“Great Hymn to the Aten”

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The “Great Hymn” is accompanied by the kneeling figures of Ay and his wife, Tiyi (not to be confused with Akhenaten’s mother), as well as a list of their titles. Among other duties, Ay served as cavalry commander and “God’s Father”—that is, the tutor of princes. Bracketed wording in the document text denotes restored text, while parentheses contain explanatory material.

Introduction and Stanzas 1 and 2

The introduction and first two stanzas of the “Great Hymn” hail the Aten and the royal couple and summarize the god’s role in maintaining the cosmos. Names originally in cartouches (oval rings that denote sovereignty) are rendered here in capital letters.

HOR-ATEN is an abbreviation of the Aten’s early didactic name, “The Living One, Sun (Re), Horus of the Horizon (Harakhty) who Becomes Excited in the Horizon, in His Name which is Light (Shu) that is in the Solar Orb.” Note that the god’s cartouches and titles identify him as the ruler of the world as well as the Lord of Akhet-Aten, the “Horizon of the Solar Orb” (Amarna). Also note that his early didactic name alludes to three other deities—Re, Harakhty, and Shu—and that it specifies light as the proper object of veneration. As such, the usual statement that Akhenaten exclusively worshiped the Aten is not quite correct.

NEFERKHEPRURE-WAENRE, “Perfect are the Forms of the Sun (Re)—The Only One of the Sun (Re),” is Akhenaten’s throne name. Among the king’s epithets, “(he) who lives on Maat” is the most obscure. Maat means at once “truth,” “justice,” and “order.” (Before the persecution, it was embodied in a goddess wearing an ostrich feather in her hair.) The title thus implies that Akhenaten offers his followers a uniquely valid religious system. The “Two Lands” are Upper and Lower Egypt. NEFERNEFRUATEN-NEFERTITI, “Perfect is the Beauty of the Solar Orb—The Beautiful One is Come,” is Nefertiti’s full name.

Stanzas 1 and 2 reveal that the Aten is primarily a life god. When he rises, the world lives; when he sets, darkness, danger, and death prevail. Significantly, stanza 1 echoes the imperialism and universalism of the hymn of Suti and Hor, declaring that the Aten envelops and subdues all lands. It also mentions the god’s far-near paradox. He is distant, but his rays are on earth.

Stanzas 3 and 4

This section of the “Great Hymn” describes a typical day in the Aten’s cosmos. The god’s rising signals a festival of light. Humanity goes to work, flocks set off to pasture, grasses sway in the breeze, birds soar from their nests, and fish leap about in the Nile. The Aten’s rays even penetrate the depths of the “Great Green” (the Mediterranean and Red seas). Every morning thus sees a dance of gratitude, the wings of birds adoring the divine ka, or “essence.”

The Aten does not merely invigorate the world, however; he also creates it. The god forms fetuses in women, causes blood to flow, and provides the breath of life. (The expression “descends from the womb” refers to the Egyptian custom of giving birth while squatting or seated on a stool.) Acting as a time god, the Aten fixes the very day on which the chick emerges from the egg.

Stanzas 5 and 6

Next, the “Great Hymn” celebrates the diversity of the Aten’s creation. Alone, the mysterious god separates Egypt from Kharu (Syria) and Kush (Upper Nubia) and distinguishes every human from his fellow. He sets life spans and differentiates nations. While the Aten provides Egypt with a river that springs from the underworld, he gives foreign lands “an inundation in heaven”—rainfall.

The preceding reference to the underworld betrays Akhenaten’s contempt for traditional funerary religion. Where others imagined the abode of Osiris, the god of the underworld, and of the blessed dead, the king saw only the source of the Nile. Such naturalistic thinking probably influenced Akhenaten’s decision to cut tombs in the eastern cliffs and bluffs at Amarna, over which the sun rises, rather than in the west, the old gateway to the Osiran realm.

Stanza 6 describes the Aten’s plans as effective and calls him the “lord of continuity (heh).” The word heh denotes an endless cycle of events, so the mention of recurring natural phenomena—floods, sunrises, and seasons—is logical.

Stanza 7

Stanza 7 is arguably the most important part of the “Great Hymn.” After reiterating the Aten’s far-near paradox, it proclaims, “You make millions of developments (kheperu) from yourself, (you who are) a oneness: cities, towns, fields, the path of the river.” Interestingly, the word kheperu, here written with the upright mummy sign, also designates cult statues. The verse’s implication seems to be that the Aten fashions the world from himself and that his creatures replace the traditional images in temples. The “Great Hymn” thus diverges from the typically monotheistic idea—present in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—that God created the world out of nothing, and stood apart from it. Indeed, the text seems more representative of pantheism (literally, “all-god-ism”), the belief that a divine principle—in this case, sunlight—permeates nature.

Stanza 8

The “Great Hymn” concludes with a declaration that the Aten abides in the hymnist’s heart and that his only son and prophet is Akhenaten. Until this point, the god has seemed impersonal and mute, but now he explicitly consoles the believer and communicates with an earthly representative. Finally, the “Great Hymn” reemphasizes the Aten’s role as a life and time god, and says that he acts for the sake of the king and queen.