The Aten sometimes wore, even as the sun
globe, the royal uaeus, which was the sacred asp
that was worn on the headdress of divinities and
royal personages of ancient Egypt. This was the
only manner in which the Aten was allowed to be
depicted during the reign of Akhenaten. Because
the Aten represented the sun shining at its bright-
est, no idols were fashioned in the image of the
Aten. Akhenaten declared that the Aten’s form
could not be captured because he was the essence
of the sun’s creative power and, therefore, his
form could not be imagined.
Akhenaten also built a new capital city, named
Akhetaton, which means “Horizon of Aten,” for
the worship of the god Aten. The former capital
city, Waset, had been the residence of the previous
god, Amon-Ra. The King did not want to initiate
the worship of Aten in a city where other gods had
been worshipped; therefore, he moved his capital to
a location midway between the cities of Waset and
Memphis, where Aten could be worshipped on
virgin soil. Today this capital city is known as Tell
el-Amarna. The termAmarnais used to describe
Akhenaten’s extreme ideas in religion and art.
The worship of the Aten was carried out in the
city of Akhetaten, where the Pharaoh had two
temples built in honor of the god. Aten was wor-
shipped as the creative energy of all life. Worship
consisted of offerings of cakes, fruits, flowers, and
the reciting of hymns in honor of the Aten.
However, respect for Akhenaten’s god seemed to
have been only among the ruling elite. There is no
archeological evidence that the ordinary Egyptian
personally worshipped the Aten. The ordinary
Egyptian populace often had little to do with the
religious customs of Egypt except on religious
high days and holidays, when the statue of the
gods would be carried in procession outside of
the temple walls. They were only affected by the
closing of the temples and the termination of the
priesthood of Amon-Ra. Artifacts were found
even in the capital city of Akhetaten, which
revealed that people still worshipped the older
traditional gods of Egypt.
The most important document discovered that
provides some detailed insights into this new reli-
gion is the “Hymn to the Aten,” which was said
to have been written by Pharaoh Akhenaten. This
hymn is among the most famous writings of
ancient Egypt. It resembles earlier hymns to the
sun god and is similar in its imagery to Psalm 104
in the Bible. The hymn extols the Aten as the one
and only true god, and it also confirms the idea of
the Aten as a universal god of all peoples, not just
of the Egyptians.
King Akhenaten’s break with the traditional
customs of Egypt did not become permanent. The
worship of the Aten as the chief god in Egypt
lasted only as long as King Akhenaten was alive.
Although Akhenaten devoted his life and his reign
to the worship of the Aten, after his death, the
new religion was rejected, the old gods reestab-
lished, and the city of Akhetaten was abandoned.
Akhenaten’s concept of solar worship did not sur-
vive, but the influence on art and thinking of this
period of Egypt’s history continues to this day to
fascinate historians.
When a new King took the throne of Egypt, the
Aten’s status of state god came to an end, the capi-
tal city was moved back to Waset, and sacrifices
were once again made to the god Amon-Ra.Brenda J. WashingtonSee alsoAmenFurther Readings
Asante, M. K. (2007).The History of Africa. London:
Routledge.
Clayton, P. A. (1994).Chronicle of the Pharaoh the
Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties
of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson.
Gabriel, R. A. (2002).Gods of Our Fathers the Memory
of Egypt in Judaism and Christianity. Westport, CT:
Greenwood.
Wilkinson, R. H. (2003).The Complete Gods and
Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames &
Hudson.ATUM
Atum was one of the earliest names for the divine in
its capacity as creator-god in ancient Egypt. Equally
important, the conceptualization of Atum repre-
sents the earliest example of humans developing an
ontology or metaphysical philosophy to explain the
nature of being and existence. The earliest reference76 Atum