“Great Hymn to the Aten”

The “Great Hymn to the Aten” is one of the most important texts from the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1550–1295 BCE). It offers insight into the revolution of the “heretic pharaoh” Akhenaten (ca. 1352–1336 BCE). Based in part on the “Great Hymn,” many scholars have argued that the king’s faith was a form of monotheism, or belief in only one god. Although this characterization may be too simplistic, the text does focus on a single deity, the Aten or “Solar Orb.” The “Great Hymn” consists of thirteen columns of damaged hieroglyphic text in the entrance of the tomb of Ay (the penultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty) at Amarna, in middle Upper Egypt. The document certainly predates Akhenaten’s tumultuous ninth regnal year, when he orchestrated large-scale revisions to remove written references to certain gods, for it uses the early didactic form of the Aten’s name.