THE GREAT HYMN TO THE ATEN (through the literary criticism: New Historicism)

The Great Hymn to the Aten is a short Egyptian hymn that was written about the sun as being a God named Aten. This hymn was written in ca. 1350 B.C.E and it was inscribed at the entrance to the tomb of an important official in the new capital city of el-Amarna. This hymn basically “celebrates the sun as creator and sustainer of the world and emphasizes the close connection between the God and his human counterparts, the king (Amenhotep IV) and queen (Nefertiti).” From this quote we can understand that the King, Amenhotep, was the one who strongly believed in and was devoted to serving Aten (Sun God). So much so that it is said in the text that “the king initiated a religious and political revolution when he exclusively promoted the cult of the sun God, Aten, built a new capital, and changed his name to Akhenaten, which means ‘He who is effective for Aten’.” It is obvious that King Amenhotep (aka Akhenaten) was the first one to bring about the idea of the sun as a God and he literally created a religion out of this belief. King Amenhotep believed so strongly that the sun was the creator and giver of all life and goodness, that he literally forced people to give praise and honor to his belief even if they did not believe the same as him. Because he was of higher power (a king), his people had no choice but to follow in his ways and believe in this sun God as well.

Ironically though back then in these times of Egyptian civilization, (look at this from the historical context now), many people of that time period had many different beliefs in many different Gods at one time. In the Egyptian civilization there were literally ‘made-up’ Gods for everything. There was a God for the sun, crops, health, animals, etc. And anyone could make a new God from a day to day basis. If someone strongly believed that a certain thing meant so much to them and had so much meaning to life, whatever it was, it could have been a piece of land for all that matters… they could make that their God. As long as you believed it had extreme value and was very important to you, you could worship that as your God and basically make that your entire religious belief. This is why it is not hard for me to believe that King Amenhotep believed so strongly in the sun and praised it so much, that he said it was a God and got his people to follow in his beliefs as well. That is just how the Egyptian culture is and that is how that same culture influenced the writing of this hymn as well. The Egyptian culture during this time period of history definitely had no boundaries when it came to creating and worshiping their different Gods, and this is exactly why this hymn so was influenced by the author’s culture and beliefs.

Puchner, Martin. “The Great Hymn to the Aten.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3^rd ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 29-33. Print.

Cannibal Spell for King Unis

Cannibal Spell for King Unis is a short Egyptian mythology story written about a king named Unis in ca. 2325 B.C.E. This story was inscribed inside the pyramid of where King Unis’ tomb lied, and it told the story of how King Unis gained his power over the people and how he became a God after his death. This Egyptian myth also tells of the Egyptian culture and beliefs by expressing the ‘Cannibal Spell’ in this short story as well. This Cannibal Spell basically implies that if someone were to say this spell (sort of like a prayer) over their choice of food (in this case humans that were deities) and when they would devour them, that person would essentially gain the powers and talents of that human being they had eaten. With this Egyptian mythology through the story of King Unis, we did in fact learn a lot about the values and beliefs of the Egyptian culture and people in general. Did they really think it was okay to have a God-like person who was so demented and evil rule over them? Or was it just fear that struck the Egyptian people to not do anything about this madness?  

It is known from this Egyptian mythology that King Unis was a very powerful and important person during this time period. He was considered to be the most powerful person among all people, and the people of this time period loved and feared him. However, the way that King Unis went about gaining his power was very very demented and sickening. As said before, the story tells of the Cannibal Spell, in which king Unis used for his own guilty pleasure. King Unis would practice cannibalism with humans; he would literally eat them in order to gain there special talents and powers. There are two different quotes from the book that state, “By consuming the other deities, the king assimilated their magical powers” and “Unis is the one who eats their magic and swallows their akhs, for their adults are for his morning meal, their middle-sized ones for his evening meal, their little ones for his nighttime snack, their old men and women (fuel) for his ovens.” These two quotes just go to show that King Unis did in fact was okay with murdering and eating people just for his selfish needs of gaining power and talent. The second quote even says that he used to eat young people, as in CHILDREN, as a nighttime snack. It is unbelievable to think how someone so evil in his ways and so selfish and glorified with unlimited power could be so looked up to and called a “God.” Yes, he was the greatest and most powerful man of that time period but his moral standing was nowhere near close to God-worthy and he himself as a man was nowhere near respectable in any way due to his actions.

Puchner, Martin. “Cannibal Spell For King Unis.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3^rd ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 26-27. Print.