A God Against the Gods (23 page)

Amonhotep IV
(life, health, prosperity!)

Now they see me, O Aten, as I truly am, naked before them and living in truth. They are absolutely silent, absolutely still. All the great plain, no longer desolate but crowded from edge to edge with my people who will soon grow to worship you and me as we worship one another, waits upon my words.

I take a step forward so that I stand at the chariot rail with my family behind me, and I begin to speak, slowly and carefully so that those in front may hear my words clearly and be able to pass them on back to those beyond who cannot hear. Ra is directly above, there is no more shadow on the sand. And thanks to you, O Aten, there is no shadow on my heart, nor will there be shadows anywhere if my people will but believe in you and me and the wonders we will bring to them together.

“Good people!” I cry, and my voice, in spite of my angriest inner efforts to prevent it, turns to its croaking note under the stress of my emotion—but no matter, Aten, that you cannot help, no one can help, I shall do my best anyway. “Good friends of Kemet, draw near and listen as your Pharaoh speaks!”

“Great wonders have I prepared for you this day, and great will they be forever and ever, for millions and millions of years!”

I pause, for I seem to be losing my breath, and in front of me I see the solemn faces of my parents, my sister, my brother, the new child Kia, Aye, Kaires, Amonhotep, Son of Hapu, Aanen, and all. All, all are tense and somber. Momentarily I feel a great panic, but suddenly on my arm there is Nefertiti’s tiny reassuring hand, and in my heart I hear your loving, protective voice, O Aten. And I continue:

“People of Kemet, you all are aware how almost five years ago I became Co-Regent with the Good God Neb-Ma’at-Ra. You know that in that time I have labored long and hard to serve you and to be a Good God worthy to sit beside him.

“You are also aware that from the beginning it has been my purpose to befriend all the gods, but to keep to myself the privilege and the right to worship as I please the god that to me seems best.

“You all know that this is the Aten.”

Again I pause, and become aware that to my right, standing just a little apart from the line of the Family, my uncle Aanen for a second has cracked his somber mask and is looking at me with a savage anger in his eyes. My eyes narrow to the cold slits I can make of them when I too am angry and he drops his head and looks hastily away. I go on, satisfied and feeling much stronger inside.

“It is the Aten!

“Yet, people of Kemet, you know that I have not attacked Amon or any other god. I have not desecrated their temples, or robbed their granaries, or struck down their priesthoods, or done them any bad thing, anywhere, at any time.

“And yet do they hate me.”

There was a gasp from someone in my family, taken up and echoed on back through the crowd.

“Yes!” I cry. “
Hate
me, for such is the only word that describes their constant interference with my will. But what have I done to cause their hate? Nothing, I say to you, and you know it—nothing!

“I have only worshiped in my own way. The Chief Wife and our daughters have joined me.

“I have built temples to the Aten, yes. I have glorified his name, yes. I have offered him to you to be your god, too—yes.

“But have I ever asked you to do what you would not do of your own free will? Have I ever forced you to come to the Aten’s temples? Have I ever required you to worship him? Have I ever ordered you to live in truth with him as I do?

“Never have I done these things, never! And Amon and all the gods know it well, as you know it, my people of Kemet.

“But Amon and the gods are not content with my worship of the Aten. They are not pleased that I offer him to you. They do not like his temples, which are open and bright and full of happiness. They do not like the joy he offers you if you will but worship him, and me, who am his Son.

“They are jealous. They defy me and they seek to drive you from the Aten, and from me, who am his Son.

“So I have drawn you here this day to hear what I intend. It is this.”

I pause, and abruptly there is silence while the sibilant whisper, “It is this! It is this! It is this…!” runs back and dies out in the crowd. Below me I see my family and the Court grow yet more tense. On my arm Nefertiti’s firm little hand gives me strength and in my heart you, O Aten, comfort and encourage me.

“From this day forward,” I say, and my voice, which has steadied into its shriller register, again grows low and choked with emotion, “I shall no longer be known as Nefer-Kheperu-Ra, Amonhotep IV.

“From this day forth I shall be known, and all my cartouches, monuments, sculptures, paintings and titularies shall bear it, and all men and all women everywhere, be they great or small, shall address me as:

“Nefer-Kheperu-Ra Akhenaten, ‘The Incarnation of the Aten.’”

At this there is a great gasp from everywhere, a murmuring that rolls back through the crowd in a giant wave.

“And also,” I cry over it, so that it abruptly ceases and gives way to my words, “the Chief Wife Nefertiti shall no longer be known as Nefertiti, but as:

“Nefer-Neferu-Aten Nefertiti, ‘Fair Is the Goodness of the Aten.’

“And so shall she be styled in all things, and by all shall she be so addressed.”

Again there is the great gasp, another wave of murmuring, louder and more troubled. But you are with me, O Aten, and I must do as you direct. I must live in truth and so must they. I am determined that
I
will. And by my example,
so will they.

“My father the Aten,” I resume (but this time the silence does not quite return as it was, there is still a sibilant murmuring and whispering, an uneasiness that might upset and distract me did I not have Nefertiti and you, O Aten), “has brought me to this place. He has said unto me, ‘It belongs to no god, goddess, prince or princess, and no man has any right to act as its owner.’

“And to him I have replied: ‘Only you, O Aten, Great Father, Great God. To you it belongs, and in it I will make for you a Place of Origin, a Horizon and a Seat to have your Being.’

“Thus on this day do I dedicate this place, to be known forever and ever, for millions and millions of years, as Akhet-Aten, ‘The Horizon of the Aten.’ I decree that all men shall so receive it, and here do worship of the great god Aten.”

I come to full stop, turn to Nefertiti. Together we take from the hands of our wide-eyed, solemn little daughters, Meryt-aten and Meket-aten, two baskets of fruit and other gifts. Together we descend from the chariot and, clothed only in your love, O Aten, approach your altar. Now there is absolute silence again as we place the baskets on the huge, bare stone. Only our voices ring out loud and clear together as we bow low to the altar and chant:

“So do we honor you, Great God, Great Father, Aten, who speaks only to his son Akhenaten and through him to all peoples! So do we bring offerings to mark this sacred day and the founding of your Horizon! So do we call on all men to join us in your worship, O Happy, O Beneficent! So do we honor you, O Aten, forever and ever, for millions and millions of years, founder, creator and protector of all things on this earth!”

Then we turn with quiet dignity and remount the chariot. Again I step forward. I can sense a relaxation in my family and in my people. I sense that they are saying to themselves, “Oh, this is all it is. He wishes an altar here. We do not mind that. So be it.”

But I have other wonders for them, O Aten, and you know what they are.

And when I begin to speak again, my damnable voice begins to choke once more with emotion, and they know, instantly, that they have not yet heard it all. And again the tension returns and grows in all who listen, here on my enormous plain, drenched in Ra’s fierce light.

“O Aten, Great Father, Great God,” I cry, “I ask of all those witnesses, is it not true what we have said, and do not these witnesses agree?”

I stop and look out upon them with an air of challenge and demand that I deliberately exaggerate, so that it becomes at once an issue between you and me on the one hand, O Aten, and the Court and my people on the other.

Very silently and tensely, now, the members of my family regard me, for they are closest to me and it is, of course, their duty to reply for the people. For a second I think perhaps it will be my father who replies, though I know this to be impossible for him, in the face of Amon: he would not be so brave. Instead, after a few seconds of almost unbearable tension, it is my uncle Aye who steps a little forward and bows low. Then he raises himself to his full height and his voice fills the silence:

“We hear your words, O Son of the Sun! We attend you! We witness for you this day that Aten will disclose his wishes only to you, and that all nations will come to this place to give tribute to the Aten, by whom all things live on this earth, forever and ever, for millions and millions of years!”

He steps back and again a long, low sigh of release moves through my family and my people. Again they think: “This is all.” But my next words swiftly disabuse them.

“O Aten, Great Father, Great God,” I cry, “hear and bear witness, with all these other witnesses, to these further things which I decree for you this day:

“I decree that here on your Horizon there shall be built a great city, and I shall not hearken to the Queen Nefer-Neferu-Aten Nefertiti nor to anyone who seeks to persuade me to build it anywhere else. Here it shall be, O Aten, your city Akhet-Aten. Its boundaries to the east, north, south and west shall be marked for you, and thus do I mark the first of them!”

And quickly I reach for the ends of the ropes which Bek and his men have cleverly hidden in the sand. I tug on them, and slowly, helped by many eager hands along the way, whose owners do not know my purpose but spring automatically to assist Pharaoh, they begin to emerge from the earth. To the north and to the south the great throng parts like a sea as the ropes emerge. They appear slowly for hundreds and hundreds of feet, thousands and thousands. Every night for two months Bek and his men have worked secretly on these wonders for me, no man seeing them under cover of Nut, no man passing on Hapi’s swift-flowing waters ever guessing that wonderful things were being readied on the plain.

Presently, four miles to the north and four miles to the south, the prearranged signals come. There flash from mirrors held by Bek’s man to the north and his man to the south, catching Ra’s rays to send the message, the news that the purpose has been accomplished. The cloths have fallen from the North Boundary Stela and the South Boundary Stela. These two limits of the city are now eternal.

“People of Kemet!” I shout as the winking mirrors repeat their message. “Go you when you have heard me speak, go you when all these wonders have been done, to the north and to the south. And do you witness there the stelae which I have caused to be inscribed to mark the Aten’s city. And know you all that soon there will be others to mark the boundaries of this place. And do you know that on them I have related these things:

“That in this great city there will be many temples, many altars and many houses. There will be a Mansion of the Aten, which shall be called ‘the Smaller Temple,’ a house of the Aten, which shall be called, ‘the Great Temple,’ a Sunshade of the Queen where she may go to worship the Aten, and a House of Rejoicing for the Aten. All these shall be here in this central spot which shall be called the Island ‘Aten-Distinguished-in-Jubilees.’ There will be also the apartments of Pharaoh and the apartments of the Chief Wife, and their children, and of all Pharaoh’s wives and all his children. There will be houses for the Good God and the Great Wife, and for my Court and for nobles and for people and helpers of all kinds.

“And I shall not leave this place to seek lands for the Aten beyond its boundaries. Only this shall be his city, and here he shall stay, forever and ever. Here will I be buried—”

All had been watching me with tense attention: this statement brings a sudden renewal of the gasps, the whispers and the murmurings. I think now, O Aten, that they begin to perceive at last the full extent of my wonders.

“—and here shall the Chief Wife, our children, and all who attend me, be they of high or low degree, be buried, so that in the afterlife they may worship the Aten and worship me, who am his Son, through all eternity. Here, too, shall be buried the Mnevis Bull, sacred to the Sun.

“From this day”—and my voice chokes once more with emotion, and suddenly they are utterly silent, utterly tense—beginning to be terrified, at last, I think, of what may be coming next. So I emphasize it, in the hateful, croaking voice which I despise but cannot help:

“
From this day forward
shall I make my principal residence here with the Aten. From this day forward I remove from our cities of Thebes and of Memphis all authority, power and status as the capitals of Kemet, and all such authority, power and status do I give to Akhet-Aten as the capital of Kemet. And from this day the name of Thebes shall be changed from No-Amon, ‘City of Amon,’ to No-Aten, ‘City of the Aten’—”

But here I am interrupted by an animal wail of such anguish and anger that it is barely recognizable as human. I see my uncle Aanen start forward, forgetful of Pharaoh’s station, forgetful of his own station, forgetful of time, place, everything, forgetful of the Aten—and
forgetful of me.

It is then that I hear you speak, O Aten, and tell me what to do. It is then that my murdered brother Tuthmose joins you, crying, “Yes!
Yes!
”
It is then that I raise my voice and shout an order to Kaires. And it is then, after a fearful moment in which our eyes lock as his meet mine in challenge, defiance and dismay, and mine meet his with a towering anger and a furious determination, that he surrenders his will to me and moves with a sure and terrible swiftness to do what my god and I command.

***