God Aton | Aten God of Egypt

• 16 / 5 / 2023

God Aton 

During the time of Amarna, Aton was the god of infinite generosity, who gave life to justice and universal harmony, thus benefiting all men equally.

His existence as a deity dates back to the reign period of Tutmosis IV, the eighth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, although it is also believed that his oldest antecedents are between the first intermediate period and the middle kingdom, however during the different stages you can see the exponential development in the cult of Aton, which went from being a solar disk to the divinity of great superiority.

God Aten 

Once he assumes the power of Egypt, Amenhotep IV showed his discontent and repudiation for the traditional religion of the culture, entrenched in monotheistic beliefs, which is why he begins a new religious reform in order to strip all kinds of beliefs, and express that only Aton should be the only one of the Egyptian gods who deserved devotion, in honor of this Amenophis decided to change his name to Akhnaton which means “Faithful servant of Aton.

After this a new type of belief is installed, henotheism or monolatry, which represents the fact of recognizing the existence of various deities, but that only one of them is worthy of worship by the faithful devotee.

Amarna Mythology

However, Pharaoh's efforts to only worship Aton were not enough for the people of Egypt to accept them since the clergy strongly imposed themselves on this type of henotheistic cult and rejected the fact of not worshiping other gods, and in this way, the will of the imposing pharaoh is violated after his death.

He is the God who grants life on earth and gives encouragement to everything around him, which is why he is seen as a solar disk that feeds life, who in the early days of his worship was represented as a man with a head falcon and revered as the god of goodness and infinite justice.