{"id":79851,"date":"2019-11-03T16:58:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T23:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=79851"},"modified":"2019-11-15T13:47:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T20:47:56","slug":"for-a-sabbath-day-the-great-hymn-to-the-aten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/for-a-sabbath-day-the-great-hymn-to-the-aten.html","title":{"rendered":"For a Sabbath Day, the “Great Hymn to the Aten”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hieroglyphic<\/a>
A 1908 publication of the text of the \u201cGreat Hymn to the Aten\u201d
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cGreat Hymn to the Aten\u201d is a poem, composed during the middle of the fourteenth century before Christ, that is attributed to the\u00a0henotheistic or monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaten [Amenhotep IV]. \u00a0The \u201cAten\u201d or \u201cAton\u201d was the deified solar disk, believed by Akhenaten \u2014 \u201c\u201dEffective for Aten\u201d \u2014 to be the sole monotheistic deity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is a quotation from the middle of the text, as published by James B. Pritchard:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
How manifold it is, what thou hast made!<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
They are hidden from the face (of man).<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
O sole god, like whom there is no other!<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
And what is on high, flying with its wings.<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Thou settest every man in his place,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Thou suppliest their necessities:<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Their tongues are separate in speech,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
And their natures as well;<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Their skins are distinguished,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
To maintain the people (of Egypt)<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
According as thou madest them for thyself,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
The lord of every land, rising for them,<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n
The Aton [Aten] of the day, great of majesty.<\/i><\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Nefertiti<\/a>
She\u2019s been dead for nearly 33.5 centuries, but her famous portrait bust, now located in Berlin\u2019s Neues Museum, still captivates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here is Miram Lichtheim\u2019s rendition of a passage from the last part of the poem:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You are in my heart,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no other who knows you,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re [Akenaten],<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Whom you have taught your ways and your might.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

[Those on] earth come from your hand as you made them.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

When you have dawned they live.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

When you set they die;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

All eyes are on [your] beauty until you set. \u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

All labor ceases when you rest in the west;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

w<\/i>hen you rise you stir [everyone] for the King. \u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth. \u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

You rouse them for your son who came from your body. \u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Son of Re who lives by Maat, the Lord of crowns,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Akhenaten, great in his lifetime, (a<\/i>nd) the great Queen whom he loves,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

the Lady of the Two Lands,\u00a0<\/i>Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The \u201cGreat Hymn to the Aten\u201d is a poem, composed during the middle of the fourteenth century before Christ, that is attributed to the\u00a0henotheistic or monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaten [Amenhotep IV]. \u00a0The \u201cAten\u201d or \u201cAton\u201d was the deified solar disk, believed by Akhenaten \u2014 \u201c\u201dEffective for Aten\u201d \u2014 to be the sole monotheistic deity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6591,6603,6612,951,3739,6615,6594,6597,6609,6600,6606],"class_list":["post-79851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-akhenaten","tag-aten","tag-aton","tag-egypt","tag-egyptian","tag-hymn","tag-ikhnaton","tag-monotheism","tag-nefertiti","tag-pharaoh","tag-sun"],"yoast_head":"\nFor a Sabbath Day, the "Great Hymn to the Aten"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    The "Great Hymn to the Aten" is a poem, composed during the middle of the fourteenth century before Christ, that is attributed to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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