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For a Sabbath Day, the “Great Hymn to the Aten”

For a Sabbath Day, the “Great Hymn to the Aten”

Last updated on: November 15, 2019 at 1:47 pm by Dan Peterson

For a Sabbath Day, the “Great Hymn to the Aten” 2019-11-15T13:47:56-07:00 Dan Peterson

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A 1908 publication of the text of the “Great Hymn to the Aten”
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)

The “Great Hymn to the Aten” is a poem, composed during the middle of the fourteenth century before Christ, that is attributed to the henotheistic or monotheistic Pharaoh Akhenaten [Amenhotep IV]. The “Aten” or “Aton” was the deified solar disk, believed by Akhenaten — “”Effective for Aten” — to be the sole monotheistic deity.

Here is a quotation from the middle of the text, as published by James B. Pritchard:

How manifold it is, what thou hast made!

They are hidden from the face (of man).

O sole god, like whom there is no other!

Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,

Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,

Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,

And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,

Thou settest every man in his place,

Thou suppliest their necessities:

Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.

Their tongues are separate in speech,

And their natures as well;

Their skins are distinguished,

As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.

Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,

Thou bringest forth as thou desirest

To maintain the people (of Egypt)

According as thou madest them for thyself,

The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,

The lord of every land, rising for them,

The Aton [Aten] of the day, great of majesty.

She’s been dead for nearly 33.5 centuries, but her famous portrait bust, now located in Berlin’s Neues Museum, still captivates.

And here is Miram Lichtheim’s rendition of a passage from the last part of the poem:

You are in my heart,

There is no other who knows you,

Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re [Akenaten],

Whom you have taught your ways and your might.

[Those on] earth come from your hand as you made them.

When you have dawned they live.

When you set they die;

You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you.

All eyes are on [your] beauty until you set.

All labor ceases when you rest in the west;

when you rise you stir [everyone] for the King.

Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth.

You rouse them for your son who came from your body.

The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,

Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re,

The Son of Re who lives by Maat, the Lord of crowns,

Akhenaten, great in his lifetime, (and) the great Queen whom he loves,

the Lady of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever.

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