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Ikhnaton and Nefertiti: Difference between revisions
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==Ikhnaton’s montheism == | ==Ikhnaton’s montheism == | ||
Thirty-three centuries ago, Ikhnaton recognized the one God in the spiritual Sun behind the physical sun, and he called this God “Aton.” Ikhnaton visualized the Infinite One, Aton, as a divine being “clearly distinguished from the physical sun” yet manifest in the sunlight. Ikhnaton gave reverence to the “heat which is in the Sun,” as he saw it to be the vital heat that accompanied all Life.<ref>James Henry Breasted, ''A History of Egypt: From the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest'' (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912), pp. 360, 361.</ref> | Thirty-three centuries ago, Ikhnaton (or Akhenaten, as the name is sometimes spelled) recognized the one God in the spiritual Sun behind the physical sun, and he called this God “Aton.” Ikhnaton visualized the Infinite One, Aton, as a divine being “clearly distinguished from the physical sun” yet manifest in the sunlight. Ikhnaton gave reverence to the “heat which is in the Sun,” as he saw it to be the vital heat that accompanied all Life.<ref>James Henry Breasted, ''A History of Egypt: From the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest'' (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912), pp. 360, 361.</ref> | ||
Ikhnaton created a symbol that depicted Aton as a golden circular disk from which diverging beams radiated. He was careful to point out that the solar disk itself was not God but only a symbol of God. Each diverging beam, or ray, ended in a hand extending over every person as a blessing, and in some depictions the hand brought the ankh, the symbol of Life, directly to Ikhnaton and his Queen. | Ikhnaton created a symbol that depicted Aton as a golden circular disk from which diverging beams radiated. He was careful to point out that the solar disk itself was not God but only a symbol of God. Each diverging beam, or ray, ended in a hand extending over every person as a blessing, and in some depictions the hand brought the ankh, the symbol of Life, directly to Ikhnaton and his Queen. | ||