continues with Mahfuz’s book: But the matter, he assures, went beyond the mere interest in other religions and became a new form of the struggle for power. The queen, to strengthen the throne, sought to incorporate the priests of other regions and put them on the same level as Thebes. In this way, it limited the great influence they had, since people considered them servants of the gods and the people, teachers, doctors, guides in religion and in the afterlife. The lust for power then led her to use religion with finesse and cunning to get the king to do without the priests.
Among the criticisms he makes, he relates that when his father Akhenaten died he had himself crowned in an esplanade dedicated to this god and then he began to build a temple in Thebes, the sacred city of Aton. Later, he began to spread the new religion among his men to choose his collaborators among the most adept. They came to profess the new belief for different reasons, but apparently they had only one clear objective, to realize their personal ambitions of power at the cost of faith.
Little by little, he adds, the king’s power began to weaken in Thebes, and during an Amon feast there were obvious signs of growing discontent. This is how the sovereign decided to build a new city dedicated to the god Aton and take refuge in it with his followers. It was there when he changed his name from Amonhotep IV to Akhenaten “the one who lives in the truth.”
The priests, he explains, forced him to emigrate along with eighty thousand heretics to Amarna, and thus they were left with their hands free to undertake the sacred battle between Amun and Aton.
Aware of his weakness in front of the priests of Amun, he ordered to close all the temples of this god and confiscated his property and had his priests expelled, as an exaggerated sign of his strength.
Then he began the journey throughout the territory to attract his subjects to impiety. In this way, the people were divided between the followers of the gods of Amun and the followers of Aton.
For others the religion of Egypt stops being polytheistic to monotheistic, like the Jews.
But the bonanza that Egypt had enjoyed for so long stagnated: markets began to empty, merchandise was no longer sold, and slaves were starving.
In order to avoid a civil war, the priests of Amun, through an intermediary, demanded that Akhenaten restore freedom of worship and send armies to defend the borders, since the enemies began not to recognize the borders and invade them, but he did not accept .
He then points out that they asked to resign from the throne, allowing him in exchange to preserve his religion and even proselytize. He also refused this alternative and in response named his brother Samankhara as co-regent. The priests ignored this appointment and, for their part, appointed Tutankhamun to succeed him. A young man who could be manipulated. The henchmen left him, left Amarna and returned to Thebes and swore allegiance to the new pharaoh.
Thus ended the reign, without war or destruction. The Temples reopened their doors and the faithful were able to go there freely, after the long period of prohibition. The heretic King as ill and died desolate along with Queen Nefertiti, suffering loneliness and exile.
The priest of Amun delivers this final description of Akhenaten: “He was neither male nor female. He was weak to the limit of hating the strong; they were man, priests or gods. He invented a god in his image and likeness, weak and feminine, father and mother at the same time, and I attribute only one function to him: love. His cult was dancing, singing and drinking. He sank into stupidity, forgetting his royal obligations, while the best men of the empire fell before the enemy, asking for help if they received it. The empire was finally lost; Egypt was destroyed, with its empty temples and hungry people. That was the Heretic, the one who called himself Akhenaten”.
“The words of this priest are harsh!” Says Lein. Was it so, and what would you expect an enemy of the king to say? Dee responds. That we will never know.
Let’s look at the version of Ay, royal advisor:
Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye appointed him in charge of the education of their children. This is how he began to be the master of the crown prince, when he was only six years old. With the authority given him by having been the royal tutor, he notes the great intelligence and sensitivity that the young heir possessed, an opinion on which several writers agree.
As for Tiye, she relates that she belonged to a noble Nubian family, and that with her wisdom and energy she surpassed Hatshepsut herself. The queen together with mother, along with Amenhotep III, knew how to conduct politics in a conscious and measured way; however the son grew up blind and dedicated his reign to the new faith to the point of sacrificing his people, the empire and the throne. The priests of Amun accused him of being the first person responsible for Akhenaten to divert his belief in Amun.
As for the city of Thebes, how much Akhenaten did not believe that it was a holy city, but a den of ambitious merchants, libertines and prostitutes. In relation to the priests, he thought that they asked the poor for a part of their limited income, those who seduced the young women under the excuse of blessing them and who turned the temples into centers of penance and corruption. And that although this priestly caste, as it happened, constituted the most solid foundation of the throne, a power based on these lies and tricks seemed unworthy to him.
In the same way, he opposed Amun as the god of priests, while Aton was the sun who offers his rays to all in the same way.
Ay’s account highlights that Akhenaten during his reign decreased his taxes and used love instead of punishment. But at the same time his relationship with the priests of Amon deteriorated to the point where he ordered a city to be built consecrated to the one god. In the new capital, for a time there was a time of happiness and everyone’s hearts were opened to the new faith. However, the king dedicated himself entirely to his mission and in the name of peace, love and joy waged the most devastating war known in the history of Egypt. “It didn’t take long for me to close the temples. He banished the gods and had their names erased from the tombstones. He even changed his name and began his famous trips throughout the country to proselytize in favor of his religion, the religion of love, peace and joy, everywhere he was received with enthusiasm and love ”.
Then he mentions the facts of the appointment of his son Tutankhaton as king who was called Tutankhamun in reference to the god Amun. Given the seriousness of these events, all his collaborators abandoned him and left the city of Amarna, only Akhenaten was left desolate with Queen Nefertiti and a group of slaves and vigilantes. The disease did not take long to take over his body.
“This is the story of Akhenaten, whom today they curse and call a heretic. Without minimizing the events that fell on the people because of him, since he lost the throne and the empire. However, I must confess that I cannot erase the love and admiration for him from my heart. Let us leave the final sentence for the court of Osiris, judge of the eternal world. “
The version of Horemheb, head of the royal guard, and a henchman of the Akhenaten who maintained his position during the reign of Tutankhamun, commissioned him to end corruption in the country and restore peace in the provinces and in both missions he was successful. Even the high priest of Amun had given testimony in his favor, also supporting the sage Ay, who had been considered a hero in the great crisis experienced.
He had been a childhood companion and friend of the king before being appointed to this position of trust and he affirms: “Since I met him until the moment of the last greetings, he had nothing on his mind but faith in Aton and his religion.”
In relation to the new faith and the contacts that the king established with the people to announce the good news of love, joy and equality, Horemheb agreed with the appreciations that the sage Ay had.
He relates that when Amenhotep III died and the crown prince was called to the throne, the first thing he did was call his men to instruct them in the religion of Aton, warning that whoever wanted to collaborate in his government should profess the single faith.
According to Horembed, the priests despised them saying she was weak, blaming the Queen Mother Tiye for instilling those beliefs in her and the appropriates Nefertiti for being stubborn. But that image is false, she says, because all the ideas