Akhenaten and the Religion of Light

by Erik Hornung, David Lorton (Translator)

Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the "religious revolutionary," he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with Egypt's traditional polytheism and focused its worship on a single deity, the sun god Aten. Erik Hornung, one of the world's preeminent Egyptologists, here offers a concise and accessible account of Akhenaten and his religion of light. Hornung begins with a discussion of the nineteenth-century scholars who laid the foundation for our knowledge of Akhenaten's period and extends to the most recent archaeological finds. He emphasizes that Akhenaten's monotheistic theology represented the first attempt in history to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a single principle. "Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point," Hornung writes, "and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept." Hornung also addresses such topics as the origins of the new religion; pro-found changes in beliefs regarding the afterlife; and the new Egyptian capital at Akhetaten which was devoted to the service of Aten, his prophet Akhenaten, and the latter's family.

Genres: History, Egypt, Religion, Nonfiction, Biography, Ancient History, German Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Hornung was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1933 and gained his PH.D. at the University of Tübingen in 1956.
He was Professor of Egyptology at the University of Basel from 1967 to 1998.
His main research field has been funerary literature, the Valley of the Kings in particular.
He published the first edition of the Book of Amduat in three volumes between 1963 and 1967.
J. Gwyn Griffiths described Hornung as the foremost authority in such literature.
His book Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, The One and the Many has become his best-known work, in which he concludes, whilst acknowledging previous work by Henri Frankfort and his "multiplicity of approaches" and John A. Wilson's "complementary" treatment of Egyptian modes of thought, that "Anyone who takes history seriously will not accept a single method as definitive; the same should be true of anyone who takes belief seriously".
Hornung became Vice-President of the Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt in 1988. His books have been published in German, but many have been translated into English.

Reviews

[Dina Sarhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

يعيب على الكتاب المط والتطويل وايضا اسلوب الكتابة الصعب والمعقد فى الفهم والذى لا يفهمه الا المتخصص فى الدراسات الفرعونية
ايضا وجود نصوص الاناشيد الخاصة بالفراعنة سواء للالهة او الموت ارى انه لا داعى لذكرها بالتفصيل والذى كان يصل احيانا الى 4 او 5 صفحات كاملة
ايضا تشتيت الافكار وذكر الكثير من الاسماء والمطظلحات الفرعونية والتى كانت صعبة الفهم بالنسبة لى وانا لست متعمقة ف المجال او الدراسات الفرعونية
لكن به بعض المعلومات الى حد ما جيدة

[Rook Andalus · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For the first time in history, an attempt was made to explain the entire natural and human world on the basis of a SINGLE principle. Like Einstein, Ahkenaten made light the absolute reference point, and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept in the 14th century B.C.E., making him in fact the first MODERN human being." (p. 125)
Akhenaten's revolutionary change from polytheism to monotheistic belief in only one god helped unify Egypt.
The subjective controversy that plagues the history of Akhenaten is an anticipative backlash from exoheretics to the academic practice of historiography. When emotional superfluous definitions to the meaning of heresy are discarded, it becomes obvious (for the right reasons) that Akhenaten was indeed a heretic. As a dissenter from orthodox religious beliefs, he was, by definition, a "heretic king".
Hornung's book delves into Akhenaten's radical dissent from Egypt's traditional polytheism, and his establishment of the world's first instance of monotheism. The belief was in Aten, whom many mistakenly believe was depicted by the solar disk. This book makes it clear that Aten was actually not the sun disk, but rather the LIGHT that is in the sun and which, radiating from it, calls the world to life and keeps it alive. It was no more or less an icon than Judaism's Star of David, or Christianity's Cross of Jesus, or Islam's calligraphic symbol. Early text of a boundary stelae reads, "sculptors do not know him."
The parallels Hornung draws between today's 3 major monotheistic religions and Akhenaten's precedent are many and presented in clear detail. But the author is careful to emphasize that the temporal interval is too great to infer a DIRECT influence from the Amarna Period on the monotheism of the Hebrew Bible over half a millennium later.
Hornung's book is full of interesting details, such as Egypt's use of swine for street-side waste removal, the use of a bread and beer barter system pre-dating coinage, descriptions of Amarna-Period home construction techniques for efficient indoor climate control, the first-time use of the Hyksos-introduced war chariot for peacetime transportation by the Pharoah, the emergence of a new expressionistic art form in place of traditional static deptictions, the rise of new forms of architecture, the increased use of flower offerings in place of animal sacrifices, the meaning and mutation of Akehnaten's name, and much more.
In regard to the new impressionistic art form of the Amarna Period, Hornung points out that Akhenaten's supposed "sickly" depiction in sculpture and painting, with his feminine hips, pot belly, swollen lips and chin, receding forehead, elongated neck and crown can be understood by comp0aring it with schools of modern art that deal freely with the human form. In his sub-chapter on "The Grotesque Pharoah", Hornung eloquently dispels emotional assumptions that the Pharoah had a "sick ugliness and nervous decadence" about him. Akhenaten's supposed "repulsive ugliness" is a result of opinion towards a new impressionistic art form and not a logical analysis of the Pharaoh himself. Hornung explains the motive behind this new art form and the rules that define it.
Hornung concludes his book with an analyses of why monotheism failed to catch on after Akhenaten's death. Among them, the radical departure his new religion had with comfortable traditional beliefs of the afterlife, the fact he left no male heir to the throne, and the iconoclasm which in the mind of Egyptians in particular cases meant their own consignment to oblivion, and other things to name a few. Though Akhenaten's monotheism lingered on into Tutankamun's 3rd regnal year, it was simply too radical a departure from the norm given the period's socioeconomic status. In this sense, it was a religion ahead of its time.
My only point of contention with this book is the brief chapter titled, "Dark Years". It is a chapter that deals with Akhenaten's relationship with the mysterious Kiya, the supposed disappearance of Nefertiti, the Dakhamanzu affair, and Akhenaten's marriage to his older daughters to elevate their status in lieu of no male heir to his throne. Though the author clearly focuses on Akhenaten's religion of light, I would have enjoyed reading more into Akhenaten's personal life in these mysterious later years: in context and without slant as other authors have done. But given the author's expressed intent and the title of the book, the lack of this additional information does not degrade the quality of this book as a positive contribution to Egyptian historiography.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not a good book to introduce you to Akhenaten and the history that surrounds his 18th Dynasty, but a very interesting look at the specifics of the religion he founded. Akhenaten's emphasis on light as the single unifying theory for all existence is pretty astonishing, and this book does a good job of explaining how far-reaching the Pharaoh really went. It's very quick, though, and it feels as if a lot of details were left out.

[DAJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may not be an ideal introduction to the reign of Akhenaten, but I think it's a decent place to look for those who've already encountered him in general books about ancient Egypt. The evidence about Akhenaten is both confusing and riddled with gaps. Too many histories of his reign fill those gaps with questionable assumptions, and a truly rigorous assessment of the evidence would dive so deeply into the details that many readers would be overwhelmed. Hornung finds a middle ground. Although one could question a few of his statements, in most cases he's careful to point out what we do not know. He also avoids another common problem, whereby authors allow their sympathy or antipathy toward Akhenaten to distort how they treat him. Hornung discusses the evidence fairly dispassionately, although his attitude toward it is apparent: he sees a certain elegance in Atenism, but as an expert on the traditional religion of ancient Egypt, he is keenly aware of what Atenism lacked in comparison with it.

Speaking of traditional Egyptian religion, Hornung seems to assume a little more prior knowledge in the reader than I'd like in an introductory book, so some prior grounding in the subject would be helpful to anyone reading it. But the key point you need to know is that in the traditional religion, gods were defined by their relationships with other gods. With that in mind, you can get an inkling of how shocked most Egyptians must have been at the emergence of the exclusivist religion that Hornung describes, in which no deity but the Aten was acknowledged.

Although our knowledge of Akhenaten's reign has improved somewhat since this book was published, there are few areas where it is outdated. At the time of writing, Hornung notes, the old belief that Nefertiti disappeared from the record late in Akhenaten's reign was being questioned; now it's fairly certain that she ruled as a pharaoh for some time after his death. But that seems to be the only widely accepted major development in the scholarship on Akhenaten, and everything else is subject to the usual morass of ambiguous evidence and conflicting interpretations. If you're looking for more detail than Hornung provides, Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism by James K. Hoffmeier discusses Atenism more extensively, while the best guide to the morass is now Akhenaten: A Historian's View by Ronald T. Ridley.

[Ahmed1972 · Rating 5 out of 5]

يمكن تنزيل الكتاب من الرابط
https://www.facebook.com/AhmedMa3touk...
كتاب اخناتون وديانة النور
تأليف: اريك هورنونج
ترجمة و تقديم: دكتور محمود ماهر طه
يحتوي على المحتويات الاتية
عنوان: أخناتون و ديانة النور
فهرس المحتويات
مقدمة المترجم
الفصل الأول: اكتشاف مؤسس الديانة
انطباعات شامبليون
لبسيوس يكتشف المؤسس
ذكريات غامضة في الآثار
الاكتشاف يكتمل
الملك المهرطق كبشير لأفكار حديثة
اكتشافات أثرية جديدة
ظهور ديانة جديدة في النور
السيرة الذاتية الأولى وتأثيرها
تعليقات نقدية لها صدى
لا تحجبه أساطير لاحقة
الفصل الثاني: خلفية الديانةو جذورها
سياسة والده
عيد سد الملكي
البحث عن وسطاء جدد
الفصل الثالث: الخطوات الأولى
الألقاب الملكية كبرنامج للحكم
ألقاب الفرعون
الجذور الأولى لإله
المقاصير في الكرنك
مرة أخرى العيد سد
فرعون غريب الشكل
لا خشية من العاطفة
إله واحد فقط
أخناتون يعيد التشكيل و البناء باستخدام عنصر جديد
الطفل الجميل لآتون الحي
الفصل الرابع: ديانة جديدة
لا وجود لوحي إلهي
إله كفرعون
فرعون كإله
العنصر الأنثوي: نفرتيتي
ناصحون متيسر وجودهم
الفصل الخامس: من أجل مدينة إله
تأسيس أخيتاتون
مقر إقامة فريد
مدينة النور
الفصل السادس: التعاليم المحضة
مقاصير جديدة من أجل آتون
العائلة المقدسة
تغيير الاسم
النشيد العظيم الموجه إلى آتون
المعبود العالمي: الضوء
الفصل السابع: مسألة الوحدانية
اضطهاد المعبودات القديمة
مصر مهد التوحيد
إله الكون في فترة الرعامسة
الصيغة الكونية التوحيدية
الفصل الثامن: الاعتقاد في حياة بعد الموت دون الآخرة
أوزوريس في ظلال الديانة الجديدة
الحياة الأخرى تصبح عالمنا الدنيوي
الأحياء في المعبد
الأشكال الخارجية
رحمة الملك تحتل مكان في محاكمة المتوفى
الفصل التاسع: سنوات مظلمة
كيا..المحبوبة
مسألة داخامنزو
غروب متخم بالغموض
تهكم و سخرية من الملك المهرطق
النهاية الغامضة
الفصل العاشر: الخلفاء
نساء كثيرات لكن لا وريث
توت عنخ آتون يهيء لظهوره
العودة إلى آمون و بتاح
نهاية الأسرة: آي وحورمحب
الفصل الحادي عشر: الخاتمة
أكثر من حدث عرضي
وتبقى الشمس
جذور مذهب العصمة من الخطأ
مراجع الكتاب
المؤلف في سطور
المترجم في سطور

تحميل كتاب أخناتون و ديانة النور

[Erik Rostad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that has startled me most about my reading of Egypt is the relative consistency of belief and art during the 3,000+ years of pharonic history. I saw that very loosely - obviously things changed - but I was amazed at how the rules for art were more or less followed for vast expanses of time. And how people related to the Pharaoh for most of that time.

Throw that all out the window for a period of 17 years during the reign of Akhenaten from 1353 - 1336 BC. The art changed. Beliefs about god, the pharaoh, the afterlife, and the number of deities changed. Architecture changed. The locus of religion changed.

Akhenaten introduced monotheism to a culture steeped in polytheism. His entrance into history was jarring, short, and strange. His successor, Tutankhamen (yes, King Tut), almost immediately reversed all of Akhenaten's reforms. His name started to be wiped from history. But that sudden jolt around 1350 BC was to have lasting changes. Introducing a shift in belief, art, and ideas would play out in myriad ways throughout the rest of ancient Egypt's history and even into today.

Sometimes, the best way to learn about a civilization, culture, or country is to study the antithesis, to study someone like Akhenaten and what he believed and instituted.

[S.M. Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and informative acadamic look at the known aspects of Akhenaten's political and religious changes. Hornung writes to inform and (thankfully) stays away from the vast numbers of conspiracy theories that can often overwhelm anything about the Amarna period. Whilst it is perhaps not the best for an introduction to Akhenaten as pharaoh Hornung's book is certainly a great in depth look at the real information about the worship of Aten during the reign of Egypt's enigmatic ruler.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about a fascinating individual. The information is a little bit out of date (the book was published in 1995) but still provides an excellent overview of Akhenaten, his religious beliefs and the way these beliefs transformed tradition Egyptian religion long after his death. It would be interesting to read an updated version of Hornung's work.

[Muhammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5 KJV

Interesting how old ideas never really die. And that they never were old ideas to begin with, nor are they unique to a specific group or era.

"The fundamentalism rearing its head everywhere today has no future. For Akhenaten has taught us, as has history, which is the most infallible of all oracles, that to be human is to be holistic, and that bigotry leads to nothingness and to ineluctable failure. For fifty-five years, Eranos has represented the concept of unity in human diversity, and it shall continue to do so wherever this unity is recognized and brought to fruition."

[Natbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, well-written and interesting as a beginner’s guide to the Amarna-period.

[Andrew Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great summary of the theology and philosophy of this fascinating period

[Gordon Eldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dieses Werk dient als sehr nützlicher Überblick über die historische Entwicklung und die Grundlehren von Echnatons Lichtreligion. Der Autor listet gewissenhaft die Quellen auf, auf denen seine Aussagen beruhen, was eine nützliche Referenz für den Leser darstellt, der die antiken Quellen selbst überprüfen möchte. Einige dieser Referenzen gehen jedoch davon aus, dass der Leser bereits mit den erzählten Ereignissen vertraut ist, und obwohl dies kein großes Problem darstellt, wünscht sich der Leser mit wenig Wissen über Echnaton manchmal etwas mehr Hintergrundinformationen. Der Hauptgrund, warum ich dem Buch nur 3 Sterne gegeben habe (obwohl sein Informationswert sicherlich mindestens 4 Sterne rechtfertigt), ist, dass Horning bis zur allerletzten Seite peinlichst jegliche Rückschlüsse auf die Gründe für Echnatons abrupten Bruch mit den ägyptischen Traditionen vermeidet das Buch. In gewisser Weise ist diese Vermeidung lobenswert, da Ägyptologen oft aus zu wenig auf zu viel schließen. Andererseits glaube ich, dass dies genau der Punkt ist, an dem die meisten Leser interessiert sind. Problematisch wird die Vermeidung auf der letzten Seite. Hier schlägt Horning plötzlich vor, dass Echnaton vielleicht der erste Fundamentalist der Welt war, der versuchte, die gesamte menschliche Welt auf der Grundlage eines einzigen Prinzips zu erklären. Er behauptet, dass solch eine fundamentalistische Sichtweise immer zum Scheitern verurteilt sei und wir daher viel von Echnatons Beispiel lernen könnten. Ich hätte das Buch viel interessanter und angenehmer gefunden, wenn diese Hypothese von Anfang an eingeführt und dann im Laufe des Buches entwickelt worden wäre. So wie es ist, wird es als eine Art Coda angehängt, und es bleibt dem Leser überlassen, zu entscheiden, un sogar im Nachhinein, ob irgendwelche der im Buch enthaltenen Beweise tatsächlich eine solche Schlussfolgerung stützen oder nicht.

The work serves as a very useful overview of the historical progression and the basic tenets of Akhenaten's religion of light. The author punctiliously lists the sources on which his statements are based, which provides a useful reference for the reader who wants to check the ancient sources for themselves. Some of these references, however, assume that the reader will already have some familiarity with the events being narrated and though this is not a major problem, the reader with little knowledge of Akhenaten is sometimes left wishing for a little more background information. The main reason I have given the book only 3 stars ( though its information value certainly warrants at least 4), is that Horning scrupulously avoids making any kind of inference as to the reasons behind Akhenaten's abrupt break with Egypt's traditions until the very last page of the book. In a way, this avoidance is praiseworthy, since Egyptologists often infer too much from too little. On the other hand, I believe that this is precisely the point that most readers are interested in exploring. The avoidance becomes problematic on the final page. Here, Horning suggests that Akhenaten was perhaps the world's first fundamentalist, trying to explain the entire human world based on a single principle. He claims that such a fundamentalist viewpoint will always be doomed to failure and thus we have much to learn from Akhenaten's example. I would have found the book much more interesting and enjoyable if this hypothesis had been introduced from the start and then developed throughout the book. As it is, it is tacked on as a kind of coda, and the reader is left to decide, in fact in retrospect, whether any of the evidence given in the book actually supports such an inference or not.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Akhenaten's reign is one of the most celebrated and intriguing time periods in Ancient Egyptian history. In Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, Erik Hornung gives a compact, excellent evaluation of the Aten-centric religion that Akhenaten introduced. Hornung's focus is on "what can be known", rather than the mysteries, questions and fringe theories. For those looking to an introduction of Akhenaten and his time, or a more general overview, this approach may be disappointing or frustrating. Personally, I did found the writing style a little hard to get into at first, but the majority was smooth sailing.

[Hend mostafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

** ناشيد اتون **
لك الثناء والتمجيد .. يالهى .. الذى خلقنى
يامن قرر الخير لى
وجاء بى الى الوجود ووهبنى الرزق
يامن رعانى وحمانى يقوية الحيوية
**بردية هاريس **
نواحهم لا ينقذ قلب الانسان من العالم الاخر
اقضى يومك سعيدا ولا تكن قلقا من اجلة
تذكر لا يمكن لاحد ان يأخذ ممتلكاتة معة
وتذكرلايعود اى احد قد مات

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it was professional, academic, and just plain good old German scholarship. On the other hand it was boring and lifeless. Great for a reference book but will not read again

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent evaluation of what can be known and what can be plausably surmised about the religion Akhenaten introduced to the people of Egypt.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank goodness this book was written! Life saver.

[بلال طه · Rating 4 out of 5]

أنا إحترت في أمري أخناتون موحد ولا مش موحد
حتى آتون على حسب ما فهمته أنه مصور كأشعة الشمس
...
اللي واثق منه أنه الديانة أو بالاحرى اللغة فيها نوع من الغموض
بسببه لا نستطيع تفسير أي شئ تفسير معقول

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summary of one of the most interesting topics in Egyptian religion. Not as original as I expected from Hornung.

[Ahmed Refaat]

a very good book

[William Wehling · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book of Amarna and its heretic king