Great Works Of Literature

Great Hymn to the Aten was inscribed on the entrance to the tomb of an important official, the Vizier, in the capital city of el-Amarna in ancient Egypt. Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that holds the remains of the capital city newly established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353 BCE), and abandoned shortly afterwards. The name for the city used by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten (or Akhetaton—transliterations vary) in English transliteration. Akhetaten means “Horizon of the Aten (or Sun).”

The hymn, spoken by the Vizier, reveals that the king is the only one who knows Aten. The Egyptian king, Amenhotep IV, intitiated a religious and political revolution when he promoted Aten exclusively. Some critics see it as an early type of monotheism. For a decade, while that king ruled, the old pantheon of gods was neglected in favor of a singular creator. Shortly after his death, the Egyptians returned to worshipping their pantheon.