AKHENATEN
Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC), whose name means
“he who praises Aten,” was an 18th dynasty king
and philosopher who changed his name from
Amenhotep, meaning “Amen is satisfied.”
Although he was not the first African philosopher,
no other thinker of the ancient period was as sig-
nificant as Akhenaten in establishing a persona
that has reverberated through the ages. None of
the earlier philosophers such as Imhotep, Merikare,
Duauf, or Amenemhat left the enduring reputation
for creativity as did Akhenaten. Yet this popular-
ity has been questioned by numerous African
scholars and can best be viewed by examining an
array of facts surrounding the life and times of
Akhenaten. This entry outlines the religious and
political contexts in which Akhenaten arose, dis-
cusses his reign, and looks at what happened to
his work after his death.
Amen and His CityDuring the 18th dynasty in the Upper Egyptian
city of Waset, called Thebes by the Greeks, the
god Amen was supreme. No god had dominated
the ancient land as Amen did; his name would
ring eternally through the ages as Amen and
sometimes in combination with Ra as Amen-Ra.
Indeed, the 18th dynasty of Kemet, named Egypt
by the Greeks, was the Age of Amen’s supremacy.
Any god raised up against the might of Amen
would surely be struck down. Any scribe,seshesh,
or, more precipitously, Per-aa, Great House,
calledpharaoh by the Hebrews, who dared to
question the predominance of Amen would find
himself or herself resigned to the margins of
Kemetic history and assaulted by 1,000 defenders
of the Hidden One.
In the city of Amen, called Waset, the spoils
of 100 war victories swelled the coffers of the
Almighty and made God Amen all-powerful, in
fact, incalculably awesome. Thus, Amen was
also wealthy, the richest of any deity the world
had ever known. Avenues of sphinxes, grand
pylons of massive stones, decorated the city of
God. Treasures from foreign capitals, including
gold from the kingdoms of Nubia, timber from
Assyria, and spices from Punt, elevated Amen as
paramount king of all the gods, the god of gods.
So great and foreboding was he that neither
the Per-aa nor the high priest could lay claim
to this bounty. It had not been won in the ser-
vice of mere humans; the wealth of Amen was
the precious treasure won in service to the
Hidden One.
There were no gold or silver coins in Egypt, one
of the few civilizations that grew to maturity with-
out metal coinage. But the temporal possessions of
Amen were immeasurable. Donations of real
estate, boats, vineyards, and livestock from the
people of Kemet were constant and an indication
of the popularity of the Supreme God, Amen,
during the 18th dynasty.
But even Amen, as powerful as he was in the
inner sanctum of his mighty temple, could not run
his own operations from his hidden domain. Here
even a God needed people, clerical and adminis-
trative, to hear the word of God and to do his bid-
ding among humans, to carry out his rituals, to
punish the disobedient, and to receive his gifts. It
was also necessary to have people to manage the
increasing stores of goods being shipped daily into
the treasures of Amen. As mighty as he was from
on high, Amen depended on a company of priests
to carry out his will.
Imagine what numbers of functionaries must
have been employed to run this large operation.
The complexity and comprehensiveness of the
priesthood of Amen had no equal among the
major deities of Kemet at this time. In fact, some
of the deities, such as Maat, had no priesthood at
all. Every day more than 3,000 functionaries went
to work at the Temple of Amen. As Waset grew in
importance, made so by the ceaseless energy of the
18th dynasty kings, so did the significance of the
worship of Amen.
Therefore, Waset’s energy and dynamism cre-
ated the spiritual and religious contexts that
would exist for most of the 18th dynasty. This was
part of the context of the king who was born
Amenhotep IV. Perhaps no period in Egyptian his-
tory was as glorious as this, and even the glories
of the next dynasty, the Ramsessid, dominated by
the greatest king in Kemet’s history, Ramses II,
would be judged by the standards of the 18th
dynasty.Akhenaten 27