Changes in the Solar Cult Before the Reign of Amenhotep Iv/Akhenaten

Using sources 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 and your own knowledge, explain the changes in the solar delirium before the triumph of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten (10 marks 800 words) In a land handle Egypt where the sun was one of the two imposing forces of nature (the other being the Nile), it was natural for the tidy sum to holiness the sun as a graven image. Solar (sun) worship had been unspoiled throughout Egypt in one form or another(prenominal) since Predynastic times. Popular beliefs about the sun god varied from array to place as did the names by which the god was cognise and the way it was represented- Re, Atum, Kheper and Re- Horakhte. During the eighteenth Dynasty there was a number of changes in the solar cult. Re was seen as more than just a sun god. He was the universal god the sole god who has made himself for eternity and as such embodied every the other gods in his being. He was described in the hymns carven into rock-cut tombs, as Re of the Disk. Thutmose III was described as Re, the passe-partout of Heaven, the Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt when he rises, The Aten when he reveals himself. Thumose IV, Akhenatens grandfather, developed a closer relationship with the Aten than his predecessors. For example, on a commemorative scarab, he was described as The Disk in his Horizon.

He withal recorded that he fought with the Aten before him and hoped that the conquered foreigners would, like the Egyptians, serve the Aten forever. There was a tendency during the reign of Thutmose IV to describe the sun disk as a god in its own right rather than as the physical aspect of Re. The priests of the sun god at on or Heliopolis (the city of the sun) formulated the first state religion. They took the discordant popular beliefs about the sun and superimposed them one upon the other. They also amalgamated the various names for the sun god. By doing this they indicated to people throughout Egypt that the sun god they worshipped was the same as the one worshipped in the cult centre at Heliopolis. The... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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