Egyptian mythology
Aten
The One God of Light
Aten was the solar disk elevated by Pharaoh Akhenaten to the status of the one true god of Egypt, the first recorded monotheistic revolution in history. Unlike other Egyptian gods, Aten had no mythology or human form, only the disk itself, its rays ending in hands that offered the ankh of life. After Akhenaten's death, Aten's temples were demolished and his name systematically erased from every surface in Egypt.
- Mythology
- Egyptian mythology
- Appears in
- Aten and the Amarna Revolution
Aten is the visible disk of the sun, once a minor aspect of Ra, raised by Pharaoh Akhenaten into the sole god of Egypt around 1346 BCE. Akhenaten closed the old temples, seized their wealth, and built a new capital, Akhetaten, dedicated to the Aten alone. This worship was unlike any before it: no consort, no children, no myth, only rays of light ending in tiny hands reaching down to give life to the earth. The Great Hymn to the Aten, attributed to the king, is one of antiquity's most luminous religious poems. After Akhenaten died, the old priesthoods returned in fury and hacked the Aten's name from the monuments.
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