Akhenaten's Hymn to Aten

Akhenaten · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 5 pages

A five-page presentation of the great hymn to the Aton associated with the pharaoh Akhenaten, opened by the formal Egyptian dedication naming Re Har-akhti, the king Nefer-kheperu-Re Wa-en-Re, and the chief wife Nefert-iti, before the hymn itself begins.

The hymn is built on the daily journey of the sun. It opens at dawn — the Aton appearing beautifully on the horizon of heaven, the beginning of life, filling every land with beauty — and then turns to night, when the land lies in darkness in the manner of death, heads wrapped in sleep, no eye seeing another, every lion come forth from his den and all creeping things stinging. Daybreak reverses it: the Two Lands are in festivity, arms raised in praise, ships sailing north and south because every way is open at the sun's appearance, fish darting before its face. The most quoted passage is the one on the giving of life at its smallest scale — the god called creator of seed in women and nurse even in the womb, soothing the newborn with that which stills his weeping, and giving breath to the chick that speaks within the shell so that it can break out and walk upon its legs. The hymn closes on the theme that gives the piece its place in this series: a sole god like whom there is no other, who made the world according to his own desire while he was alone.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.3 MB, 5 pages)