Great Hymn to the Aten

The hymn

The Great Hymn to the Aten is an ancient Egyptian hymn to the sun god Aten. It is attributed to Pharaoh Akhenaten, who attempted to convert Egypt to monotheism, with Aten being the only god. It was found, in its most complete form, in the tomb of Ay in the rock tombs at Amarna (ancient Akhet-Aten, the city Akhenaten founded). The hymn gives us a glimpse of the artistic outpouring of the Amarna period.

Hymn

The hymn suggests that Akhenaten considered Aten (the disk, orb, sphere, globe of the sun) as the only god, and creator of the universe, particularly in the verses translated as:

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 of the day, great of majesty.

Analysis

The hymn notes the depth of human sleep, awakening to daylight. Of lands, pastures, animals expressing the joy of warmth of sunlight, and of the growth of plants, and creatures in the daily sustenance of the sun.

The hymn portrays the sun as the giver of all life, plunging the land into darkness and danger during the night, to reawaken to life, daily work and praise with the dawn. There is great emphasis on the diversity and holiness of all living things, who praise the Aten with their every action.

Akhenaton's religious reforms (later regarded heretical and reverted under his successor Tutankhamun) have been described by some scholars as the earliest known example of monotheistic thought while others consider it to have been an example of henotheism.

The "Hymn to the Aten" was set to music by Philip Glass in his opera Akhnaten.

In his book Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis compared the Hymn to the Psalms of the Judaeo-Christian canon.

See also

• Atenism

Citation for comparison to Psalm 104, see Pritchard, James B. "The Ancient Near East, An anthology of Texts and Pictures", Princeton University Press, 1958, page 227.