Of all the pharaohs who ruled Egypt, Tut’s father had to be among the strangest.
First of all, there was the way he looked. Amenhotep’s head was oddly shaped. It was very long and narrow. And his hips were very large for a man. Was a rare disease the cause? Some historians think so.
In spite of his looks, Amenhotep married a very beautiful queen. Two museums, one in Cairo and one in Berlin, own a bust of her. (A bust is a sculpture of someone’s head and shoulders.) Her name was Nefertiti. Although not of royal birth, Nefertiti looked every inch a queen.
Nefertiti became the pharaoh’s head wife. Women in ancient Egypt did not have the same rights as men. For example, they did not attend school. But Nefertiti was a powerful woman. She was an important adviser to her husband.
She backed him up when he decided to make changes. Big changes.
A WOMAN PHARAOH
ALTHOUGH WOMEN IN ANCIENT EGYPT WERE NOT THE EQUALS OF MEN, IN 1504 B.C. A WOMAN BECAME PHARAOH. HER NAME WAS HATSHEPSUT. SHE TOOK POWER AFTER THE PHARAOH DIED SUDDENLY, LEAVING BEHIND ONLY ONE VERY YOUNG SON (THUTMOSE III).
MOST OF WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT HATSHEPSUT COMES FROM DEPICTIONS OF HER IN ART. AT FIRST, SHE IS SEEN IN THE TYPICAL DRESS OF A WOMAN. BUT LATER SHE IS SHOWN IN THE CROWN OF THE PHARAOH. SHE ALSO WEARS THE FALSE BEARD OF THE PHARAOH. HATSHEPSUT BEGAN MANY GREAT BUILDING PROJECTS. BUT AFTER HER DEATH AROUND 1450 B.C., THUTMOSE III BECAME PHARAOH. HE DID HIS BEST TO ERASE ANY RECORDS OF HER.
What kinds of changes did Amenhotep make?
For one thing, he decided to change the religion.
For hundreds and hundreds of years, the people of Egypt had prayed to many gods and goddesses. Some looked like people. Some looked like animals. Some had an animal head and a human body.
There was Thoth. He was the god of the moon. Anubis was the god of the cemeteries. Isis was a goddess who protected children.
In all, there were about a thousand different gods. Some were only local gods. But the important gods had great temples devoted to them. People could visit the temples and pray for the god’s help. (Common people, however, were not allowed inside.)
The most important god of all was Amun-Ra, god of the sun. He appeared in human form. Every day he rode his chariot across the sky.
GODS AND GODDESSES
OSIRIS, ISIS, SETH, AND HORUS WERE ALSO VERY POWERFUL GODS AND GODDESSES. THESE FOUR ARE IN THE MYTH OF HOW THE EARTH AND THE UNDERWORLD BEGAN. ACCORDING TO THE MYTH, OSIRIS AND ISIS WERE KING AND QUEEN OF THE EARTH. THEY HAD A SON NAMED HORUS.
BUT OSIRIS’S BROTHER WAS JEALOUS AND WANTED TO RULE EARTH. HIS NAME WAS SETH. SO HE KILLED OSIRIS AND SENT HIM TO THE UNDERWORLD. HOWEVER, OSIRIS’S SON (HORUS) TOOK BACK THE KINGDOM FROM SETH. NOW HORUS BECAME KING OF THE EARTH. HIS FATHER, OSIRIS, BECAME KING OF THE UNDERWORLD.
SETH WAS SHOWN WITH THE HEAD OF AN IMAGINARY ANIMAL THAT LOOKS KIND OF LIKE A GREYHOUND. HE WAS GOD OF THE DESERT.
OSIRIS, GOD OF THE DEAD, WAS ALWAYS PICTURED WRAPPED TIGHT LIKE A MUMMY.
ISIS WAS THOUGHT TO PROTECT CHILDREN AND PEOPLE IN NEED.
HORUS HAD THE HEAD OF A HAWK AND WAS GOD OF THE SKY. THE EGYPTIANS BELIEVED EVERY PHARAOH WAS THE SON OF HORUS.
Amenhotep, however, decided to do away with all the gods and goddesses. From then on there was going to be only one god. This god was also god of the sun. But it did not appear in human form like Amun-Ra. Instead, it looked like the disk of the sun. Sun rays spread out from it. And at the end of each ray was a hand. The hands were a sign that the god was watching over the people of Egypt. The god’s name was Aten-Ra.
The pharaoh believed he was Aten-Ra’s messenger on Earth. The only way people could reach the god was through him.
Amenhotep got rid of all the priests who served other gods. Money from their temples now went to Aten-Ra. Amenhotep changed his name (to Akhenaten). His new name meant “servant of Aten.” Nefertiti changed her name, too (scientists believe to Nefernefruaten). This new name meant “fair is the goddess of Aten.”
The royal family moved from the city of Thebes. A new capital was built. It was called Amarna. This was where Tut spent his childhood. He grew up learning the new beliefs.
The city of Amarna spread for eight miles on either side of the Nile. Here again, Amenhotep did something different.
Usually the land west of the river was where the dead were buried. Why? Because the sun sets in the west every evening. Just as sunset brings an end to the day, death brings an end to life. So the dead were buried in the western lands. But Amenhotep decided to do the opposite in the new city. A cemetery was built east of the river. The west side of Amarna was where people lived. New homes and palaces were built as well as new temples, all to Aten-Ra.
Before this, temples had long halls that led to dark inner-rooms. This was where the priests would pray. The new temples to Aten-Ra were open-air buildings that let in the divine light of the sun.
The pharaoh also wanted to change the style of paintings. The old style had many rules for artists to follow. A person was always shown from the side. A head was always shown in profile, with one eye looking straight at the viewer. A person’s face always looked young and perfect. No wrinkles or gray hair! Both shoulders always faced front, but the torso had to be shown in profile. One leg was always placed directly in front of the other. The paintings were often very beautiful, but the people in them never looked natural or three-dimensional.
Why were there so many rules for artists? The ancient Egyptians believed that a painting of a dead person could come to life. So it needed to include all the different parts of the body. An arm or a leg couldn’t be left out. And the person would want to look the way he or she did when young and healthy, not when old or sick.
But Amenhotep decided to change the rules. He wanted to be portrayed as he really looked, with his long head and narrow eyes.
He also wanted paintings of people to seem more natural. Not so formal. One painting shows Amenhotep and his wife playing fondly with three of their six little daughters. Never before had anything like this been shown.
The changes, however, did not last. They were stopped soon after Amenhotep’s death. (He was the pharaoh for about sixteen years.) The new city of Amarna was soon deserted. The old customs were brought back.
It must have been a very confusing time for the whole country. Just when people were getting used to all the changes, they were told to forget them. Even if Tut had already been a grown man, it would have been a difficult time to become pharaoh.
The eye ofHorus wards off evil. |