Aten

Aten (also Aton, Egyptian ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the sun disk deity and originally an aspect of Ra, the sun god in traditional ancient Egyptian religion. Although earlier in the religion Aten was a supreme god introduced into the Ancient Egyptian religion, later Aten became a single deity making it a monotheistic religion of itself. 
== Atenism ==
Atenism, the Aten religion, the Amarna religion, or the "Amarna heresy" was a religion and the religious changes associated with the ancient Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The religion centered on the cult of the god Aten, depicted as the disc of the Sun and originally an aspect of the traditional solar deity Ra. In the 14th century BC, Atenism was Egypt's state religion for about 20 years, before subsequent rulers returned to the traditional polytheistic religion and the pharaohs associated with Atenism were erased from Egyptian records.
=== Worship ===
In the worship of the Aten, the daily service of purification, anointment and clothing of the divine image was not performed. Incense was burnt several times a day. Hymns sung to Aten were accompanied by harp-music. Aten's ceremonies in Akhetaten involved giving offerings to Aten with a swipe of the royal scepter. Instead of barque-processions, the royal family rode in a chariot on festival days. Elite women were known to worship the Aten in sun-shade temples in Akhetaten. 
Two temples were central to the city of Akhetaten, the larger of the two had an "open, unroofed structure covering an area of about 800 by 300 metres (2,600 ft × 1,000 ft) at the northern end of the city". Temples to the Aten were open-air structures with little-to-no roofing to maximize the amount of sunlight on the interior making them unique compared to other Egyptian temples of the time. Balustrades depicting Akhenaten, the queen and the princess embracing the rays of Aten flanked stairwells, ramps and altars. These fragments were initially identified as stele but were later reclassified as balustrades based on the presence of scenes on both sides. The Small Aten Temple is a temple located in the city of Amarna.
==Overview==
The full title of Akhenaten's god was The Rahorus who rejoices in the horizon, in his/her Name of the Light which is seen in the sun disc. (This is the title of the god as it appears on the numerous stelae which were placed to mark the boundaries of Akhenaten's new capital at Akhetaten, modern Amarna.) This lengthy name was often shortened to Ra-Horus-Aten or just Aten in many texts, but the god of Akhenaten raised to supremacy is considered a synthesis of very ancient gods viewed in a new and different way.
Both Ra and Horus characteristics are part of the god, but the god is also considered to be both masculine and feminine simultaneously. All creation was thought to emanate from the god and to exist within the god. In particular, the god was not depicted in anthropomorphic (human) form, but as rays of light extending from the sun's disk. Furthermore, the god's name came to be written within a cartouche, along with the titles normally given to a Pharaoh, another break with ancient tradition.
The Aten, the sun-disk, first appears in texts dating to the 12th dynasty, in The Story of Sinuhe, where the deceased king is described as rising as god to the heavens and uniting with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker.M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.1, 1980, p.223
Ra-Horus, more usually referred to as Ra-Herakhty (Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons), is a synthesis of two other gods, both of which are attested from very early on. During the Amarna period, this synthesis was seen as the invisible source of energy of the sun god, of which the visible manifestation was the Aten, the solar disk. Thus Ra-Horus-Aten was a development of old ideas which came gradually. The real change, as some see it, was the apparent abandonment of all other gods, above all Amun, and the debatable introduction of monotheism by Akhenaten.Jan Assmann, Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies, Stanford University Press 2005, p.59 The syncretism is readily apparent in the Great Hymn to the Aten in which Re-Herakhty, Shu and Aten are merged into the creator god.M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.2, 1980, p.96 Others see Akhenaten as a practitioner of an Aten monolatry,Dominic Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt, Routledge 2000, ISBN 0415185491, pp.36ff. as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten.
==Royal Titulary==
During the Amarna Period, the Aten was given a Royal Titulary (as he was considered to be king of all), with his names drawn in a cartouche. There were two forms of this title, the first had the names of other gods, and the second later one which was more 'singular' and referred only to the Aten himself. The early form has Re-Horakhti who rejoices in the Horizon, in his name Shu which is the Aten. The later form has Ra, ruler of the two horizons who rejoices in the Horizon, in his name of light which is the Aten.
===Variant translations===
*High relief and low relief illustrations of the Aten show it with a curved surface, therefore, the late scholar Hugh Nibley insisted that a more correct translation would be globe, orb or sphere, rather than disk. The three-dimensional spherical shape of the Aten is even more evident when such reliefs are viewed in person, rather than merely in photographs.
*There is a possibility that Aten's three-dimensional spherical shape depicts an eye of Horus/Ra. In the other early monotheistic religion Zoroastrianism the sun is called Ahura Mazda's eye.
*These two theories are compatible with each other, since an eye is an orb.
===Names from the Aten===
*Akhenaten: "Effective spirit of the Aten."
*Akhetaten: "Horizon of the Aten," Akhenaten's capital. The archaeological site is known as Amarna.
*Ankhesenpaaten: "Her life is of the Aten."
*Beketaten: "Handmaid of the Aten."
*Meritaten: "She who is beloved of the Aten."
*Meketaten: "Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten."
*Neferneferuaten: "The most beautiful one of Aten."
*Paatenemheb: "The Aten on jubilee."
*Tutankhaten: "Living image of the Aten." Original name of Tutankhamun.
==See also==
*Great Hymn to the Aten
*Ancient Egyptian religion
*Kemetism
*Akhenaten
*Modern Atenism
*Ra
==References==
Category:Atenism
Category:Egyptian gods
Category:Names of God