William Durand-Poole

So there's nothing unusual in that per se, apart from the fact that now, Akhenaten's fetish is actually on the disk itself.

So this round ball of energy

is the thing that he venerates.

Rather than the abstract concept of the sun giving light and so forth, it is now the disc itself which becomes all-consuming for him.

And as you say, in the iconography, the rays of the sun come down and they often end in hands, very stylistically depicted, and some of those hands give the Ankh sign, the sign of life, to Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their daughters.

Unk.

Unk.

Okay.

So it's an abstract, really.

I mean, it's a strange thing.

The sun has always been around.

And in fact, I always think with Achimarten, oh, couldn't you have gone for something more interesting?

You know, it's so obvious, you know.

And of course, it's a great benefit.

But also, sun worship...

provides difficulties.

So, what happens at night for Akhenaten?

What happens when the sun goes?

Well, the Egyptians had thought all about that in their previous theologies.

We know that the sun is swallowed by the sky goddess and it travels through her body and she gives birth to the sun every morning.