When Amenhotep III died he was succeeded by his eleven year old son
Amenhotep IV (1370-1353 B.C.), and the queen mother Tiy continued to act
as regent. In addition to the influence of his mother, young Amenhotep
IV was educated by the priest, Eye, who was the husband of his childhood
nurse. No doubt Amenhotep was early married to the fair Nofretete who
may have been his sister. Brother-sister marriages were common in
ancient Egypt, but we cannot be certain concerning the parentage of
Nofretete. Under the tutelage of his mother, his wife, and a favored
priest, young Amenhotep could hardly be expected to have developed an
interest in military affairs. His interest turned toward religion and,
in the words of Breasted, "the philosophizing theology of the priests
was of more importance to him than all the provinces of Asia."[2]
Amenhotep IV is depicted as having a thin face, narrow sloping
shoulders, and unusually large hips and abdomen. His skull seems to have
been deformed, and he may have been an epileptic. These handicaps did
not affect his mind, however, for he was one of history's creative
thinkers. Breasted (with considerable hyperbole, to be sure), calls him
"the first individual in human history."[3] Unfortunately the
international tensions of the day were such that Egypt needed a warrior
rather than a philosopher king. The idealism of Amenhotep IV was largely
lost on his own generation, and entirely lost on the generation that
followed him.
Nofretete was devoted both to her husband and to the religious reforms
to which he dedicated his life. She bore him six daughters and appears
to have been her husband's constant companion and confidant. Nofretete
was, understandably, a favored subject in Amarna art. Reliefs depict her
playing with her daughters, and one shows her seated on her husband's
knee, blowing him a kiss at a chariot procession.
During the early years of his reign, Amenhotep IV clearly favored the
god Aton, but he was tolerant of the various deities worshiped in Egypt.
In this he continued the policy of his father, Amenhotep III, and his
mother, Queen Tiy. The preference for the god Aton is evident in the
name of the first child of Amenhotep IV, Merit-aton ("Beloved of Aton").
The priests of Amon in Thebes must have looked with apprehension upon
the youthful Pharaoh whose devotion to the chief god of Egypt seemed to
be compromised by religious innovation. We can only guess their reaction
when Amenhotep IV decided to build a temple to Aton within the sacred
precincts of the city of Amon. Orders were given to quarry sandstone at
the Silsila quarries, forty miles north of Aswan. Here a monument was
erected to mark the beginning of the quarrying operation:
First occurrence of His Majesty's giving command to muster all the
workmen from Elephantine to Samhudet, and the leaders of the army, in
order to make a great breach for cutting out sandstone, in order to
make the sanctuary of Harakhti in his name, "Heat which is in Aton,"
in Karnak. Behold the officials, the companions, and the chiefs of the
fan bearers were the chiefs of the quarry service for the
transportation of stone.[4]
Amenhotep IV was twenty-one when he created the Aton temple at Thebes.
He was still attempting to form a synthesis of old and new elements in
his religious faith, for the old god Re-Harakhti of Heliopolis is
identified with Aton. The Silsila stele depicts Amenhotep IV worshiping
Amon, yet it also shows Aton (the sun) with rays of light which hold the
Egyptian sign of life (_ankh_). Amon, Re-Harakhti, and Aton all figure
in the Silsila stele.
[Illustration: Akhenaton and Nofretete. A limestone plaque from
Akhetaton depicts the Pharaoh and his beautiful wife.]