How Did Egypt Change

Sarah Barnard
HIST1108
Professor Murphy
October 2014 CREATIVE TITLE

Life was going decently well in Egypt under the rule of Amenhotep III, however not all good things last forever, and when he passed away, his oldest living son, Amenhotep IV, took the throne. His subjects were not prepared for what was to occur in the coming years under the new ruler. The beginning of Amenhotep IV’s reign didn’t hold too many changes but as the years progressed, one by one, transformations to the Egyptian way of life (religion especially) began to take place. These changes that were initiated were not only in religion, but in art, writing, politics, architecture, and all were based on his new philosophy.
Egypt had always been known for worshipping many deities, and not just
human gods, but animal gods and creature-like gods as well. Amun, who was the local deity of the ancient city of Thebes, was frowned upon by the new pharaoh, as well as all the other gods and goddesses who were worshipped by his people. However, Amenhotep IV did feel a strong connection towards one god in particular. This was Aten, the God of the Sun. Aten seemed to take over his life, to the point where he felt the need to change his name. Sometime around his fifth year of being in power, he decided to scrap his birth name, which connected him to his family’s dynasty, and went with a whole new name of Akhenaten. He wanted to separate himself and his name from his past, because of what he was about to do. He had major plans for drastic changes around Egypt, and he wanted to make a name for himself. This new name was a much better representation for what he stood for, and it held the name of the one true god inside of it.
The biggest change of all was not that he wanted to change his name, but rather that he basically wanted to make Egypt his, and he would do this by abolishing all of the other deities besides Aten.
Akhenaten was to transform Egypt from being a polytheistic society, to a monotheistic society in a few short years. Everyone was to worship his god, and anybody who said or thought otherwise would not be tolerated by the new ruling system. As much as people seemed to dislike their leader, what he did actually makes sense for what he was trying to accomplish, however, the way he went about it wasn’t the best. Polytheism doesn’t have a focus on one particular god or religion, and each has its own followers. The monotheistic concept meant that everyone would be worshipping the same deity, which would allow for unification of the citizens, and for the power to no longer be separated. Akhenaten wanted to choose the god that everyone worshipped because he wanted to have that kind of power. He wanted to show that he had the authority to bring Egypt together under one god and one god only, and have everyone give all their effort, money and time towards the god that he believed in and was passionate
towards.
Akhenaten was far from intimidating, with his short stature and feminine appearance, and these reasons are possibly contributing factors to why he may have felt inadequate as a ruler. To compensate for his physical attributes, he felt the need for power and to show the people that he was boss. He had ultimate authority over the citizens politically, as well as spiritually. Since his goal was to eliminate all connections to other gods and religions, Akhenaten did not want to rule in the same capital city as his ancestors. To build a brand new city that was uncontaminated and free from the Egyptian past, was what he was after. He worked on abolishing temples of other gods and erasing names from monuments and memorials, but he wanted to do more than that. He wanted to honor Aten and so, Akhenaten started a whole new city devoted to him, and he and his family moved there.
Not saying that what Akhenaten did was all that great, and clearly there were many people who opposed his ideas, but for what he wanted to do, it makes sense that he did what he did. He wanted to revamp this area to become a place where everyone worshipped Aten and no one else, and to do that, he felt he needed to put an end to all ties to other religions and gods. One way to do this, is to destroy all connections in order for his people to be fully committed to the new religion of Atenism. According to Akhenaten, Aten should be glorified everywhere and by everyone because He is the god of the sun, and the sun shines everywhere. His sign is a sun disc, which touches upon each and every person with its rays.
Although we do not know what Akhenaten was thinking, what his exact reasons for this major religious change were, and why it was enforced so intensely, but one possibility is because he might have been divinely inspired. There was discussion of his relationship with Aten and how he was closer to Him than anyone else was. Perhaps he had been spoken to by Aten and who knows what He may have said, but the length that Akhenaten went to was an extreme, something that Egypt was unfamiliar with.