THE GREAT ATEN

                                         








Amen-hetep III, the son of Thothmes IV, held the same views as his father in this respect, and he was, apparently, urged to give effect to them by his wife Thi, the daughter of Iuaa and Thuau, who was a foreigner and who was in no way connected with the royal house of Egypt.

Having married this lady, he gave her as dowry the frontier city of Tcharu, and her natural ability, coupled with the favor of her husband, made her chief of all the royal wives, and a great power in the affairs of the government of the country. It has been thought by some that she was a native of the country near Heliopolis, and it is possible that she herself was a votary of Aten, but be that as it may, she appears to have supported the king in his determation to encourage the worship of the god.

At an early period in his reign he built one at Thebes, quite close to the great sanctuary of Amen-Ra, the priests of whom were, of course, powerless to resist the will of such an active and able king.

Soon after his marriage with Thi, Amen-hetep III, dug, in his wife's city of Tcharu, a lake, which was about 6000 feet long by 1000 feet broad. On the day of the festival when the water was allowed to flow into it, he sailed over it in a boat called "Aten-neferu, i.e., the "Beauties of Aten ;" the name of the boat is a clear proof of his devotion to the god Aten.

Amen-hetep IV, the son of Amen-hetep III. by the foreign lady Thi, not only held the religious views of his father, but held them very strongly. His life shows that he must have been from his youth of an adherent of the worship of Aten; it is supposed, and with much probability, that the intensity of his love for Aten and his hatred for Amen-Ra were due to his mother's influence.