reached, and the
king and queen betake themselves to a gorgeous little pavilion
which has been erected for them, and here they sit together upon a
double throne, their feet supported upon hassocks. The queen sits
upon Akhnaton’s left, and in the picture her figure is hidden by
that of her husband; but as her right arm is seen to encircle his
waist, and her left hand to hold his left hand, one may suppose
that she is reclining against him, with her royal head upon his
shoulder. Nefertiti was the mother of a family of children, but was
not more than about twenty[54] years of age; and as she is said to
have been extremely beautiful, one may presume that this scene of
conjugal affection was not without its charm. The little princesses
cluster round the throne, one of them holding a young gazelle in
her arms, while another strokes its head.
In front of this pavilion the deputations from the vassal kingdoms
pass by; and in order that the king may not be wearied by their
ceremonious homage, a group of professional wrestlers, boxers,
and fencers is provided for his diversion; while near them some
buffoons and mummers dance and tumble to the accompaniment of
castanets and hand-clapping. The tribute of Syria is brought
by long-robed Asiatics, who cast themselves upon their knees
before the throne with hands uplifted in salutation. Splendid
Syrian horses are led past, and behind them chariots are wheeled
or carried along. Then come groups of slaves, handcuffed, but
not cruelly bound nor maltreated, as was the custom under other
Pharaohs. Bows, spears, shields, daggers, elephant-tusks, and other
objects, are carried past and deposited upon the ground near the
pavilion; while beautiful vases of precious metal or costly stone
are held aloft for the king to admire. Wild animals are led across
the ground by their keepers, and amongst these a tame mountain lion
must have caused something of a sensation. Several nude girls,
selected probably for their beauty, walk past; and one may suppose
that they will find subsequent employment amongst the handmaidens
in the palace.
From the “islands in the midst of the sea” come beautiful vases,
some ornamented with figures in the round. From Libya ostrich
eggs and ostrich feathers are brought. The tribute of Nubia and
the Sudan is carried past by befeathered negroes, and consists
mainly of bars and rings of gold and bags of gold-dust, procured
from the mines in the Eastern Desert. Shields, weapons, tusks, and
skins are also to be seen, and cattle and antelopes are led before
the throne. As the Asiatics had startled the assembly by bringing
with them a lion, so the negroes cause a stir by leading forward a
panther of large size. Finally, male and female slaves, the latter
carrying their babies in baskets upon their backs, are marched past
the pavilion; but here again these slaves are not maltreated. It is
particularly noticeable that the groups of miserable captives which
one sees in all such scenes of other periods, with their arms bound
in agonising positions and their knees giving way under them, are
entirely absent from the representations of Akhnaton’s ceremonies.
Human suffering was a thing hateful to the young Pharaoh who knew
so well the meaning of physical distress; and the tortures of the
prisoners, or the beheading of some rebel, such as would have been
a feature of an occasion of this kind under Amonhotep II., or even,
perhaps, under Amonhotep III., would have been as revolting to
Akhnaton as it would be to us.
7. QUEEN TIY VISITS THE CITY OF THE HORIZON.