Focus (KFD): Titles and Royal Image Flashcards
(6 cards)
Background on Titles
Every pharaoh has a personal birth name, and is assigned four more royal titles upon his accession.
- The agenda for his reign is often evident in his choice of titles
Change of Titles
Original Titles (as Amenhotep IV)
- No warlike references like previous pharaohs, instead a focus on internal developments in Thebes and Karnak
- Continuation of Amenhotep III’s peaceful “Golden Age”
- Reveals his religious reform-based agenda
- References to Thebes (his birthplace links to Amun)
- References Amun (changed to reflect current beliefs) and Re (stays as a constant of solar theology)
New Titles (as Akhenaten)
- Becomes “beloved of the Aten” and “servant of the Aten” to represent his becoming of the intermediary between the people and the Aten
- New mention of Akhetaten (his new capital city)
Traditional Royal Iconography
Akhenaten began his reign with depictions reflecting traditional styles, including symbols of kingship (headdresses, crowns, the false beard, kilt, bull’s tail, crook and flail), being a specimen of manhood and as a sphinx (military power).
EVIDENCE: Sandstone Block from Karnak
- Amenhotep IV is shown in traditional style alongside falcon-headed Re-Horakhty with a sun-disc on his head (early form of the Aten)
EVIDENCE: Unfinished Relief from Karnak
- Amenhotep IV smiting the enemy with a stone-headed mace, a pose dating to before Old Kingdom Egypt (very traditional)
Change in Iconography (Amarna Art)
The decorations of monuments being commissioned in East Karnak show a dramatic change:
- The pharaoh began being depicted with a long head, elongated neck, almond eyes, fleshy lips, swelling breats, broad hips, plump thighs and spindly legs.
- His wife and daughters soon followed.
- Officials and servants were depicted in similar style
- The royal family in domestic scenes (kissing children, holding hands etc.)
- Nature and plant life depicted more realistically
- More liveliness in the scenes (e.g. flying birds, servants hurrying)
EVIDENCE: Tomb of vizier Ramose at Thebes
- Juxtaposed scenes demonstrate the dramatic change: one shows Amenhotep IV seated in traditional style, the other shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti at the window of appearance in new iconography
Amarna physiognomy became considerably softened in style in the later years of his reign.
Explanations for Change
Akhenaten was a woman
- Eugene Lefebrve (19th century French scholar) thought the feminine nature of the new iconography was because he was a woman masquerading as a man
- Colossal statue from East Karnak displayed female attributes but it actually depicts Nefertiti
Akhenaten had a physical disorder
- Elliot Grafton Smith (1927 anatomist) suggested that he suffered from Frohlich’s syndrome, causing him to suffer from an unusual distribution of fat in the breasts, abdomen, pubis, thighs and buttocks, and an unusualy shaped skull.
- Usually causes sterility and mental retardedness, which Akhenaten obviously didn’t have.
- Alwyn Burridge (Canadian scholar) instead suggest Marfan’s syndrome, which has symptoms of slender stature, elongated fingers and elongated skull among others.
Artistic and Religious Innovation
- Reflects the revolutionary nature of his reign in making a significant break with the traditions of the past
- Demonstrates his devotion to ma’at, the concept of truth and integrity
- Bek, Akhenaten’s chief sculptor, refers to himself as “the apprentice whom his Majesty taught” in Aswan and Hermopolis
Religious Philosophy Through Art
- Joyce Filer (British Egyptologist) suggests that Akhenaten may have chosen to be depicted with both male and female features to reflect the nature of the Aten
- A hymn to the Aten found in Amarna tombs addresses the sun disc as “mother and father of all that you made”, a sentiment possibly adopted to make Akhenaten the mother and father of his people.
Heb-Sed
In year 2-3 of his reign, Akhenaten held the Heb-Sed festival, which was traditionaly held around year 30 of a pharaoh’s reign to renew the king.
- Held early in his reign to represent his renewal as a servant of the Aten and marking the abstract nature of his rule
- Joint jubilee between Akhenaten and the Aten
- Jacobus Van Dijk argues that the festival went three ways between Akhenaten, Aten and Amenhotep III
EVIDENCE: Relief at Gem pa-aten at East Karnak (primary)
- Shows Akhenaten wearing the traditional festival robes and receiving the blessings of the Aten’s rays
EVIDENCE: Van Dijk in The Amarna Period and the later New Kingdom
- “The Aten, who is present in every single episode of the jubilee rituals depicted on the walls of the new temple, is now evidently identical with the deceased solarised Amenhotep III, and the sed-festival celebrated by his son is as much a festival for the Aten as for the new king, even though the latter is of necessity the chief actor in the rituals. The Aten is the ‘divine father’ who rules Egypt as the celestial co-regent of his earthly incarnation, his son.”
