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The influence of Egypt on religion
How does religion affect the development of Egypt today
Religious life in Egypt
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During the 18th Dynasty, Amenhotep IV was infamously known as a heretic ruler of Egypt when he surpassed his father Amenhotep III and ascended the throne from the years of “1352-1336 B.C.E.” When Amenhotep IV came into power, he inherited the largest, wealthiest, well-governed, and prosperous kingdom throughout the Egyptian Empire. Not before long during Amenhotep IV reign, he scandalously denounced any religious institutions that practiced Amon-Ra and Polytheism, the “belief of multiple Gods” throughout the kingdom and replaced it with a single belief of “one God” known as Monotheism. When Amenhotep IV institutes the first Monotheistic theology of a single God known as Aten by instigating a religious revolution, it ignited an uprising amongst the Egyptian people. …show more content…
The religious revolution started when the young Pharaoh, Amenhotep IV showed an inclination toward a powerful sun’s rays God, Aten.
The young Pharaoh was the first ruler to commence the removal of Amon-Ra, the sun God of a symbolic falcon that has been worshipped by his previous predecessors since the beginning of the 18th Dynasty. Subsequently, Amenhotep IV hated how the representation of his name stood as “Amon is pleased” and changed his name to Akhenaten, which means “He who is profitable to the Aten”. When Akhenaten proclaimed Aten is the only one true God across Egypt, he began to remove the priests of Amon and dissolved any religious institutions that practiced Polytheism and Amon-Ra. In addition, Akhenaten builds a new capital city called Akhetaten between Memphis and from the original capital of Thebes in Egypt, to honor the new sun’s rays God, Aten. The high taxation of the infrastructure cost of the new capital, and the removal of Amon-Ra and the Polytheism religions had profoundly upset the Egyptian people. Soon after Akhenaten death, the Egyptian people eradicated his identity, the memory of Aten, and the capital of Akhetaten from recorded
history.
Aside from being a priest, the importance of Paankhenamun’s position was due to his association with the Amun, who was a significant god of Egyptian Thebes. Viewed as chief divinity, Amun was often equated with the famous god Zeus and he even had his own worshiping cult (Freedman, 322). Moreover, Amun was originally one of the eight gods of Hermopolis, known as the god of air. However, at the time of the New Kingdom, this ch...
The reunification of upper and Lower Egypt catalysed the syncretism of prominent sun deities Amun and Re. Consequently, a powerful cult emerged that became the prevailing religious ideology, as well as an important political power base which secured dynastic legitimacy. The importance and impact of the Amun cult is diverse, as it developed social cohesion, shaped the ideology of kingship, facilitated economic and military prosperity, and formed a new power base; the Amun Priesthood.
Amenhotep IV was born in c. 1365 BCE during the 18th dynasty in Egypt to Pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye (Aldred 11). He was given his name in honor of the Gods Amun and Re whom Amenhotep III sought to be the earthly representative of (Bratton 17). Amun-Re was the creator God, and Re was the God of the sun (Assmann 485-6). Combined, these two deities were the most powerful God and are therefore normally referred to by their conjoined name of Amun-Re (Redford 97). Although Re was the sole Sun God, there were others under him who were individually responsible for a specific detail of the sun-God. Aten was an aspect of R...
Much of the religious practice of the ancient world was polytheistic. The Hebrews embrace of monotheism is noteworthy, because it distinguishes Judaism from the ...
Egyptian religion is polytheistic. The gods are present in the form of elements of life – natural forces and human condition. Greek religion is also polytheistic. Like Egypt, the Greek gods exist to represent different aspects of life, but they also play an active social role in the people’s lives. In Greek mythology, the gods have feelings and flaws as the normal people do. Greek Gods have even had children and committed adultery with people. The Egyptian gods interact more with each other than with the people. They interact with the people more on a supernatural level. Osiris, the Egyptian god of agriculture and afterlife, judges people when they die. Amon, the king of gods, is hidden inside the ruler (This “king of gods” title was not always so as the popularity of Aton, the sun-disk rose through the reformation of Pharaoh Akhenaton in 1369-1353 BC). Hebrew religion, being monotheistic, had only one all-powerful god. Instead of being believed by the people to be somewhere in the world, the Hebrew god was completely separated from the physical universe. Abraham in Canaan (about 1800 BC) is the first known practicer of monotheism. As for monotheistic resemblance in other cultures, the Greek god Zeus is seen as a leader of the other gods, but not independent of them. Akhenaton’s short-lived reform of Egyptian religion reveres Aton as the source of all life. This is the earliest religious expression of a belief in a sole god of the universe. Akhenaton’s challenge to the power of the priests did not last beyond his own lifetime.
The 18th dynasty, which only occurred from 1570 BC – 1365BC was regarded as one of the most prosperous and glorious periods in Ancient Egyptian History. It was also a period where some of the greatest pharaohs had made Thebes into a majestic capital and created one of the greatest Egyptian establishments in Ancient History, the temple of their God Amun Re. One of the more notable pharaohs was the founder of the New Kingdom Ahmose I. However, the question has been posed to what extent did
Akhenaten had a dream to reform Egypt. He changed the way they worshiped, the way they lived and even the way they created art. His rule was a time of great change for Egypt, however his ideas and reforms were met with little support or enthusiasm. He used tremendous amounts of Egypt’s recourses and time for all his reforms, he also consumed a lot of his own time on these problems rather than on his pharaonic duties. During the 5th and 6th years of his reign Akhenaten set the boundaries for his new capital, Akhetaten, 350 kilometres north of Thebes. It was to be a city dedicated to Aten and all who worshiped him, however like most of Akhenaten’s reforms once his rule concluded, like so many other of his attempts to change Egypt, this too would be abandoned. Akhenaten led an artistic reform, changing the way that Egyptian artists portrayed the people of Egypt. He moved away from the false grandeur that had always been used and opted for a more stark and realistic approach, possible even an exaggerated ugliness. He himself was depicted as a gaunt, frail and pot-bellied man with a stern and imposing face rather than a strong radiant god king as previous pharaohs had always b...
Aten (Egypt)-- A god at one point who was an aspect of Ra. But rather than being seen as an anthropomorphic being. Like others of the ancient Egyptian gods he was represented by the disk of the sun with rays of light going outward.
Throughout early civilizations, it is seen that religion held a prominent role in defining the culture of a society, the Egyptian civilization included. They believed strongly of a higher power reigning over the people, in which the deity construct their moral views and interpretation of the world around them. Two ancient Egyptian text, “The Great Hymn to Aten” and “Cannibal Spell to King Unas”, gives an outlook of the ancient Egyptian mythology and their belief system. The “Great Hymn to Aten” was a text written by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) in an attempt of changing the religious perspective of the ancient Egyptians to glorify his god, Aten. On the other hand, the “Cannibal Spell for King Unas” was a pyramid text inscribed in the tomb of the last 5th dynasty pharaoh, King Unas, to protect his remains and help him ascend to the
While his heritage put him in a lot of power, it also may have given him a bad reputation. His father, Akhenaten, attempted to challenge the millennium-old Egyptian religion and convert everybody to monotheism. This idea did not go over very well and failed. Akhenaton also instituted a new capital at Amarna, rather than Thebes. (Tutankhamen).
The Egyptians were one of the first known civilizations. “Religion played a very influential role in the life of the Ancient Egyptians, leaving it’s impress on politics, literature, architecture, art, and the conduct of daily affairs.” (Page 56) Throughout their history as a civilization their religion changed from polytheistic to monotheistic and then back to polytheistic. The beginning religion focused on the importance of the sun god, Re. This “solar faith” didn’t offer any spiritual blessings for its followers. Following this solar faith was the cult of Osiris. He was portrayed as a nature god that rose from the dead. Osiris also portrayed human like qualities and Osiris’ death gave the people the promise of an afterlife. This belief is what started the idea of mummification and that people could take their worldly possessions with them into afterlife. These ideas were all merged together. The
Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology. The Aten, the sun-disk, is first related to The Story of Sinuhe. The dead king is described a god to the heavens and came back together ( united ) with the the sun disk.
While the Hebrews and Egyptians creation theories bear resemblances and differences, the study and comparison of both the Egyptian myths and the biblical account allow us to comprehend the religious views of ancient civilizations in a better light. One may come to the conclusion that the Hebrews were influenced by the cultures of Egyptians by creating similarities in their own beliefs, or by drawing a line of defense of what is in their terms true, by separating from the mass ideals of the Egyptians and establishing distinct