THE GREAT ATEN

p. 66

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"emanation of Ra" or the "beloved" and "emanation of Amen."

His predecessors on the throne of Egypt believed in all seriousness that they had divine blood in
their veins, and they acted as they thought gods would act; they had themselves hedged round
with elaborate ceremonial procedure, which made men believe that their king was a god.

To Amenhetep all the gods of Egypt were alike, and we see from the bas-reliefs in the temple at Sulb, some fifty miles above the head of the Second Cataract, that he was as willing to worship himself and to offer sacrifices to himself as to Amen, in whose honour he had rebuilt the temple.

It is impossible to think of his performing daily the rites and ceremonies which the king of Egypt was expected to perform in the shrine of Amen-Ra at Karnak, in order to obtain from the god the power and knowledge necessary for governing his people.

One of the most important events in his life, and one fraught with very far-reaching consequences, was his marriage with the lady Ti (or Tei), a private individual, apparently of no high rank or social position.

1 In the Tall al-'Amarnah letters her name is transcribed Tei.
Her father was called Iuau, and her mother Thuau. Their tomb was discovered in 1905,

2 and it is clear that, before the marriage of their daughter to Amenhetep III, they were humble folk. According to a consensus of modern Egyptological opinion they were natives of Egypt, not foreigners as the older Egyptologists supposed.

Be this as it may, there is no doubt that Ti was