Message #62663

[Bianca]

Hand of Akhenaten making an offering to the Aten


Sandstone - H 0.235
From Ashmunein
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art









As a child of the Aten, Akhenaten assumed the prerogatives which, until that time, had
been reserved for the prophets and grand priests.

And, truly, a first in Egyptian history, he even claimed to guide his people along the way
to revelation. Many a courtier from Tell el Amarna had the stelae at the entrance to their
tombs carved with the boast of "having been taught the doctrine by the King himself" or
"having listened to the doctrine day by day from the lips of the King himself."