Akhenaten the "Heretic Pharaoh"

Born Amenhotep IV, meaning Amun is Satisfied, Akhenaten changed his name early on in his reign as pharaoh of Egypt. Meaning effective spirit of Aten Akhenaten is infamously known as the pharaoh who pushed Egyptians to become monothiestic. Reigning during the 18th dynasty Akhenaten created the worship of Aten. Akhenaten's strange appearance and mysterious behavior, as well as his connection with Nefertiti and with the ill-fated "boy king" Tutankhamen, have made him the subject of much passion and controversy in the last century or so.

Family

Akhenaten was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiye and was their younger son. It was not until the death of his brother, Crowned Prince Thutmose, that Akhenaten became designated as the successor to the throne. Upon Amenhotep III's death after a 38-year reign Akhenaten became pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt. Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti who was made world-famous by her exquisitely molded and painted bust, now displayed in the Altes Museum of Berlin.

Akhenaten made a habit out of marrying his daughters-around year 12 of his reign Mekytaten, daiughter of Akhenatena and Neferteti, is shown in a relief in the royal tomb with her grief-stricken parents beside her dead body and a nurse standing nearby holding a baby. He is also known to have married two other daughters, Merytaten and Akhesenpaaten who later became Tutankhamun's wife.

Nefertit, made famous by her bust, has several curious aspects of her representations. In the early years of Akhenaten's reign, for instance, Nefertiti was an unusually prominent figure in art as she dominated the scenes carved on blocks of the temple to the Aten at Karnak. One block shows her in the warlike posture of pharaoh grasping captives by the hair and smiting them with a mace hardly the epitome of the peaceful queen and mother of six daughters. From that we can see that Nefertiti evidently played a far more prominent part role during her husband's rule than was normal.

Akhenaten is also believed to have been the father of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen by his lesser wife Kiya.

Impacts

Akhenaten impacted Egyptian culture for many reasons and in many forms. Changes in the ancient Egyptian art style which presented himself in a very different manner from any of his predecessors was one of the main impacts.

Under Akhenaten people were portrayed as they actually were. Unlike previous Egyptian art Pharaohs and gods were portrayed as perfect looking individuals. But Akhenaten instead portrayed himself less god and perfect like and more human. However, the new style of art was portraying people how they were in their everyday lifestyles. Akhenaten is showed to be disfigured with an elongation of the head, large breasts, swollen stomach, and diminutive splayed legs. In fact, he looked more feminine than masculine. Surroundings also were now painted in detail. The vegetation and wild life around the Nile River was recorded in detail along with the pharaoh and his family. Previous Egyptian art had the pharaohs taller than subjects and with none but the gods as equals, Akhenaten had his surroundings as equals and scenes of him kissing his daughters and sitting with his family.

Religion is another major sect where Akhenaten had his influence. While in the end the result was not pretty and Egypt tried to erase their memory of Akhenaten, it is still interesting to see what he did during his lifetime. While the idea of the god, Aten, was not a new one Akhenaten's idea of a single god was to the Egyptians. The Aten is portrayed as a solar disc whose protective rays split in hands holding the ankh hieroglyph for life. According to Akhenaten the Aten was accessible only to him, which terminated the need for an intermediate priesthood.

At first, Akhenaten had a temple built to Aten outside the east gate of the temple of Amun at Karnak but clearly the coexistence of the two cults would not last. When Akhenaten realized this he proscribed the cult of Amun, closed the god's temples, and took over the revenues. Here is where the Egyptian populace arose up against Akhenaten, his actions where defying the gods of old! After a few more insidents involving other temples and Akhenaten trying to killing the worship of other gods, he decided to make a complete break. So in year 6 of his reign, Akheanten and his family left Thebes behind and moved to a new capital, Akhetaten-The Horizon of the Aten, known today as el-Amarna. It was here at Akhenten/el-Amarna that only worship of the Aten was permitted and forced.

Death

During the 12^th year of Akhenaten's reign, his mother Queen Tiye joined him in his city. Here we see that Nefertiti was no longer a favorite to Akhenaten and she disappeared from records. Nothing is known as so why she left and where she went, but her daughter quickly took her place. Akhenaten's daughter was then replaced with Ankhesenpaaten. The 18th year of his reign Akhenaten died and everything was destroyed and demolished after his death. The city of Aten was laid to ruins and Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh's mummy never found.