363. Ancient Egypt: Destroyer Of Gods – Pharaoh Akhenaten (Ep 2)
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Why did Egyptian priests wear animal masks?
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Now imagine that you are an Egyptian priest in the year 1350 BCE. Your world is already ancient, 3000 years old already. Your temple has stood for centuries. Its walls blaze with colour, processions of gods, offerings of incense, hymns inscribed in hieroglyphs that will track the movement of the cosmos itself. Your day is structured by ritual, the waking of the god in the sanctuary, the presentation of food and linen, the sealing of the inner chamber at dusk, just as goes on in Hindu temples today in India. Generations after generations of your family have done this. The god is Amun, king of the gods, lord of Thebes, the hidden one whose breath fills the entire world. And the temple you serve is the greatest religious institution on earth.
But just imagine that all of that, all of it is gone within a decade. Your temple gets closed down. The statue of your God is smashed to pieces. Everywhere the name has been chiseled, it is removed by a blunt instrument in Egypt. Everywhere. So the very existence of these gods declared to be lies. A new theology will descend on the country, imposed from above by a pharaoh who has renamed himself, moved the capital, built an entirely new city, and decreed that from now on, there is only one divinity worthy of worship, only one, and that is the sun disk, the Aten. So no more myths. No more statues, no more processions, just this one round shining disc and the light it pours on the world. And access to that light, access to the divine itself runs through only one man.
And that man is the Pharaoh Akhenaten.
This is the most radical religious revolution in ancient history. Whether it was the world's first true monotheism, whether it planted a seed that would eventually produce Yahweh, the God of the Hebrew Bible, of Christianity, of Islam, is one of the most debated questions in the study of religion. And that is exactly what we are here to explore today. And we're all very excited about it. This is Empire, and I'm William Durand-Poole.
Yes, and I'm Anita Arnott. And you know, when you were saying, imagine that you are in this place and being venerated and worshipped, I could imagine that quite easily.
It doesn't...
I mean, actually quite shocking how easy it was for me to imagine that.
What was the significance of Akhenaten's religious revolution?
Anyway, we are at episode three of our Amana series. We're diving deeper into the question of what exactly was Akhenaten's religion?
Our guest today is someone who brings a quite exceptional combination of qualities to this conversation. It is our old friend Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. Welcome back, Lloyd. Hello, both. It's good to be back with you. It really is. Very nice of you. So to remind everyone who doesn't know Lloyd's extraordinary credentials, he is both the professor of ancient history at Cardiff University and the author of The Magnificent Persians, The Age of the Great Kings, which first brought us together. I spent an entire summer driving around the country listening to Lloyd on his audio book, which I completely loved and warmly recommend. But since he first came on the show, Lloyd became a priest.
I mean, it was a proper calling, okay? It's not like going for a job. It was something that I was moved to do. And I was moved to do it, actually, when I was very young, when I was in my 20s. You know, I first kind of got this call and I thought, no, no, no, just put it off, put it off, put it off. And then, you know, one day I was teaching a module on ancient Israel. teaching the book of Isaiah to my students. And this overwhelming desire, this feeling came from deep within me, which said, okay, Lloyd, you've been doing this for long enough. You need to take this message elsewhere now. And that was the start of my journey towards the church.
When we first actually met in person, long after we'd first met on screen, you were all clericaled up.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Egyptian priests wear animal masks?
0:00–3:15
2
What was the significance of Akhenaten's religious revolution?
3:15–4:57
3
How did Akhenaten's beliefs differ from traditional Egyptian polytheism?
4:57–7:33
4
What role did the Aten play in Akhenaten's new theology?
7:33–9:21
5
How did Akhenaten's reign affect the priesthood of Amun?
9:21–11:35
6
What were the architectural changes introduced by Akhenaten?
11:35–14:09
7
How did Akhenaten's policies impact Egyptian society?
14:09–16:06
8
What happened to Akhenaten's legacy after his death?
16:06–54:48
Speakers
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