Page 301 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

Akhenaten. They felt rather sorry for their half-brother,

Tutankhaten, who was only a half-god, his mother being
merely human. But they knew that that was only temporary.
Some day, when their father took the long journey to his tomb
in the eastern mountains which were the gateway to the abode

of the god, Tutankhaten would certainly become pharaoh and
be promoted to full godhood. By then he would, of course, be
married to the eldest of the sisters, Merit-Aten.

Everything seemed bright and clear-cut in those days, pre­
ordained by the great god of whom they heard so much. Every­
one talked all the time, it seemed, of the lord of life, the god
Aten, who showed himself to mankind in the disc of the sun.

Their father would take them on his knee and with shining eyes
talk lyrically of the one god who ruled all the world, even out­

side the frontiers of Egypt, the loving father not merely of the
divine family but of all humankind as well. Their grandmother,
Queen Teie, was more matter-of-fact, and she it was who first
told them of the struggle with the priests of the old religion and

of the opposition that was still going on to the rule of the new
god. Although she tried to explain in simple terms, they really
understood little of the background which she sketched for them.

She told them that the priests of Amon in the old capital, Thebes,
had always had the privilege of proclaiming the new pharaoh,
who was then believed to be the son of Amon, and not of Aten.

It was now known that Amon, like Ra of northern Egypt, was
only an aspect of the godhead which appeared in its fullest
splendor as Aten, but at that time both were believed to be

sun-gods in their own right, and Aten was even considered
merely a minor aspect of Amon. Anyway, at the various times
when the succeeding pharaoh had only been a half-god, the
son of a human mother, it had been necessary for him to make

great gifts and greater promises to the priests of Amon before
they would agree to proclaim him. And in that way the priests

in Thebes had become very rich and powerful, almost as power-
ful as the pharaoh himself. The priests of Ra in lower Egyp‘ had
been troubled by the growth of this ecclesiastical power in upper
Egypt and, being themselves powerful and rich, had made great

efforts to win influence over the pharaoh. Seventy years ago,