111: Aten the Royal God

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2019

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Akhenaten (Part 4). In 1360 BCE, regnal year 3, King Nefer-kheperu-Re Amunhotep IV made some of his most startling decisions yet. Promoting the sun disc, Aten, even further, Amunhotep began to give the god royal accessories (cartouches, uraei etc) and present it as a being tied intimately with the pharaoh. This culminated in an unprecedented event: a Sed-Festival, celebrated at Karnak, and shared by the King and God together... Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net. Select Bibliography: Smith and Redford, Akhenaten Temple Project, 1976. Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise, 2014. Jocelyn Gohary, Akhenaten’s Sed-Festival at Karnak, 1992. James K. Hoffmeier, Akhenaten & the Origins of Monotheism, 2015. Donald B. Redford, Akhenaten: The Heretic King, 1987. Donald B. Redford, The Akhenaten Temple Project vol. II: Rwd-Mnw and Inscriptions, 1988. Donald B. Redford, “Akhenaten: New Theories, Old Facts,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (2013): 9-34. JSTOR. Dominic Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt, 2005. William J. Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt, 1995. William J. Murnane, “Observations on Pre-Amarna Theology During the Earliest Reign of Amenhotep IV,” Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente (1999): 303-317. Nicholas Reeves, Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet, 2005. Ray Winfield Smith and Donald B. Redford, The Akhenaten Temple Project vol. I: Initial Discoveries, 1976. Eric Uphill, “The Sed-Festivals of Akhenaton,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1963): 123-127. JSTOR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History of Egypt podcast.
0:14.1	Episode 111, The Royal Gods.
0:17.7	This is part four in the life and times of Amunhotep 4th, King of Egypt, commonly known
0:23.6	as Akanatin.
0:25.6	Today, we explore the culmination of Amunhotep's early policies in Thebes.
0:31.3	Big events were underway, including the celebration of a said festival for the king and the god, which helped to reshape the position
0:39.4	of Aten within the cosmos. This was an unusual process, unprecedented in the annals of royal
0:46.2	history. Today's story is brought you by Christopher Brosh and Rob Wetherspoon, who kindly
0:52.5	donated to the podcast. Also, thank you to Nancy
0:55.8	Basteck and Michael Noona, who became patrons. Folks, your generosity is greatly appreciated.
1:02.7	With your help, offerings flow to the temples of Aten and the SED Festival is celebrated with
1:08.5	unprecedented abundance. To everyone listening, thank you for joining me.
1:13.8	May the rays of Artene warm your face and his hand bring life to you and your family.
1:19.4	Now then, on with the story. The year was 1360 BCE, Regnal Year 3, Under the Majesty of Amunhotep 4th, Nefer Keparoure,
1:42.9	Wah N-Re. The king of Upper and Lower Egypt was well established
1:47.4	in power and had begun to reveal some of his unique ideas about the gods, specifically the
1:53.3	prominence and awe of his favourite deity, Aten the Sundisk. Previously, Amun Hotep had expressed
2:00.6	his ideas modestly, but with increasing
2:03.6	confidence as he and his authority grew. In year two, he had declared his love for the God,
2:10.6	one beside whom there was no equal, and he had commissioned temples to Aten in the sacred
2:16.9	precinct of Karnak.
2:18.2	In the Gemet-Pah-Arten and the Hout-Bemben, Pharaoh glorified the sun-disk in sculpture and two-dimensional
	...

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