TUTANKHAMEN

AMENISM, ATENISM AND EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM

WITH HIEROGLYPHIC TEXTS OF HYMNS TO AMEN AND ATEN, TRANSLATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY
SIR ERNEST A. WALLIS BUDGE, LITT. D., D. LITT.
KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.

[1923]

TUTANKHAMEN AND THE CULT OF AMEN.

THE early history of the god Amen is somewhat obscure, and his origin is unknown. The name Amen means "hidden (one)," a title which might be applied to many gods. A god Amen and his consort Ament or Amenit are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (UNAS, line 558), where they are grouped with Nau and Nen, and with the two Lion gods Shu and Tefnut.

This Amen was regarded as an ancient nature-god by the priests of Heliopolis under the Vth dynasty, and it is possible that many of his attributes were transferred at a very early period to Amen, the great god of Thebes. Though recent excavations have shown that a cult of Amen existed at Thebes under the Ancient Empire, it is doubtful if it possessed any more than a local importance until the XIIth dynasty. When the princes of Thebes conquered their rivals in the north and obtained the sovereignty of Egypt, their god Amen and his priesthood became a great power in the land, and an entirely new temple was built by them, in his honour, at Karnak on the right bank of the Nile. The temple was quite small, and resembled in form and arrangement some of the small Nubian temples; it consisted of a shrine, with a few small chambers grouped about it, and a forecourt, with a colonnade on two sides of it. Amen was not the oldest god worshipped there, and his sanctuary seems to have absorbed the shrine of the ancient goddess Apit. The name of Thebes is derived from T-Ape, the Coptic name of the shrine of the goddess Apit, and the city was not known as Nut Amen (the No Amon of the Bible, Nahum 3, 8), i.e., the "city of Amen," until a very much later date.

Although the kings of the XIIth dynasty were Thebans it is possible that they and many of their finest warriors had Sudani blood in their veins, and the attributes that they ascribed to Amen were similar to those that the Nubian peoples assigned to their indigenous gods. To them Amen symbolized the hidden but irresistible power that produces conception and growth in human beings and in the animal and vegetable worlds. And in some places in Egypt, and Nubia and the Oases, the symbol of the god Amen was either the umbilicus 1 or the gravid womb. The symbol of Amen that was shown to Alexander the Great, when he visited the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Oasis of Siwah, was an object closely resembling the umbilicus, and it was inlaid with emeralds (turquoises?) and other precious stones--umbilico maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo et gemmis coagmentatus 2 . The name of Amen was carried into Nubia and the Egyptian Sudan by the kings of the XIIth dynasty when they made raids into those countries, and his worship took root there readily and flourished. The booty which was brought back to Thebes was shared by them with Amen, and many captives and slaves were set apart as the property of the god. Soon Amen gained the reputation of the god of successful warriors, and his fame grew and spread abroad, and little by little the attributes and powers of the older gods of Heliopolis, Memphis and Abydos were united to his own in the minds of his priests and followers.

Under the rule of the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty the glory and power of Amen waxed greater and greater, and his fame spread through the Eastern Desert and Syria. As he gave victory to the kings of the XIIth dynasty in Nubia, so he now gave undreamed of success to Egyptian arms in Western Asia; and the Pharaohs returned to Thebes laden with spoil of every kind and with rich gifts from the non-combatant peoples in Phoenicia and Syria. And Amen might well be declared to be the "god of the world," especially during the reign of Thothmes III. Never before had such wealth flowed into the treasury of the temple of Amen, or Amen-Ra, as he began to be called, and never before had the power of his priests been so great. Amenhetep I, the second king of the dynasty, had been a strong supporter of the cult of Amen, and he seems to have been the founder of the order of the priests of Amen, and certainly endowed the temple in the Northern Apt with great wealth. His prenomen and nomen are often seen occupying prominent places on the coffins of the priests of Amen. The work of establishing the order begun by Amenhetep I was consolidated and extended by Thothmes III, who set the priesthood in order, appointed a high priest, and provided them with rich revenues and gave them large estates for their maintenance. The gifts that the temple of Amen received as a result of the seventeen expeditions made by Thothmes III into Phoenicia and Syria, and into the country in the neighbourhood of the waters of the Upper Euphrates, and the share of the tribute received from Cyprus and the Sudan must have been well-nigh incalculable. The treasury of Amen was so well supplied by Thothmes III, and the affairs of his priesthood so well regulated by him, that his two immediate successors, Amenhetep II and Thothmes IV, were not called upon to make extraordinary raids into Western Asia for the purpose of collecting spoil.

Amenhetep II, about B.C. 1500, devoted his energies to the conquest of the southern portion of the Egyptian Sudan, which he penetrated as far as Wad Ba-Nagaa, a district lying about 80 miles to the north of the modern city of Khartum. But it is doubtful if he possessed any effective hold on the Sudan beyond Napata (Jabal Barkal), at the foot of the Fourth Cataract. During one of his wars, or raids, into Syria, he slew a rebel chief and sent his body to Napata to be hung upon the city walls, so that the natives might see it and tremble. We may be sure that the priesthood of Amen at Thebes took great care to inform their colleagues at Napata that it was their god Amen who had given the king the victory. Amenhetep II was a loyal servant of Amen, for on the stele which he set up after his return from Upper Rethennu he says that he came back "with a heart expanded with joy to Father Amen because he had overthrown all his enemies, and enlarged the: frontiers of Egypt, and had slain seven chiefs with his own club whilst they were living in Thekhsi, and had hung their bodies up head downwards on the bows of his boat as he sailed up the Nile to Thebes."

Amenhetep II was succeeded about B.C. 1450 by his son Thothmes IV, who seems to have owed his accession to the throne, not to the priests of Amen, but to the priests of Heliopolis. His mother was not of royal rank, and it is probable that her religious sympathies were with the old solar gods of Heliopolis rather than with Amen, or Amen-Ra, of Thebes. On a huge red granite stele, which stands between the paws of the Sphinx at Gizah immediately in front of its breast, is cut an important inscription which throws light on the subject of the accession to the throne of Thothmes IV. According to the text, the young prince Thothmes was hunting at Gizah and sat down to rest himself under the shadow of the Sphinx. Whilst there he fell asleep, and the fourfold Sun-god, Heraakhuti-Khepera-Ra-Tem, appeared to him in a dream and promised him the crowns of Egypt if he would clear away from the Sphinx and his temple the desert sand, which had swallowed them up. Now the Sphinx was believed to be the image and dwelling-place of Temu-Heraakhuti, a solar god in whom were united the attributes and powers of Tem, the oldest sun-god of Heliopolis, and Heraakhuti, a still older sun-god. Thothmes did as the god wished, that is to say, as the priests of Heliopolis wished, and by so doing forwarded their political aspirations and secured their assistance in obtaining the throne.

During his short reign of about nine years Thothmes IV made raids into Syria and the Egyptian Sudan, and the temple of Amen no doubt obtained a share in the spoil which he brought back-in fact, an inscription at Karnak contains a list of the gifts that he made to Amen on his return from a very successful raid. We may note in passing that although the name of Amen forms part of his personal name, his Nebti name was "Stablished in sovereignty like Tem."

The opening up of Western Asia by the victorious arms of Amasis I and his successors was followed by a great increase in the communications that passed between Egypt and the peoples of Syria, Mitanni, Assyria and Babylonia. The trade between these countries increased, and the merchant caravans carried not only the wares and products of one country into the other, but also information about the manners and customs and religions of the various peoples with whom they came in contact. Thothmes IV appears to have been the first Egyptian king who entered into friendly relations with the kings of Karaduniyash (Babylonia) and Mitanni. Tushratta, king of Mitanni, tells us, in a letter 3 which he sent to Amenhetep IV, that the father of his father, Amenhetep III, sent to his grandfather, Artatama, and asked for his daughter to wife; in other words, Thothmes IV wanted to marry a princess of Mitanni. Six times did Thothmes IV make his request in vain, and it was only after the seventh asking that the king of Mitanni gave his daughter to the king of Egypt. As Queen of Egypt she was styled "Hereditary Princess, Great Lady, President of the South and the North, Great Royal Mother, MUT-EM-UAA."

The princess would naturally come to Egypt escorted by a number of her people, and it is very probable that she and her followers introduced into Egypt religious views that were more in harmony with those of the priests of Heliopolis than of the votaries of Amen.

Little is known of the kingdom of Mitanni and its people. There is one letter in Berlin written in the language of Mitanni, and the Assyriologists who have made a special study of it assign to the language a place among the "Caspian group," and are inclined to compare it with Georgian; and they give it an Aryan origin. 4 The names of four of their gods are mentioned in the text of a Treaty found at Boghaz Keui, and the Mitannians swore by them to observe this Treaty. These gods are:--1. Mi-it-ra-ash-shi-il. 2, U-ru-wa-na-ash-shi-il. 3, In-tar. 4, Na-sha-atti-ya-an-na. And their identifications with the Indian gods Mitra (Mithras), Varuna, Indra and Nasatiya seem to be certain. The solar and celestial character of these Indian gods has much in common with that of the solar gods of Heliopolis, and if the princess of Mitanni who married Thothmes IV carried her worship of them into Egypt, it is easy to believe that her religious sympathy and support would be given to Tem and his cognate gods, and not to Amen. With her arrival at Thebes there came an influence which was hostile to Amen, but her husband's reign was too short for it to produce any great material effect.

Thothmes IV was succeeded by his son by Queen Mutemuaa, who ascended the throne under the name of Amenhetep (III); thus the name of the god Amen once again formed part of the personal name of the reigning king. The meaning of this name, "Amen is content, or satisfied," is significant. He reigned for about thirty-six years, probably in the latter half of the fifteenth century B.C. A legend 5 was current in Egypt under the Ancient Empire in which it was asserted that the god Ra came to earth and, assuming the form of a priest of Ra, the husband of one Ruttet, appeared to his wife and, companying with her, begot three sons, each of whom became King of all Egypt. From that time every king prefixed to his personal name the title SA RA, "son of Ra." Nearly two thousand years later the great Queen Hatshepsut decorated her temple at Der al-Bahari with bas-reliefs, on which were sculptured scenes connected with her conception and birth. In these the god Amen, in the human form of her father Thothmes I, is seen companying with Queen Aahmes, and the inscriptions prove that Hatshepsut believed that she was of the god's seed and that his divine blood flowed in her veins. 6 As Amen had in the XVIIIth dynasty assumed all the powers and attributes of Ra of Heliopolis, the father of the kings who ruled from Memphis, it was only fitting that he should assume human form and become the physical father of the kings who ruled from his city of Thebes. The same fiction was promulgated by the priests of Amen in respect of their god and Amenhetep III.

BAS-RELIEF REPRESENTING AMENHETEP III AS AN INCARNATION OF AMEN-RA

According to the bas-relief in the sanctuary of the temple which he built in the Northern Apt in honour of Amen, Mut and Khensu, Amen came to Queen Mutemuaa in the human form of Thothmes IV, and begot by her the son who reigned as Amenhetep III. Both scenes and texts were copied from the bas-reliefs in Hatshepsut's temple, which in turn were probably copied from some popular document compiled by the priests of Amen at the beginning of the XVIIIth dynasty, perhaps with special reference to Amenhetep I.

Whatever views Amenhetep III held concerning Amen and his worship, he did not allow them to interfere with or obstruct his public allegiance to that god. This fact is proved by his building operations at Luxor and the gifts which he made to the temples and priesthood of Amen throughout the country. But he honoured other Egyptian gods besides Amen, for he built a temple at Elephantine to Khnemu, a very ancient god of the region of the First Cataract. To commemorate his victory over the Nubians in the fifth year of his reign, he built the great temple called Het Kha-em-Maat at Sulb, in the Egyptian Sudan. He dedicated it to Father Amen, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, to Khnemu and to "his own Image living upon earth, Neb-maat-Ra. 7 " On a bas-relief published by Lepsius 8 we see him worshipping himself, as Lord of Ta-Kenset. In several of the scenes sculptured on the walls he is represented making offerings to Amen-Ra, Khnemu and other gods, and he is frequently accompanied by his wife Ti. At Saddenga he built a temple to Ti as the goddess of the Sudan.

The Triad of the First Cataract, in whose honour Amenhetep III built a temple at Elephantine.

In Egypt, at all events, the people were not prohibited from worshipping the old gods of the country, and that his own high officials did so openly is evident from the grey granite stele of the architects Her and Suti in the British Museum. 9

Amenhetep III worshipping himself as a member of the Triad in the Temple of Sudan.

The stele is in the form of the door of a tomb and has a plain cornice and a raised border. In the upper Part of the central panel are the two utchats, or eyes of the Sun and Moon, and the winged disk, and below these are figures of Osiris and Anubis; the figures of the architects and their wives are obliterated. In the inscriptions above the panel Her beseeches: I, Hathor of Thebes, the mistress of the goddesses, to grant to him a coming forth into the presence [of the god]; 2, Khensu to give him all good sweet and pleasant things; and 3, Hathor of Thebes to receive them in the temples. Suti beseeches: 1, Amen-Ra to give him sepulchral meals in Hermonthis; 2, Mut to give him all good things; and 3, Hathor of the cemetery to give him beautiful life and pleasure upon earth.

On the right-hand side of the panel Her beseeches: 1, Ra-Heraakhuti, lord of heaven, to let him see Aten and to look at the Moon as he did upon earth; 2, Anpu (Anubis) to give him a beautiful funeral after old age and a burial in the western part of Thebes; and 3, the divine Queen Nefertari to give him the sweet breath of the north wind, coolness and wine, and a coming forth into the presence [of the God].

On the left-hand side of the panel Suti beseeches: 1, Osiris, Governor of eternity, to give him cakes and offerings in the presence of Un-Nefer; 2, Seker, lord of the coffin chamber, to let him go in and out of the underworld, without obstruction to his soul, at pleasure; and 3, Isis, the mother of the god, to grant him power to move freely about in the Peqa (at Abydos) under a decree of the great god.

Here, then, we have these two high officials, the one overseer of the works in the temple of Karnak, and the other overseer of the works in the temple of Luxor, men of learning and culture, praying for the goodwill, help and favour of Hathor of the city, of Hathor of the cemetery, of Mut, the consort of Amen. of Khensu, son of Amen and Mut, of the old Sun-god Ra-Heraakhuti, of Anpu, god of the tomb, of Nefertari, the deified Queen of Amasis I, of Osiris, god and judge of the dead, of Isis, his consort, and of Seker, the old god of the Underworld of Memphis. Amen is not mentioned with these old gods, into whose hands Her and Suti were content to commit their souls after death. But Amen was the great god of their city, and to him they owed their occupation and daily bread, and they acknowledged his power in the hymn which they caused to be cut on the panel of their funerary stele. The importance of this hymn is considerable, for the stele is dated, in line 15, by the mention of the name of the king they served, Amenhetep III. It is quite short, consisting of less than eight lines, and it tells us little about Amen. The opening words say that it is a hymn to Amen when he rises as Heraakhuti; that is to say, it is addressed to Amen in his character of a solar god. It might equally well be addressed to Ra or Horus or any solar god.

The writer calls the god a "daily beauty that never fails to rise," and identifies him with Khepera, an ancient god of creation, who is mighty in works. His rays which strike the face cannot be known (or estimated), and the brilliantly bright and shining metal called tcham cannot be compared for splendour with his beautiful appearance. The caps on the pyramidions of obelisks were made of tcham metal, and the brightness of them could be seen many leagues away. In line 3 Amen is said to have been ptah-tu, i.e., he was "designed," just as an object is designed, or plotted out, by a draughtsman, and the correct meaning of the word may be that Amen designed his own form.

Next the god "plated his limbs," i.e., he made them to have the appearance of plates made of tcham metal. This statement is followed by the words, "[He] gives birth, but was not himself born: Only One in his characteristics, qualities, powers and operations."

Thus we learn that Amen was, like Khepera, self-designed, self-created, self-existent in a form that was never born as ordinary creatures are, and that he was One and Alone without equal, or fellow, or counterpart. The writer next refers to the duration of the god's existence, as the traverser of eternity, and the passer over the roads of millions of years with his form. His splendour is the splendour of heaven, and though "all men see his passage, he is hidden from their faces" (in his character of the "hidden" god).

He travels over the celestial waters vast distances in a moment of time every day. There is no cessation in his work, and every one sees him, never ceasing to do so. When he sets he rises upon the denizens of the Tuat, and his rays force their way into the eyes [of the dead] (?) When he sets in the western horizon men fall asleep and become motionless like the dead. With these words the Hymn to Amen comes to an end.

But during the lifetime of these twin brothers, Her and Suti, the cult of Aten must have made considerable progress at Thebes, for, in spite of their loyalty to Amen, and to the old solar gods of the country, and to Osiris and Isis being manifest, they caused a Hymn to Aten to be engraved on their funerary stele. It has no title, and follows the Hymn to Amen immediately, beginning with the words, "Homage to thee, ATEN of the day!" He is called "creator of men and women, maker of their lives," and is identified with the "Great Hawk of many-coloured plumage." He performed the act of creation which "raised" himself up [out of the primeval watery abyss]. "The creator of himself he was not born." He is next identified with the "Aged Horus," the dweller in Nut, the oldest solar god or sky-god in Egypt, and is acclaimed joyfully at rising and setting. He created the earth (?). The next words, Khnem Amen Henmemit, are difficult. If the writer of the hymn meant to identify Aten with Khnem-Amen, a god of the region of the First Cataract, that is understandable, but how, then, is Henmemit, if that be the correct reading, to be fitted in? 10 Aten is next called "Conqueror of the Two Lands from the greatest to the least." Another difficulty meets us in the words "glorious mother of gods and men," and the words that follow, "gracious artificer, most great, prospering in her work," seem to apply to this mother. Perhaps the writer of the hymn wished to compare Aten to such a mother, or he may have regarded Aten as father-mother. After another line containing obscure allusions we read, "How marvellous is production of him who raises up his beauty from the womb of Nut, and who illumines the Two Lands with his Aten (Disk)! He the Pautti (the primeval matter out of which the world and all in it were made) created himself. He is the LORD ONE. He made the Seasons out of the months, Summer because he loves heat, and Winter because he loves the cold; [during the former] he makes men's bodies to become exhausted.

The apes sing hymns to him when he rises daily." What follows on the stele concerns the lives of Her and Sub, and the text is translated on pp. 46-68.

Judging by what is said in the Hymn to Aten, the origin, nature and attributes of Aten closely resemble those of Amen. Both gods are identified with the oldest gods in Egypt. Each is declared to be self-created and not to have been born, therefore not begotten, and to each is applied the epithet "ONE." It is interesting to note that Aten is identified with Pautti, the oldest of all the gods, and with the Aged Horus, or Horus the Elder. As Aten is said to be. the maker of Summer and Winter and the months, it is clear that a tradition, probably going back to pre-dynastic times, associated him with the primitive Year-god. This Hymn shows that our two architects regarded Aten as a thoroughly Egyptian god, and as one who could be and ought to be worshipped side by side with Amen, who had condescended to become the begetter of their lord and master, Amenhetep III.

Notwithstanding the influence of his mother the Mitannian princess, and of his wives, some of whom also came from Mitanni, Amenhetep strongly supported the cult of Amen throughout the country, and kept on good terms with the: priesthood of Amen. The consolidation of that order by Thothmes III has already been mentioned, and it would seem that this king instituted, or, at all events, sanctioned the daily performance of a very important service in the sanctuary of Amen in the temple of Karnak. In the sanctuary there was placed a naos, or shrine, containing a gold or gilded wooden figure of Amen, with moveable head, arms and legs; sometimes a boat took the place of the shrine, and in such cases the figure of the god was set inside the cabin. The figure might represent the god standing upright or seated on a throne. During the service the king, or his deputy, purified the sanctuary and himself by burning incense and pouring out libations of fresh water.

Plate III.

Head of a colossal statue of Amenhetep III, wearing the uraeus, the symbol of sovereignty, above his forehead. Found by Mr. H. Salt (luring the excavations which he made near the Colossi in Western Thebes.
British Museum, Northern Egyptian Gallery.

Plate IV.

Stele of Her and Suti, twin brothers who were overseers of the works of Amenhetep III at Thebes. The text contains a Hymn to Amen, and a Hymn to Aten.
British Museum, No. 475.

He then advanced to the naos, broke the seal which closed its doors, and made obeisance to the figure of the god. Having performed further rites of purification on the figure, he advanced and embraced it, in order that the soul of the god might enter into his body. The naos was closed, and the king left the sanctuary, but he returned immediately, when the naos was reopened, and he performed further acts of obeisance, and made offerings which included a figure of the goddess Maat or TRUTH. Next the king dressed the figure in symbolic garments, and purified it, and anointed it with scented unguents and perfumes, and placed on it a necklace, amulets, rings, etc. By these acts the king intended to imply that he, the son of a god, was adoring his father, just as children in general adore their fathers and mothers in the tomb. During some of these ceremonies the god laid his hands on the body of the king, and by so doing transmitted to him the fluid of life, which enabled the king to live day by day, and to rule over his people with wisdom and justice. Now the king himself might well perform his part in this great, solemn service at Thebes, but he could not be at the same time at Abydos or elsewhere in Egypt. Therefore in Thebes and other cities deputies were chosen to represent the king, and they were everywhere regarded with the reverence that was due to the performers of such exalted duties. During the performance of these rites and ceremonies hymns were chanted to Amen or Amen-Ra, and of these the following are specimens: 11 :--

I. "Homage to thee, O Amen-Ra, Lord of Thebes,
Thou Boy, the ornament of the gods!
All men lift up their faces to gaze upon him.
Thou art the Lord, inspiring awe, crushing those who would revolt [against thee].
Thou art the King of all the gods.
Thou art the great god, the Living One.

Menu Ka-mut-f, or Menu, Bull of his mother, a god of new birth and virility, with whom Amen and Amen-Ra were identified.

Thou art beloved for thy words,
[Which are] the satisfaction of the gods.
Thou art the King of heaven, thou didst make the stars.
Thou art the tcham metal (gold) of the gods (i.e., the gold out of which the gods are made).

Thou art the Maker of heaven, thou didst open the horizon and make the gods to come into being according to thy behests.
[O] Amen-Ra, Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands, President of the Apit, Amen-Ra, Bull of his mother, who art upon thy great throne, Lord of rays, Maker of multitudes, god of the lofty plumes, thou art the King of the gods, the Great Hawk, who makest the breast to rejoice. Thou art praised by all rational beings [because] they have life."

II. Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, Amen-Ra, Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands, in peace.
Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, Chief in On, Great One in Thebes, in peace.
Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, Creator of the Two Lands (Egypt), in peace.
Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, thou who didst build up thyself, in peace.
Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, Creator of heaven and the hidden things of the two horizons, in peace.
Watch, being at peace! Thou watchest in peace. Watch, O thou to whom the gods come with bowings, Lord who art feared,
Mighty One whom the hearts of all rational beings hold in awe, in peace." (Ibid., p. 122.)

III. "Image of the Eldest Son, Heir of the earth before thy father the Earth [Geb and] thy mother Nut, Divine Image, who camest into being in primeval time, when a god did not exist, and when the name of nothing whatsoever had been recorded, when thou didst open thy two eyes and didst look out of them light appeared unto every man. When shadow is pleasing to thy two eyes, day exists no longer.
Thou openest thy mouth, thy word is therein.

Geb, the Earth-god, Father of the Gods, Great God, Lord of Eternity.	Nut, the Sky-goddess, the Lady of Heaven, who gave birth to Osiris and Isis and Set and Nephthys.

Thou stablishest heaven with thy two arms, and the West (Ament) in thy name of Amen.
Thou art the Image of the Ka (or Double) of all the gods, Image of Amen, Image of Atem, Image of Khepera, Image of the Lord of all the earth, Image of the Lord who is crowned King of the South and North in the North and South, Image who gavest birth to the gods, who gavest birth to men, who gavest birth to everything, the Lord of life, thou Living One, who possessest power greater than that of all the gods. Thou hast conquered the Nine Gods, thou hast presented to them their offering. Thou hast bound them together, thou hast made them to live. O thou Image who hast created their doubles (?), thou hast given that which Horus has obtained for himself from the Company of the gods.

Ptah, lord of Maat, king of the Two Lands (Egypt), the great Man-god of Memphis.	Sekhmit, the great lady, the lady of heaven, the mistress of the Two Lands (Egypt). She was a female counterpart of Ptah.

Thou art like a god who designs with thy fingers, Eke a god who designs with thy toes. Thou hast become the Lord of everything, Aten who came into being in primeval time, god of the two high plumes. Thou Begetter, thou hast created more than all the gods." (Ibid., p. 129.)

A papyrus at Leyden contains a series of very interesting hymns to Amen, and the following extracts are quoted from it.

IV. "'Thou sailest, Heraakhuti, and each day thou dost fulfil the behest of yesterday. Thou art the maker of the years and captain of the months; days and nights and hours are according to his stride. Thou makest thyself new to-day for yesterday; though going in as the night thou art the day. The One Watcher, he hates slumber. Men sleep on their beds, but his eyes watch. (Chap. VI.)

Fashioning himself none knows his forms. (Chap. VIII.)

Mingling his seed with his body to make his egg to come into being within himself. (Chap. VIII.)

The Aten (Disk) of heaven, his rays are on thy face.

He drove out the Nile from his cavern for thy Pautti. The earth is made thy statue. Thy name is victorious, thy souls (or Will) are weighty.

Hawk destroying his attacker straightway. Hidden (or secret) Lion roaring loudly, driving his claws into what is under his paws, Bull for his town, Lion for his people. The earth shakes when he sends forth his voice. Every being is in awe of him, mighty in power there is none like him. He is the Beneficent Power of the births of the Nine gods. (Chap. IX.)

Loosing evils, driving away sicknesses. A physician healing the eye without medicines; Opener of the eye, destroyer of the cast in it. Being in the Tuat he releases him whom he loves. Removing from Destiny according to his heart's desire. Possessing eyes and ears he is on every path of him that loves him.

He hears the petitions of him that invokes him. Being afar off he comes in a moment to him that calls him.

He adds to the term of life and he shortens it. To him whom he loves he gives more than Fate has allotted to him.

To the man who sets him in his heart he is more than millions.

With his name one man is stronger than hundreds of thousands. (Chap. XI.)

Thou didst exist first in the forms of the Eight Gods [of Hermopolis], and then thou didst complete them and become ONE.

Thy body is hidden in the Chiefs, thou art hidden as Amen at the head of the gods.

Thy form was that of Tanen in order to give birth to the Pautti gods in thy primeval matter. Thou dost enter fathers making their sons. Thou didst first come into being when there was no being in existence. All the gods came into being after thee. (Chap. XIII.)

Amen came into being in primeval time, none knows the form in which he appeared. No god existed before him, there was no other god with him to declare his form.

He had no mother for whom his name was made. He had no father who begot him, saying, It is even myself. He shaped his own egg; the divine god, becoming of himself; all the gods were created after he came into being. (Chap. XIV.)

One is Amen, he hides himself from them, he conceals himself from the gods.

The man who utters his secret (or mystery) name, which cannot be known, falls down upon his face straightway and dies a violent death. No god knows how to call upon him." (Chap. XV.) 12

The extracts given in the last section are taken, from a work on Amen which was not intended to be sung in the temples. It is, more or less, a, philosophical treatise on the origin, nature, and powers of the god, showing that he is the source of all life, animate and inanimate. The existence of other gods is admitted, but they are merely forms of him, the great god whose three characters or persons were called Amen (of Thebes), Ra (of Heliopolis) and Ptah (of Memphis). His ONENESS, or Unity, was absolute. We may now give an extract from the famous Hymn to Amen which is preserved in a papyrus in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 13 and was undoubtedly sung by men and women to the accompaniment of music in the temples.

A HYMN TO AMEN-RA.

I. Bull, dwelling in On, President of all the gods,
Beautiful god, Meriti (he who is loved),
Giving all life of warmth
To all beautiful cattle.

II. Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands!
First One in the Apts (i.e., Karnak),
Bull of his mother, first one of his pasture,
Extended of stride, first one of the Land of the South,
Lord of the Matchaiu (Nubians), Governor of Punt,
Prince of Heaven, Eldest one of Earth,
Lord of things which are, stablisher of creation, stablisher of all creation.

III. ONE, through his unrivalled powers among the gods, Chief of all the gods,
Lord of Truth, Father of the gods,
Maker of men, creator of beasts,
Lord of the things that are, creator of the plant of life (wheat),
Maker of green plants, making to live the cattle.

IV. POWER, produced by Ptah,
Beautiful Boy of love,
The gods ascribe praises to him,
Maker of things below and of things above, illumining Egypt,
Sailing over the heavens in peace.
King of the South and North RA
Whose word is true, Chief of the Two Lands (Egypt),

Great of power, Lord of awe,
Chief, making the earth like his form,
Dispenser of destinies (or plans) more than any god.

IX. Casting down his enemy into the flame,
His eye overthroweth the Sebau fiends.
It maketh her spear stab Nun (the abyss of heaven),
It maketh the serpent fiend Nak vomit what he hath swallowed.

X. Hail to thee, Ra, Lord of Truth!
Hidden one in his shrine, Lord of the gods,
Khepera in his boat.
He sent out the Word, the gods came into being,
Temu, maker of men,
Making different their characters and forms, making their life,
Distinguishing by their skins one from the other.

XI. He hearkeneth to the groan of the afflicted,
Being gracious to him that crieth to him,
Delivering the timid man from the bully.
Judging between the oppressor and the helpless one.

XV. Image ONE, maker of everything that is,
ONE ALONE, maker of things that are.

Men proceed from his eyes,
The gods come into being by his utterance;

Maker of green herbs, Vivifier of the cattle,
The staff of life of the Henmemet beings,
Making the fish to live in the river,
And the geese in the sky,
Giving air to the creature in the egg,
Making to live feathered fowl,
Making khennur birds to live,
And creeping things and insects likewise,
Providing food for the mice in their holes,
And making the birds to live on every branch.

XIX. Chief of the Great Nine Gods,
ONE ALONE, without a second

Footnotes

1 See Daressy, Une Nouvelle Forme d'Amon in Annales du Service des Antiquit de l'Egypte, tome IX, p. 64 ff.
2 Quintus Curtius, lib. IV, 7. See also Naville, Le Dieu de l'Oasis de Jupiter-Amon in Comptes Rendus de l'Acadie, 1906, p. 25.
3 Preserved in Berlin; see Winckler, Die Thontafeln von Tell-el-Amarna, No. 24, p. 51.
4 Bork, Die Mitanni Sprache, Berlin, 1909.
5 See Erman, Die Mchen des Papyrus Westcar, Berlin, 1890.
6 See Naville's edition of the texts, Vol. II, pl. 46-55.
7 Neb-maat-Ra is the prenomen of Amenhetep III
8 Denkmer, III, 85.
9 No. 475, Bay 9. Old No. 826. See A Guide to the Egyptian Galleries, p. 134.
10 The true reading may be hememit and so be connected with the word to "roar"--Khnem Amen of the roarings. Amenhetep IV dedicated a scarab to a god of roarings (British Museum, No. 51084).
11 A hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text will be found in Moret, Le Rituel du Culte Divin Journalier en ypte, Paris, 1902, p. 69.
12 For transcripts of the hieratic texts, translations, etc., see, Gardiner in Aegyptische Zeitschrift, Bd. 42 (1905), p. 12 ff.
13 A complete transcript of the hieratic text into hieroglyphs, with a French translation, has been published by Graut, Hymne Ammon-Ra, Paris, 1875.

TUTANKHAMEN

AMENISM, ATENISM AND EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM

WITH HIEROGLYPHIC TEXTS OF HYMNS TO AMEN AND ATEN, TRANSLATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY
SIR ERNEST A. WALLIS BUDGE, LITT. D., D. LITT.
KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.

[1923]

PREFACE

THE announcement made early in December, 1922, of the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings in Western Thebes by the late Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Howard Carter sent a thrill of wonder and expectation through all the civilized peoples on the earth. In the accounts of the contents of the Tomb, which were published with admirable promptness and fullness in The Times, we read of bodies of chariots, chairs of state, gilded couches, royal apparel, boxes of trinkets and food and cosmetics and toilet requisites, large bitumenized wooden statues, alabaster vessels of hitherto unknown shapes and beauty, and countless other objects, until the mind reeled in its attempts to imagine the sight that met the eyes of the two discoverers when they entered the two outer chambers. Those who have seen the smaller objects and have enjoyed the privilege of examining them have been amazed at their exquisite beauty and finish; and there is no doubt that the importance of the "find," from an artistic point of view, can be expressed in words only with difficulty. It is easy to believe Sarwat Pasha when he says none of the accounts published have really done justice to the "finds," which, however, is not surprising, since their beauty is unique and indescribable (Times, Jan. 18, 1923, P. 9).

All the writers who have described and discussed the discovery have, quite rightly, lost no opportunity of proclaiming the great value and importance of Lord Carnarvon's "find" as illustrating the arts and crafts that were practised in the city of Aakhut-Aten under its founder, the famous Atenite king, Amenhetep IV. But some of them have been led astray by their eagerness to do ample justice to the great discovery, and have introduced into their eulogies statements of a historical character which are incorrect. Some have declared that the information derived from the "find" makes necessary the rewriting and recasting of the history of the XVIIIth dynasty, but there is no foundation for this statement, for the authorized accounts of the Tomb of Tutankhamen and its contents include no new historical facts. Lord Carnarvon may have obtained from the tomb information that would amplify our knowledge of the reign of Tutankhamen, but if he did so he did not publish it. As matters stand we know no more now about the reign of this king than we did before Lord Carnarvon made his phenomenal discovery. Other writers have tried to make out that Tutankhamen was one of the greatest of the kings of Egypt, but this is not the case. When he came to the throne he professed the same religion as his wife, that is to say, the cult of Aten, the Solar Disk, or Atenism, and for a short time he continued to do so. But he soon realized that Atenism had failed, and then he substituted the name of Amen for Aten in his own name and that of his wife, and became a fervent follower of Amen and a worshipper of the old gods of his country. The fame of Tutankhamen really rests on the fact that he restored the national worship of Amen, and made the Atenites to relinquish their hold upon the revenues of this god. Other writers again have tried to show that Tutankhamen was the "Pharaoh of the Exodus," and also that it was his wife Ankh-s-en-pa-Aten (or Amen) who took Moses out of his ark of bulrushes and brought him up. But there was more than one Exodus, and Tutankhamen was not King of Egypt when any of them took place. And strange views have been promulgated even about some of the articles of furniture that Lord Carnarvon found in the tomb. Thus the funerary couch or bier with legs made in the form of a strange beast has been declared to be of Mesopotamian origin; but such is not the case. The beast represented is the composite monster called "Ammit," i.e. "Eater of the Dead," and she is found in the Judgment Scene in all the great papyri containing the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead. About her component parts there is no doubt, for in the Papyrus of Hunefer it is written, "Her fore-part is crocodile, her hindquarters are hippopotamus, her middle part lion (or cat)". The Mesopotamians knew of no such beast, and the couch or bier could only have been made in Egypt, where the existence of Ammit was believed in and the fear of her was great.

Some of the writers on Lord Carnarvon's discoveries discussed not only the Tomb of Tutankhamen, but the religious revolution which seems to have been inaugurated by Amenhetep III, at the instance of his wife Queen Ti, and was certainly carried on with increasing vigour by their son, Amenhetep IV, who believed that he was an incarnation of Aten, the god of the Solar Disk. Their discussions gave many people an entirely false idea of the character of Amenhetep IV, and of the nature of the cult of Aten. This king was described as a reformer, an individualist, and an idealist and a pacifist; but he was a reformer who initiated no permanent reform, an individualist who diverted the revenues of the gods of his country to his own uses, an idealist who followed the cult of the material, and a pacifist who lost Egypt's Asiatic Empire. His "Teaching" proclaimed the "oneness" of Aten, which has been compared to the monotheism of Christian nations; but for centuries before his time the priesthoods of Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis and Thebes had proclaimed this self-same oneness to be the chief attribute of their gods. This "Teaching" was said to inculcate a religion and morality superior to any doctrine found in the Old Testament, and some enthusiasts would have us believe that in spiritual conceptions and sublime precepts it surpassed Christ's teaching as set forth in the Gospels. Practically all that we know of the "Teaching" of Amenhetep IV is found in a short hymn, which is attributed to the king himself, and in a longer hymn, which is found in the Tomb of Ai, his disciple and successor, at Tall al-'Amarnah. The language and phrasing of these works are very interesting, for they show a just appreciation of the benefits that man and beast alike derive from the creative and fructifying influence of the heat and light of the sun. But I cannot find in them a single expression that contains any spiritual teaching, or any exhortation to purity of life, or any word of consciousness of sin, or any evidence of belief in a resurrection and a life beyond the grave. It is of course possible that all the religious works of the Atenites, except these hymns, have perished, but the fact remains that it is upon these two hymns, and the extracts from them which are found in the tombs of officials at Tall al-'Amarnah, that modem writers have founded their views and statements about the highly spiritual character of the religion and morality of the Atenites.

Whilst discussing these and similar matters here with Lord Carnarvon about the middle of last December, he suggested that I should put together, in a small book, the known facts about the reign of Tutankhamen, and add two or three chapters on the cults of Amen, Aten, and Egyptian Monotheism, which had been so completely misrepresented. He was particularly anxious that translations of some of the hymns to Amen and Aten should be given, and that the most important of them should be accompanied by the original hieroglyphic texts, so that those who cared to go into the matter might have the means of forming their own conclusions about the character of the hymns to Aten, and deciding whether it was spiritual or material. In the following pages I have tried to carry out his suggestion, and in the circumstances perhaps it will not be out of place to say a few words about his labours in the field of Egyptian Archaeology.

In the winter of 1907-08, Lord Carnarvon carried out a series of comprehensive excavations at Drah abu'l Nakkah and in the Valley of Der al-Bahari in Western Thebes. In these, as in all his subsequent excavations, he was assisted by Mr. Howard Carter, formerly Inspector in the Service of Antiquities of Egypt. This gentleman possessed very special qualifications for the work that he undertook for Lord Carnarvon, namely, a good .knowledge of colloquial Arabic, great experience in dealing with the natives and the "antica" dealers in the country, skill in the practical work of excavation, and keen interest in Egyptian Archaeology. At Der al-Bahari, Lord Carnarvon discovered two important ostraka inscribed with texts, the one dealing with the deeds of King Kames, and the other containing a portion of a new version of the Precepts of Ptah-hetep. In 1908-09 he discovered the tomb of Tetaki, and a tomb of the XXVth dynasty containing the coffins of nine persons. In 1910-11 he discovered an unfinished temple of Hatshepsut, a ruined temple of Rameses IV, a cemetery of the XIIth dynasty, and a number of early burials. A full account of what he did at Thebes will be found in his Five Years' Explorations at Thebes (1907-11), Oxford, 1912. This book is illustrated by eighty fine folio plates, and is one of the fullest accounts hitherto published of archaeological work done in Egypt. In 1911-12 he continued his excavations at Thebes, and broke new ground at Xo, in the Delta. In 1912, he discovered at Thebes a large temple-deposit of Hatshepsut, consisting of alabaster jars, tools, etc., and a number of pit-tombs of the XIIth dynasty. In 1915 he discovered and cleared out the Tomb of Amenhetep I, and in 1916-17 he discovered a tomb which had been prepared for Hatshepsut. The latter contained a magnificent sarcophagus of crystalline limestone inscribed with the Queen's name and titles as wife of the reigning Pharaoh. It is impossible to enumerate here, however briefly, the various excavations which he carried out at Thebes between 1907 and 1921, but it must be stated that he superintended them all personally, and that he alone defrayed all the expenses, which, as will be readily understood, were very considerable.

In recent years he sought for a wider sphere of excavation, and turned his attention to the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings in Western Thebes, which was one of the sites reserved for Government excavation. During the early years of this century Mr. T. Davis obtained permission to dig there from the late Prof. Maspero, Director of the Service of Antiquities of Egypt, and, with the help of Mr. Howard Carter and Mr. Ayrton, he succeeded in locating and excavating the tombs of Queen Hatshepsut, Thothmes IV, Heremheb, Menephthah, Saptah, and the unopened tomb of Iuau and Tuau, the father and mother of Queen Ti. When he had done this he announced to Maspero, "The Valley is now cleared, there are no more royal tombs in it"; and most people were willing to accept these words as the statement of a fact. But Lord Carnarvon did not believe that Mr. Davis's opinion was correct, and, having obtained the necessary permission from the Government, he and Mr. Carter set to work to prove that it was not. Each felt that somewhere in the Valley one or two royal tombs must still exist, and knowledge, judgment, unceasing labour, and luck enabled them to light upon the most magnificent archaeological "find" ever made in Egypt. The following extract from a letter which he wrote to me on December 1, 1922, shows how he personally regarded his great triumph. He says:--

"One line just to tell you that we have found the most remarkable 'find' that has ever been made, I expert, in Egypt or elsewhere. I have only so far got into two chambers, but there is enough in them to fill most of your rooms at the B.M. (upstairs); and there is a sealed door where goodness knows what there is. It is not only the quantity of the objects, but their exceptional beauty, finish and originality, which makes this such an extraordinary discovery. There is a throne, or chair, there more beautiful than any object that has been found in Egypt; alabaster vases of the most marvellous work, and quite unknown except as represented in the tombs; couches of state, chairs, beds, wonderful beadwork, four chariots encrusted with precious stones, life-size bitumenised figures of the king in solid gold sandals and covered with insignia, boxes innumerable, the king's clothes, a shawabti about 3 feet high, sticks of state. I have not opened the boxes, and don't know what is in them; but there are some papyrus letters, faience, jewellery, bouquets, candles on ankh candlesticks. All this is in [the] front chamber, besides lots of stuff you can't see. There is then another room which you can't get into owing to the chaos of furniture, etc., alabaster statues, etc., piled up 4 or 5 feet high. Then we come to the sealed door behind which, I am sure, is the king and God knows what. Some of the stuff is in excellent condition, some is poor, but the whole thing is marvellous; and then there is that sealed door!! Even Lacau 1 was touched by the sight. [Two paragraphs omitted.] It is going to cost me something awful, but I am going to try to do it all myself. I think it will take Carter and three assistants nearly two years to remove, if we find much behind the seals. I am coming back in ten days and will try and see you--Yours ever, CARNARVON."

Having found the archaeological "pearl of great price," with characteristic generosity he was anxious that all who could should come to Luxor to see it and to rejoice over it with him. He made an arrangement with The Times to publish detailed accounts of the clearing of the outer chambers, and to reproduce the splendid photographs of the most striking objects, which were made for him by a member of the American Archaeological Mission, and thus people in all parts of the world were able to watch almost daily the progress of the work. Visitors from many countries thronged to Luxor to see Tutankhamen's tomb and the wonders that it contained, and Lord Carnarvon spent himself freely in helping them in every way in his power. He gave them his time and energy and knowledge ungrudgingly, but this work, alas! used up his strength and exhausted him. He was not physically a strong or robust man, and the effects of a serious motor accident, sustained many years ago, and of two illnesses in recent years, had taken toll of his vitality. His spirit and courage were invincible, nothing could daunt those, but the work that he had imposed upon himself was too exhausting for him. Then, when he was overtired and overworked, came the mosquito bite on his face. Every traveller in Egypt who has been the victim of the malignant and deadly mosquitoes, which are blown into the country in millions by the hot south winds in March and April, knows how serious are the fever and prostration that follow their successful attacks on the human body. The days passed and his work increased, and, as he refused to spare himself, serious illness came upon him, and he was obliged to go to Cairo and place himself in the hands of the doctors. There everything that medical science and skill could devise was done for him, but little by little he sank, and early in the morning of April 5 he passed peacefully away. The sympathy of the whole world went forth to him as he lay in that sick chamber in Cairo, fighting his fight with Death; that he should die so soon after winning such a glorious triumph seemed incredible.

The death of Lord Carnarvon is a serious blow for Egyptian Archlogy, and his loss is irreparable.

For sixteen long years he devoted himself to excavations in Egypt, and he gave to them time, energy, and money on a scale which no other archaeologist has ever done. The spirit of Ancient Egypt gripped him nearly twenty years ago, and every year that passed strengthened its hold upon him. The dry bones of Egyptian philology left him cold, and when Egyptologists squabbled over dates and chronology in his presence his chuckle was a delightful thing to hear. But he was fired by the exquisite beauty of form and colour which he found in the antiquities of Egypt, and his collection of small Egyptian antiquities at Highclere Castle is, for its size, probably the most perfect known. He only cared for the best, and nothing but the best would satisfy him, and having obtained the best he persisted in believing that there must be somewhere something better than the best! His quest for the beautiful in Egyptian design, form, and colour became the cult of his life in recent years. His taste was faultless, and his instinct for the true and genuine was unrivalled. When compared with a beautiful "antica" money had no value for him, and he was wont to say, with Sir Henry Rawlinson, "It is easier to get money than anticas." His work in Egypt brought him into contact with natives of all kinds, and he was universally popular with them, and he will be remembered for a long time as a generous employer and friend. His keen sense of humour, his quick wit, his capacity for understanding a matter swiftly, his ready sympathy, and his old world courtesy appealed greatly to the governing classes in Egypt, and endeared him to his friends, who were legion, both Oriental and Occidental. Here I have only ventured to speak of Lord Carnarvon as the great and disinterested archaeologist, who gave years of his life and untold treasure for the sake of his love for science, for I have neither the knowledge nor the ability to deal with his successes as a pioneer of colour photography, and as a collector of prints, pictures, books, etc. These, and many of the phases of his character and pursuits, are treated felicitously and sympathetically in a careful appreciation of his life and character which appeared in The Times, published on the day of his burial on Beacon Hill (April 30)

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.

British Museum,

May 7, 1923.

Footnotes