Akhenaten and the Religion of Light.

• Author: Hollis, Susan Tower
• Position: Review

Akhenaten and the Religion of Light. By ERIK HORNUNG. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca: CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1999. Pp. xii + 146. $29.95.

This short and eminently readable translation of Erik Hornung's 1995 volume, Echnaton: Die Religion des Lichtes, focuses on the nature of Akhenaten's religion, religious beliefs, and cultic practices, bringing together concepts and discussions from a wide range of scholarly writings including his own. The author begins his discussion by presenting the historical context within which the religion is situated, both the development of modern understanding of its character through sequential discoveries and a discussion of its antecedents.

Following a brief overview of the nineteenth-century discovery of Akhenaten and his city, Horning discusses in some detail the religious context from which this belief emerged, paying particular attention to the work done by Jan Assmann on the "New Solar Theology" in which the important role of the sun was stressed. Hornung then describes the early years of the king, observing that on accession, Akhenaten immediately broke with tradition, omitting any references to Amun in his titulary, centering his building program on Karnak and dedicating his structures to the sun-god, shifting the iconography from static representations to representations of movement, and eschewing the kinds of military activities that customarily heralded the beginning of a new reign. The religion that Akhenaten developed following this beginning elaborated the role of the sun as light. It was represented by the sun disk, the Aten, whose elaborate name was enclosed in cartouches beginning early in the king's reign. The accompanying cult, particularly once the court moved to the new, planned city of Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna), celebrated this light and occurred in open air. No dark temples with a holy of holies existed for this religion, but rather activity in an open court in the sunlight prevailed.

As Hornung develops his discussion of Akhenaten's religion, he notes its intellectual origins. There was no revelation, the god did not speak, and there was no book, no scripture. It also lacked any kind of conversion or outreach program. Akhenaten alone celebrated cult, joined by his wife Nefertiti, who served "as his personal goddess" (p. 57), thus providing the feminine principle. These points, especially when combined with the king's proscription of worship of deities other than the Aten and the...