Divested of their basic powers, the traditional clergy openly challenged the King, transforming
what might have been but a positive cleansing of the dogma into a fierce battle for prestige
between partisans of the Heliopolitan tradition and the upholders of Theban orthodox doctrine.
The struggle gradually grew into a conflict between Re in his aspect of the Aten and Amon,
and, finally, between the King and the priests.
It was at this point that matters became dramatic, since Akhenaten, forced into a defensive
position by the events, had to adopt a policy that was certainly more intransigent than he
would have desired: in his fourth regnal year, he changed his name from Amenophis,
Satisfaction of the Aten, to Akhenaten, Acting Spirit (that is, incarnation) of the Aten.
Less than two years later, he left Thebes to found, "at a site belonging to no god or goddess,
to no sovereign, to which no one had any rights," a new capital, a new epicenter of his authority, Akhetaten, Horizon of the Aten.
Aak -en-Aten
The period during which the King set up his court at Tell el Amarna coincided with extremely
serious troubles in Thebes: the holy city's temples were shut down, its priests banned from
office.
All images of Amon were desecrated, and his name and epithets hammered out; his wife Mut
was subject to the same fate.
Indeed, fanatics beyond all limits, the partisans went so far as to break into the necropolises
to erase, at the very bottom of the tombs, all mention of that contemptible god. Still others
heaved themselves up to the top of the obelisks to attack the sun symbols.
Evidence was even found of a scribe who had gathered together all the archival documents
under his responsibility in order to wrathfully cross off all the words in any way analogous to
the names Amon and Mut; not even the word mut, mother, was spared! Akhenaton could do
nothing to avoid having his own father Amenophis's cartouches defiled.
The cult of the Aten was hardly the love doctrine it purported to be!
http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/FOR THE FULL STORY OF ATENISM, PLEASE GO TO:
AKHENATEN/TUTANKHAMEN
http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,706.0.html 