Amenhotep IV
During the time of the New Kingdom of Egypt, peace reigned throughout the nation. Egypt's enemies the Hyksos had been removed from rule and Egypt prospered. In fact she become an empire. By the time Amenhotop III sat on the throne Egypt was a land of wealth. Amenhotop was considered to be an equal or better Among other rulers throughout the area. Other rulers from neighboring lands refer to him as "brother".
Life in the royal house was grand. He built a huge palace in Thebes which, included a lake built expressly for his wife, Tiye. He also built many temples in the city of Thebes. One such temple was built to Amen. This temple was decorated with gold and silver, precious stones, and many royal statues in granite. He also built a huge temple to Mut, Amen's consort, with 600 statues of the line headed goddess, Sekhent. But most impressive was the temple he built for himself in Lexor. This temple shows the amount of wealth that royal house of Egypt had. It contained 2.5 tons of gold, 215 lbs. of turquoise, 3 tons of electrum, 1.5 tons of bronze and 524 lbs. of copper. There at that temple he built two large statues or colossi at the temple entrance.
Not only was the royal house rich but there was also a sense of style throughout the palace. He set the standard for beauty and art. He showed discriminating taste by using his money to patronize many craftsmen. The many paintings and statues of this time show that the artists and craftsmen had great confidence in their ability to paint, sculpt, create jewelry and build. This confidence of course came from the king's desire for beautiful art. Paintings depict Amenhotop as a skilled warrior and hunter, even though Egypt was at piece and he di...
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...ared and insecure little ten year old boy!
Bibliography:
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http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,7304+1,00.html
http://touregypt.net/18dyn10.htm
Looking at this Palette, it isn’t hard to see how the old Egyptian subjects were so entranced by their leaders and how that compares to our modern viewpoints. Where we view politicians and leaders as a wiry group, always keeping an eye on them lest today be the day they raise their daggers against us, the ancient Egyptians saw their leaders as infallible, godlike beings to be trusted, obeyed, and adored. Standing just over 2 feet tall and 1.4 feet wide, this Palette was carved out of a majestic shade of grey-green siltstone, almost shield-like in appearance. Both sides are exquisitely carved out, each one uniquely decorated but both sides containing a central serekh used to identify and in this case even confirm the subject as royalty. This serekh contains the symbols n’r and mr, which as you may have noticed, phonetically spell Narmer. These symbols are surrounded by two bovine heads, which could either represent the Goddess Hathor or Bat. The front s...
During the New Kingdom of Egypt (from 1552 through 1069 B.C.), there came a sweeping change in the religious structure of the ancient Egyptian civilization. "The Hymn to the Aten" was created by Amenhotep IV, who ruled from 1369 to 1353 B.C., and began a move toward a monotheist culture instead of the polytheist religion which Egypt had experienced for the many hundreds of years prior to the introduction of this new idea. There was much that was different from the old views in "The Hymn to the Aten", and it offered a new outlook on the Egyptian ways of life by providing a complete break with the traditions which Egypt held to with great respect. Yet at the same time, there were many commonalties between these new ideas and the old views of the Egyptian world. Although through the duration of his reign, Amenhotep IV introduced a great many changes to the Egyptian religion along with "The Hymn", none of these reforms outlived their creator, mostly due to the massive forces placed on his successor, Tutankhamen, to renounce these new reforms. However, the significance of Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten as he later changed his name to, is found in "The Hymn". "The Hymn" itself can be looked at as a contradiction of ideas; it must be looked at in relation to both the Old Kingdom's belief of steadfast and static values, as well as in regards to the changes of the Middle Kingdom, which saw unprecedented expansionistic and individualistic oriented reforms. In this paper I plan to discuss the evolvement of Egyptian Religious Beliefs throughout the Old,
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