Akhenaten. 2010

“At daybreak, when thou arisest on the horizon,

When thou shinest as the Aton by day,

Thou drivest away the darkness and givest thy rays.

The Two Lands are in festivity every day”.

AKHENATEN – pharaoh of Egypt, reformer, sage (1375 – 1336 BC).

Amenhotep IV began a cardinal reform, directed the consciousness of the Egyptians towards honoring the single Absolute – Aten. Pharaoh himself became the high priest of the new nation-wide deity, who took for himself a new name – Akhenaten (“Useful for Aten”). Pharaoh constantly attached to his name the phrase “living by the truth.” For him, this meant a simple adoption of everyday life devoid of conditionality. In his view, everything was true and found its justification in the very fact of its existence. Therefore, his family life was not hidden from the eyes of the people. In the book “The Great Hymn To The Aten” he said, everything natural is true!

Religious reform had affected all aspects of Egyptian life: in art a new image of a person was formed, mercy and kindness, soft beauty and openness of the soul to the world of emotions were emphasized in images of the king, Nefertiti and those close to him.