AKHENATEN/TUTANKHAMUN

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RETURN TO AMUN AND PTAH                                                                       continued



Following this, cultic reality and the mythology of the course of the sun once again make their appearance:



                       



"August god in his chapel,
Lord of time in his barque!
Those in the horizon row you....
Tha bas of the west rejoice at you......."

The conclusion is rich in mythological allusions, all in the style of traditional hymns: "Perfect youth whom Ptah created, ......who emerged as Horus.....ruler of time and sovereign of the gods of eternity, .....your mother Nut lifts you up".

There is appended a praise of Thoth, the god of wisdom and the moon, with whom Haremhab directly compares himself - like the moon by the sun, he stands at the side of his king, Tutankhamun.  There is also praise for the goddess Maat, who grants him the breath of life.  The conclusion contains the traditional mortuary wish to enter and leave the "Field of Reeds" - the Egyptian paradise in the here-after - and to be in the following of Sokar, the Memphite god of the dead.

The hereafter, banned under Akhenaten, has thus made a complete comeback!

At about the same time, the high priest Parennefer presided over the renewal of the cult of Amun at Karnak; a procession bearing the vase sacred to the god, whose origin lay in the traditional cult, played an important role in this.

His tomb at Thebes was discovered not many years ago by Friederike Kampp and Karl-Joachim Seyfried; its model is clearly the royal tomb at Amarna and the tombs of the officials there.  There is no longer a radiant Aten, but the scene of sun worship, with its rejoicing on the part of all creation, is drawn from the imagistic realm of Akhenaten's tomb.  Its indulgence in the representation of chariots is also derived from Amarna.

The spirit of the times is manifest in the solution found for the decoration of Tutankhamun's tomb upon his premature death.  It in no way represents a return to tradition, to the time before Akhenaten; rather, referential derivations from tradition were combined with radical innovations worthy of the Amarna Period and in part taken from the decoration of private tombs. 

This is also true of the tomb of his successor Aya, which was decorated only four years later.
 
On the walls of both tombs are excerpts from the "Amduat", an old Book of the Netherworld, as well as extracts from the Book of the Dead in the tomb of Aya.  Along with the Amduat and the Book of the Dead, the gilded shrines of Tutankhamun offer new compositions, among them the "Book of the Heavenly Cow".


                               

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THE END OF THE DYNASTY:   AYA AND HAREMHAB



In the inscription on the stela of his rock-cut tomb in the vicinity of Akhmim, Aya settles the score with
"evil" and the "destruction of Right" and he provides that each person can again make offerings to "his own god," and that "all the deities" will be satisfied that their sancturaries have been restored.

The emphasis is thus quite similar to that of Tutankhamun, and his successor Haremhab also makes an
emphatic reference to destruction - he provided for the divine temples, which had become "ruin heaps"
and he restored the world to its ideal condition:

"He organized this land and gave it instructions that corresponded to (those of) the time of Re.  He renewed the temples of the gods from the delta marshes to Nubia.  He fashioned all their images, distinct from what had been earlier, with greater perfection....

He didstinguished their temples he created their statues in their correct form from all sorts of precious stones.  He searched out all the holy, divine precincts that were ruin heaps in this land and he founded
them anew, as they had been at the beginning of primeval time.  He dedicated divine offerings to them as regular daily offerings, along with all sorts of vessels for their temples, cast in gold and silver.  He
equipped them with WAB-priests and lector priests from the elite of the army.  He assigned them fields and cattle".

Haremhab was closely connected by marriage (to a sister of Nefertiti?) to the royal house of Dynasty 18, but he intentionally made himself out to be the first legitimate ruler since Amenophis III, who served as his principal model.


 
During his reign, lively building activity commenced anew in the temple of Amun at Karnak and a a great number of TALATAT-blocks from Akhenaten's constructions were reused in his own buildings.  Egypt also launched a new and active foreign policy that led to the regaining of lost territories in Syria.

                           


The Ramesside Period that followed was taking shape.

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FROM

AKHENATEN AND THE RELIGION OF LIGHT

by Erik Hornung - 1995

Translated by David Lorton



                                                            E P I L O G U E



FAILURE AND CONTINUITY



What was left?  Akhenaten had founded no congregation; he had no disciples or apostles to carry on his work after his death.

There was only his small circle of followers, who were now bereft of a reference point.  Akhenaten had concentrated his teaching so exclusively upon himself as the only one who knew the Aten, that it was doomed to perish along with him - in any case, in the extreme form in which he had promulgated it.

And yet, he had set in motion changes that would endure after his passing and exercise influence in
several areas.


                 


After a brief setback, Late Egyptian survived as the new written language, in which a rich literature soon
unfolded, reaching previously unknown heights with its harpers' songs and love lyrics.

In art, the zest for motion and the depiction of emotion initiated by Akhenaten remained in force for de-
cades and the visual joy of Amarna art rippled in ever-widening circles through the centuries that followed.

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FAILURE AND CONTINUITY                                                                                       continued



In the area of religion, Amun did not entirely recover his paramount status and his city of Thebes would never again be the capital.

But monotheism had to wait half a millennium and longer to receive a fresh chance in Judaism. 

In this connection, there has been debate as to whether Akhenaten's monotheistic ideas had an influence on Palestine, as was assumed by Sigmund Freud in particular.

The temporal interval is too great to infer a direct influence from the Amarna Period on the monotheism of the
Hebrew Bible.

But undercurrents that remain hidden to us might certainly have exercised an influence; perhaps the author of
Psalm 104 indeed drew upon the Great Hymn to the Aten.
                                                                                                                               

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                                                                    E P I L O G U E




                                                                                                                                                             



MORE THAN AN EPISODE



Akhenaten and the religion he founded were not just transitory phenomena, as they are so often made out to be.

The challenge he posed compelled succeeding generations to rethink questions that had seemed resolved, just as
art received new impulses from this debate.

As Jan Assmann has put it  "The effects of Amarna religion was to clarify, not to reform.  The traditional religion be-
came only ever more self-conscious as a result of this confrontation with its antithesis".

This is especially evident in the case of beliefs about the afterlife.  The denial of a hereafter and the realm of
Osiris compelled a rethinking of the meaning of the dark half of the cosmos.

Light remained dependent on darkness and the positive value of the latter was never felt as clearly as it was after
Akhenaten.

There can be no greater contrast to his religion of light than this statement in a solar hymn of Tjanefer, a high
priest of Amun, in early Dynasty 20, regarding the sun god when he descends to the realm of the dead:


"WHEN YOU COME TO THEM ....YOU ARE SMOKY AND DARK, FOR YOUR ABOMINATION IS LIGHT"!

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MORE THAN AN EPISODE                                                                                           continued



On the one hand, the dependence of all life on light, Akhenaten's positive view of light as salvation; on the other
hand, light as an ABOMINATION - the two are exact polar opposites.

For renewal and rejuvination, light  and all  life require darkness; it was the ENTIRE course of the sun, including its
nocturnal, netherworldly portion, which replenished the energy of the sun.

It is only logical that in the immediate wake of Akhenaten, there was a veritable outpouring of symbolic represent-
ations of the daily course of the sun.



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                                          T H E   B O O K   O F   T H E   H E A V E N L Y   C O W



This spell is to be recited over the (picture of) a cow, with  "the Infinite Ones who are" (inscribed) on her chest, and over whose back is (inscribed) "the Infinite Ones who are". Whose four hoofs are filled out in paint and upon whose belly are nine stars, issuing from its hindquarters in front of its hind legs, while beneath its belly stands Shu, painted in yellow ocher, his arms support these stars, and inscribed with his name between them, which says "Shu is himself".

A barque, on which are a steering-oar and a shrine with a Solar disk over it and Re in it, is in front of Shu, close to his hand, while another version (of a barque) is behind him, close to his (other) hand. Her two udders are placed in the middle of her left leg, one half of them being drawn in paint in the middle of this hind leg with the following words outside in retrograde : "I am who I am. I will not let them take action." What is (written) beneath the barque that is in front is : "You shall not grow weary, my son." - in retrograde, and as follows : "Your condition is like that of one who lives forever." and as follows : "Your son is in me. Life, prosperity and health be for your nose !"

What is (written) behind Shu, close to his arm, is as follows : "Guard them !" What is behind him at his flank is (written) in retrograde as follows : "It is right that they should enter when I retire each day." What is (written) under the arm of the figure below the left hind leg and behind it is as follows : "Everything is sealed." What is (written) above his head, below the hindquarters of the cow and what is between its hind legs is as follows : "May he come out." What is (written) behind the two figures that are between its hind legs and above their heads : "The aged one is in the realm of the dead. Praise is given to him when he enters." What is (written) over the heads of the two figures that are between its forelegs : "He who procreates, he who adores, support of the sky."



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One of the earliest occurs in the  ENIGMATIC BOOK OF THE NETHERWORRLD on one of Tutankhamun's gilded shrines, which until now has remained without parallels.  Its dependence on Amarna is visible in the streams of light which link
the individual figures in the netherworld to one another and enter into the bodies of the deceased.

                                 



                                 

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                                                       E P I L O G U E




THE SUN ENDURES


The scenes of the course of the sun demonstrate, moreove, how much importance was ascribed to the
sun, even after Akhenaten's failure.

Traditional beliefs about the sun experienced no setback, despite the astonishingly massive reaction to
Akhenaten's provocation.

But, now greater attention was devoted to the combination of Re AND Osiris. 


                             


In contrast to the reformer's attempt to draw the sun god entirely into THIS world and fill it entirely with his presence, denying all that was next-wordly, the BOOK OF THE HEAVENLY COW (first attested
under Tutankhamun) makes the mythic statement that, because of the rebellion of humankind, the sun
god withdrew for all time from this world to the sky, while at the same time he established the netherworld for the dead.

                         



Here, there is once again stress on the DISTANCE  and the otherworldly aspect of the divine

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THE SUN ENDURES                                                                                       continued



The other clear return was in the royal ideology.

After Akhenaten there were only a few tentative attemps at the worship of Pharaoh as a personal god.

An example is Huy, Tutankhamun's Nubian viceroy, who entreated his king to dispel the "darkness' that
meant distance from him. 

It was now AMUN who now became the god of the poor and the oppressed, the refuge of the simple in their prayers - the reaction in favour of Amun was thus sustained less by his priesthood than by ordinary
folk.

As Sun God, Amun was both distant and near: distant as a beholder, but near as a hearer who stood by those who prayed to him.

In the official theology of the Ramesside Period, which was a continuation of the "New Solar Theology",
he became a god who filled the entire world with himself ( as Aten had filled his sancturay), the ONE who
made himself "INTO MILLIONS", but without displacing the other deities.



            

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                                                           E P I L O G U E



THE SUN ENDURES                                                                                                continued  

                                                                                    




The figure of SHED, the "Saviour", the powerful and youthful god who intervened and helped in time of need was another heir to the Amarna Period.

Here, in a time of crisis and anxiety, human yearning intensified into a new deity, who was able to step forth, along with Amun, as a personification of help for the needy in this age of personal piety.

Basically he was the young, militant Horus who stood by his father Osiris, but this function was blended with that of the sun god triumphant over his enemies.

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                                                        E P I L O G U E
 
 
                           



THE SUN ENDURES                                                                                          continued



The Egyptians evidently accepted the god of light about whom Akhenaten preached in his own creative development of the NEW SOLAR THEOLOGY of Dynasty 18, and they continued to tolerate him for a brief time after the king's reign.

ATEN was never outlawed as a designation of the sun, but what was immediately withdrawn was the exclusiveness with which this new god had made his appearance.

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                                                          E P I L O G U E



ROOTS OF FUNDAMENTALISM


Here, we come to the critical point.

In Amarna religion, for the first time in history, an attempt was made to explain the entire natural and
human world on the basis of a SINGLE  priciple.

Like Einstein, Akhenaten made light the absolute reference point and it is astonishing how clearly and consistently he pursued this concept in the Fourteenth Century BCE, making him, in fact, the first
MODERN human being.

Indeed, modernity also strives to describe the universe with a single formula, to explain it on the basis of a SINGLE principle; the attempts to do so do not cease.

But Akhenaten demonstrated with unusual clarity that such one-sideness is doomed to failure.

All we repress and ignore will overtake and overshadow us.

Akhenaten was perhaps the first fundamentalist in history and, for this reason, he remains, even today,  a very contemporary figure who can scarcely be denied respect and sympathy in any critique of him.

But there is a lesson for us in his fate and his failure: FUNDAMENTALISM, in whatever form, solves no
problems, but only suppresses them.

We must not succumb to the temptation that, from time to time, emerges from it and its apparently simple and clear solutions. 

With its intolerance, it can have no future: things must not be reduced to a single, isolated principle, be it ever so noble and elevated.

Always and, above all, the whole is at stake.

No grim reaction followed Akhenaten, but rather a cautious attempt to join old to new, so as not to give
up - straight away - what had been achieved on the positive side.

The Amarna Period exercised a stimulating and fertilizing influence on the intellectual and spiritual history of ancient Egypt and of all humankind, and, for our own time, it continues to offer a model instance from which we can learn.



FROM

AKHENATEN AND THE RELIGION OF LIGHT

Erik Hornung

Translated by David Lorton



                                           

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The Book of the Heavenly (Celestial) Cow



by Roland Mastaff
 
The first rendering of the Book of the Heavenly Cow was produced on the outermost of the four gilded shrines of Tutankhamun discovered in his tomb, though it was incomplete. However, we do find fairly complete versions of the book in the tombs of Seti I (KV17), Ramesses II (KV7) and Ramesses III (KV11). In each of these instances, the book is exclusively depicted in an annex off of the burial chamber. We also find brief excerpts from the book in the left niche of the third corridor in the tomb of Ramesses VI, and another even shorter version on a papyrus from the Ramesside Period now in Turin.  While this book does not seem to appear after the New Kingdom, it was incorporated into the Book of the Fayoum during the Roman Period.
Within the first part of the text in this book, a parallel to the biblical narrative of the great Flood has inspired considerable interest both within and outside of Egyptology. The heavenly cow in the tomb of Seti I was noted by early adventurers who visited the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor (ancient Thebes) such as Henry Salt and Robert Hay. In 1876, Edouard Naville published the version of the Book of the Heavenly Cow found in the tomb of Seti I, translating it into French. He supplied the first translation into English in 1876. Later, in 1885, he also published the version found in the tomb of Ramesses III. Heinrich Brugsch published the first translation into German in 1881.

In 1941, Charles Maystre published the first synoptic version of the book, taking into account the text discovered in the tomb of Ramesses II (though he omitted the text from Tutankhamun). In 1983, Erik Hornung, taking into account all of the versions of the book including that found in the tomb of  Ramesses III, published an improved version of the text, which included a metrical transliteration by Gerhard Fecht, which saw a second edition with four pages of supplemental material and corrections in 1991.

The Book of the Divine Cow is not a manual of spiritual instruction, or a guidebook through the Duat, as are the other funerary text of the New Kingdom. Rather, it tells a story that mixes magic spells with the exact details of the Divine Cow herself. It is purely mythological in nature, and in fact, it is difficult to see how this particular book fits into the evolutionary framework of the other funerary text.

The central theme of The Book of the Heavenly Cow is mankind's rebellion against the elder sun god, Re, resulting in the punishment of humans by the fiery "eye" of Re in the form of the goddess Hathor. It takes place after Re's long rule on earth. The first part places considerable emphasis on the royal role of the sun god, who bears the royal title and whose name is surrounded by a cartouche. He is specifically given rulership over both the deities and the humans.

Prior to the rebellion, which required a complete reordering of the world, there had been a golden age where the various deities and humans were both under the sovereignty of the sun god. During this previous age, the sun god had not yet begun his daily course through the sky and the netherworld. Hence, there was no cycle of day and night, nor was there a netherworld and death did not exist.

When mankind's rebellion took place, the sun god first consulted with the primeval deities, including Shu, Tefnut and Geb but particularly the goddess Nun and Hathor in the Great House in Heliopolis. These gods were to come to Re in secrecy, as not to alert mankind about their meeting. Re then addressing Nu, the father of the first-born gods, told him to give heed to what men were doing, for they whom he had created were murmuring against him. And he said " Tell me what you would do. Consider the matter, invent a plan for me, and I will not slay them until I have heard what you shall say concerning this thing." Nu replied, " You O my son Ra, are greater than the god who made You (i.e. Nu himself), you are the king of those who were created with you, your throne is established, and the fear of you is great, Let shine Eye (Hathor) attack those who blaspheme you. " And Rw said, " Lo, they have fled to the mountains for their hearts are afraid because of what they have said." The gods replied, " Let shine Eye go forth and destroy those who blasphemed you, for no eye can resist shine when it goes forth in the form of Hathor."

Afterwards, Hathor was sent to inflict her punishment. For three nights the goddess Hathor-Sekhmet waded about in the blood of men, the slaughter beginning at Hensu (Herakleopolis Magna).. But the sun god took pity on those humans who were left. He saved  them by causing Hathor to become drunk on blood red beer.

                               

 
Afterwards, the sun god, Re, withdrew to the sky on the back of the celestial cow who is the Goddess Nut transformed. The cow is supported by Shu, the eight Heh-gods along with the Pharaoh. This would account for the importance of the book for the king, who was the "son" and successor of Re, and who withdraws to the sky upon his death, like Re, on the back of the heavenly cow. Now, humankind could suffer death, and so from his position in the sky, Re constructed the netherworld as their realm (third section of book). Within the netherworld, Re placed many serpents that were entrusted to the care of Geb, the earth god. He also sets the moon in the sky and appoints Thoth lord of the moon and deputy over creation. Now, through Thoth, people will know Re.

The final, or fourth part of the Book of the Heavenly Cow is devoted to the power of magic. It contains the theology of ba and explains the various deities and sacred animals that are bas of other divinities.

References:

Title Author Date Publisher Reference Number
Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, The - Hornung, Erik 1999 Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-3515-3
Gods of the Egyptians, The (Studies in Egyptian Mythology) Budge, E. A. Wallis 1969 Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 486-22056-7
Traveler's Key to Ancient Egypt, The West, John Anthony 1995 Theosophical Publishing House, the ISBN 0-8356-0724-0
Valley of the Kings Weeks, Kent R. 2001 Friedman/Fairfax ISBN 1-5866-3295-7

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                                               T H E   H E A V E N L Y   C O W




                                   


FROM TUTANKHAMUN'S OUTER (FIRST) COFFIN



This spell is to be recited over the (picture of) a cow, with  "the Infinite Ones who are" (inscribed) on her chest, and over whose back is (inscribed) "the Infinite Ones who are". Whose four hoofs are filled out in paint and upon whose belly are nine stars, issuing from its hindquarters in front of its hind legs, while beneath its belly stands Shu, painted in yellow ocher, his arms support these stars, and inscribed with his name between them, which says "Shu is himself".

A barque, on which are a steering-oar and a shrine with a Solar disk over it and Re in it, is in front of Shu, close to his hand, while another version (of a barque) is behind him, close to his (other) hand. Her two udders are placed in the middle of her left leg, one half of them being drawn in paint in the middle of this hind leg with the following words outside in retrograde : "I am who I am. I will not let them take action." What is (written) beneath the barque that is in front is : "You shall not grow weary, my son." - in retrograde, and as follows : "Your condition is like that of one who lives forever." and as follows : "Your son is in me. Life, prosperity and health be for your nose !"

What is (written) behind Shu, close to his arm, is as follows : "Guard them !" What is behind him at his flank is (written) in retrograde as follows : "It is right that they should enter when I retire each day." What is (written) under the arm of the figure below the left hind leg and behind it is as follows : "Everything is sealed." What is (written) above his head, below the hindquarters of the cow and what is between its hind legs is as follows : "May he come out." What is (written) behind the two figures that are between its hind legs and above their heads : "The aged one is in the realm of the dead. Praise is given to him when he enters." What is (written) over the heads of the two figures that are between its forelegs : "He who procreates, he who adores, support of the sky."

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                              TUTANKHAMUN'S SECOND SHRINE



AN ENIGMATIC BOOK OF THE NETHERWORLD



From A Shrine of Tutankhamun



by Taylor Ray Ellison
 
Engraved on the second gilded shrine of Tutankhamun, discovered in his tomb by Howard Carter, was two parts of a book that is completely unique, though they do seem to have similarities to two scenes from the Amduat which were depicted on the child king's third shrine. In fact, these texts are designated as an "amduat", which here for the very first time the term is used to describe a netherworld text in general rather than the specific text to which it is normally applied. This is also the first instance of a composition describing the creation of the new solar disk. 

No real title has been found for the book. Amduat. Winfried Barta described the text as a "Kryptograph". However, because of its obscure nature, with text that was not translated into normal hieroglyphs, most Egyptologists refer to

                                 


it as the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld. That is, in the outer panels, the texts which accompany some of the illustrations are  cryptographic in order to preserve the secrecy of the formulas. Indeed, this leads to some controversies where the meaning of the text is certainly not clear. However, it should be noted that other compositions exist that are also labeled "enigmatic" mostly from 20th Dynasty tombs such as KV6 (Ramesses IX) and KV9 (Ramesses V / VI).

The written portions of text that are spread amongst the registers seem to stem from the Book of the Dead, making it a unique book of the Netherworld at this point in time. Only as late as the 21st Dynasty would we again see portions of the Amduat and the Book of the Dead occasionally combined. 

Egyptologists believe that this composition deals with the creation and refilling of the solar disk with fire during the night. The conception that the sun loses its heat by day and has to be replenished by night is very similar to the view of Heraclitus, much later, who believed that the solar 'trough,' or disk, was automatically replenished during the night by fumes which rose from the earth and which became ignited every morning, when the trough was full. Here, in the region of death, the sun passes by, or through, the bodies of the gods who reside there. Their bodies remain in the dark while their souls, or essence, follow the sun in its journey. In other words, in the region of death the sun collects new energy for his rebirth in the morning.

This text is divided into three registers, similar to the more familiar Amduat and within, the solar barque is absent. However, just as in the Book of Caverns, the sun god's presence is represented by ram-headed birds within a sun disk in the first section, and by only a sun disk in the second part.

The order of the two sections of the book is defined by two boundary posts prior to the so called first section, because they also proceed the first hour of the Book of Gates. This prelude consists of a "head of Re" and the jackal-headed "neck of Re", which symbolize the sun god's creative power. Another indication of the order of the two sections is that darkness and the Place of Annihilation dominate section A, which has only two large sun disks containing ram-headed bas, whereas light plays a major role in section B, which is dominated by rays of light that emanate from disks, stars, or serpents. We really do not know if there were additional sections to the book. 




Section A of the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld

The first two scenes in section A in the upper and lower register each display eight deities. Those in the upper register are in the "caverns of the Duat (?)" and reside in darkness, while those of the lower register are in the Place of Annihilation, though it seems that their ba-souls are able to accompany the sun god. Piankoff believes that these beings symbolize the different transformations undergone by the sun god while passing through the Netherworld. He appears to believe that those in the bottom register, which are split between two groups of four with the chests of the four in front having the shape of the scarab, a symbol of renewal, indicate that the process of transformation is complete. Section A is split at its central point by a huge figure that spans the entire height of the three registers, which John C. Darnell sees as a union of Re and Osiris. However, Piankoff, perhaps more correctly, sees it as the mummiform figure of the king, Tutankhamun. The figure is named "He who hides the Hours". Both the head and feet of this figure are surrounded by an ouroboros-serpent, that is designated as Mehen, the Enveloper. This is the earliest representation of the ouroboros that we know. It, along with the text, refers to the beginning (genesis) and the end of time. A rope upheld by seven adoring gods in the center register evidently serves to pull the disk from the body of the mummiform figure.





After the central division of section A, there are three scenes arranged vertically. In the upper register, seven goddesses within their coffins gaze upon the rays of the sun and follow the sun god with their ba-souls, as their bodies remain in place. Depicted in the middle register are seven beings, turned in the opposite direction from those in the upper register, praising the solar ba and receiving the rays of his disk with raised arms. The lower register is flanked by two guardians, and its caption again refers to the Place of Annihilation. However, Re lights up this region "with his voice", so that its inhabitants may breathe. There is also a serpent, with the head of a human, that is coiled several times about two sarcophagi that contain the corpses of Osiris and Re. Here, a large oval containing hands has been read as "coffer".





Section A of the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld

In the second part of the composition referred to as section B, we find three registers that each contain three scenes. Here, Re is represented by means of sun disks in each scene, and even to each figure within the scenes, for the disks are usually connected to the figures by rays of light. This is a graphic representation of text referring to the light of Re that enters their bodies. 





Both the upper and lower registers begin with a spitting cobra. Within the top most register, each of six gods is fronted by a ba-bird, and the god receives light from a star, though the first of these figures receives it directly from the initial cobra. According to the caption, this is the light of Re, which enters them. 

After this, the second scene in the upper register begins with a cat. Next, there are seven headless figures. They are fronted by faces, however, in each case inserted between a star and a sun disk with rays. They are flooded with light from the rays of the sun disks above. Apparently, this scene refers to the separation and rejoining of the head and the body. In the final scene of the upper register, six gods each stands on a Mehen-serpent, which helps with his regeneration, aided by light from a disk in front of them. 





The caption of the beginning scene of the middle register mentions the ram-headed solar ba, and here, we find depicted a mummy that has turned itself over and is extending a hand to the solar ba. A serpent that is flooded by light springs from the feet of the mummy. After this, there are four beings with lion heads. We cannot see their arms, and from similar material in the sixth hour of the Book of Gates, we may conclude that they are carrying the corpse of the sun. The last scene in the middle register is almost identical to the second scene, though now with six lion-headed figures. In each of these scenes, light from a sun disk surmounting a pair of legs enters the mouths of all these beings. 

At the beginning of the lower register of section B, the cobra spits light that in every case is received by a lion's head and, in turn, is emitted again by a cobra next to it. This light floods  over six Osiris figures that, we are informed by the caption, are "clothed" with the light of Re, while their ba-souls follow them. Sail hieroglyphs that signify wind or breath in front of them indicate that the Osiris figures have been granted breath. 





The middle scene of the lower register starts out with a lion that, like the cat in the upper register, is rising out of the earth, which hides a serpent.  Afterwards, there are six mummiform figures with ram heads, and the caption here indicates that the deceased king is the object of their attention. In the last scene we see six goddesses. Each of them receives light from a disk and in turn, lets it pour from their hands onto the head of a serpent named "Evil of Face". Though these goddesses carry the sun, represented as a star and disk, in their wombs, their names designate them as punishing beings. It should be remembered that Tutankhamun's reign followed that of the heretic king, Akhenaten, and the significant and striking role of light in the realm of the dead may stem from that king's theological realm.   

Section B is terminated by the appearance a doubled sun disk with its ram-headed ba. Here, it is part of a symbolic summary of the daily course of the sun, which is kept in motion by four pairs of arms. At the very end of the scene, we find serpents, the heads of four negau-cattle, together with goddesses making a gesture of praise, an Osiris figure and an "arm of Re". Some scholars recognize all this as the end of the composition, though Darnell prefers to see it as a beginning, because of a very similar depiction on the ceiling of corridor G in the tomb of Ramesses VI.

References:

Title Author Date Publisher Reference Number
Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, The Hornung, Erik 1999 Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-3515-3
The Shrines of Tut-Ankh-Amon Plankoff, Alexandre 1962 Harper and Row   
Life and Death of a Pharaoh: Tutankhamen Desrochnes-Noblecourt, Christiane 1963 New York Graphic Soci

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http://subhashkak.voiceofdharma.com/articles/akhena.htm





Akhenaten, Surya, and the Rigveda

Subhash Kak

July 17, 2003

A sad consequence of the colonialist historiography of the 19th century Indologists is the comparative neglect of India’s interaction with Africa. Cyril Hromnik’s Indo-Africa1 (1981) is the only book on the Indian contribution to the history of sub-Saharan Africa that I am aware of, but it is just an exploratory study. The story of India’s interaction with Egypt is better known, if only to scholars. Two important figures in this story are the Mitanni king Tushratta and the New Kingdom pharaoh Akhenaten. But even this encounter between the Indoaryan speaking Tushratta and the Egyptian Pharaoh is not well understood although it was to have far-reaching impli­cations for world history.

The Sun King Akhenaten of Egypt (ruled 1352-1336 BC according to the mainstream view) was a son-in-law of Tushratta, the Mitanni king of North Syria, through queen Kiya. 2 (The name Tushratta is spelled Tuiˇsrata in the Hittite cuneiform script, which does not distinguish between “d” and “t” very well. Some have suggested that the Sanskrit original is Da´saratha,a fewothersthatitis Tvesaratha (having splendid chariots), a name which is attested in the Rgveda. Letters exchanged between Akhenaten and Tushratta have been found in Amarna in Egypt3 and other evidence comes from the tombs of the period, which have been discovered in excellent condition.

The Amarna age is one of the best-known and most romantic periods of ancient Egypt. Akhenaten was revolutionary in his religious beliefs, and many argue that his ideas mark the beginnings of the Western monotheistic tradition. This period also saw the fabulously beautiful Nefertiti, Akhen-aton’s first queen who came from a mixed Mitanni family, palace intrigues, artistic triumph and great personal tragedy.

In this essay, I shall investigate the question whether the worship of the Sun introduced by Akhenaten might have had connections with the Indic beliefs of the Mitannis. Implications of this early encounter between the Indic and the Western worlds will also be examined in view of the widely accepted opinion amongst biblical scholars that Akhenaten’s beliefs were the model for the later Jewish and Christian beliefs.4 I shall present evidence indicating that the famous hymn to Aten by Akhenaten which is seen as a precursor to Psalm 104 of the Bible was influenced by the “Vedic” hymns that were a part of the Mitanni heritage.

In view of the important role that biblical ideas have played in history, the question of the relationship between Akhenaten’s monotheism and Vedic ideas is of great significance. It provides a lesson that the past consists of unexpected complexity and that influences have flowed in different directions. I am not suggesting that the encounter between India and West Asia was one-sided; India must also have been changed in many ways.