Akhenaten  

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Akhenaten was a pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.

In the arts

Plays

• Agatha Christie: play, Akhnaton (written in 1937, published by Dodd, Mead and Company [New York], 1973, ISBN 0-396-06822-7; Collins [London], 1973, ISBN 0-00-211038-5)

Novels

• Michael Asher: The Eye of Ra A mystery novel by the noted desert explorer, citing the legendary lost oasis of Zaerzura as the secret burying place of Akhenaten
• Thomas Mann, in his fictional biblical tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (1933–1943), makes Akhenaten the "dreaming pharaoh" of Joseph's story.
• Tom Holland: The Sleeper in the Sands (Little, Brown & Company, 1998, ISBN 0-316-64480-3)
• Mika Waltari: The Egyptian, first published in Finnish (Sinuhe egyptiläinen) in 1945, translated by Naomi Walford (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1949, ISBN 0-399-10234-5; Chicago Review Press, 2002, paperback, ISBN 1-55652-441-2)
• David Stacton: On a Balcony, London House & Maxwell, 1958
• Gwendolyn MacEwen: King of Egypt, King of Dreams (1971, ISBN 1-894663-60-8)
• Allen Drury: A God Against the Gods (Doubleday, 1976) and Return to Thebes (Doubleday, 1976)
• Philip K. Dick: VALIS (1981) under the name Ikhnathon.
• Naguib Mahfouz: Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (العائش فى الحقيقة) (1985)
• Andree Chedid: Akhenaten and Nefertiti's Dream
• Wolfgang Hohlbein: Die Prophezeihung (The Prophecy), in which Echnaton is killed by Ay and curses him into eternal life until a prophecy is fulfilled.
• Moyra Caldecott: Akhenaten: Son of the Sun (1989; eBook, 2000, ISBN 1-899142-86-X; 2003, ISBN 1-899142-25-8)
• P.B. Kerr: The Akhenaten Adventure Akhenaten is said to be the holder of 70 lost Djinn
• Pauline Gedge: The Twelfth Transforming (1984), set in the reign of Akhenaten, details the construction of Akhetaten and fictionalized accounts of his sexual relationships with Nefertiti, Tiye and successor Smenkhkare.
• Dorothy Porter: verse novel, Akhenaten (1991)
• Judith Tarr: Pillar of Fire (1995)
• Lynda Robinson: mystery, Drinker of Blood (2001, ISBN 0-446-67751-5)
• Gilbert Sinoue: Akhenaton, Le Dieu Maudit (Akhenaten, the Cursed God) (2005, ISBN 2-07-030033-1)
• Spelled 'Akenhaten', he appears as a major character in the first of a trilogy of historical novels by P. C. Doherty, An Evil Spirit out of the West.
• Michelle Moran: Nefertiti (2007)
• Barbara Wood: Watch of Gods
• Kerry Greenwood: Out of the Black Land (2010, ISBN 1-464-20038-6)
• Lucile Morrison: The Lost Queen of Egypt (Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937), although this young adult novel is about Akhenaten's daughter, spelled 'Ankhsenpaaten', later 'Ankhsenamon', he appears as a character until his death in chapter 16.

Music

• Ikhnaton is referenced in the title of a section of the epic progressive rock song "Supper's Ready" by the English rock band Genesis on their album Foxtrot (1972). The section is named "Ikhnaton and Itsacon and their band of Merry Men".
• Philip Glass: opera, Akhnaten: An Opera in Three Acts (1983; CBS Records, 1987)
• "Akhenaten", track on Julian Cope's 1992 album Jehovahkill.
• "Akhénaton", name of one of the members of the French rap group IAM; also records under this name and produces other rappers under this name.
• Akhenaten is mentioned in the song lyrics to "Dream of Amarna" (Written in December 1998) on the demo album compact disc, "The Aten Shines Again" by Leo-Neferuaten Boyle (2002).
• "Son Of The Sun" by Swedish Symphonic Metal band Therion on the album Sirius B (2004).
• "Cast Down the Heretic" by the death metal band Nile on the album Annihilation of the Wicked (2005).
• "Sadness of Echnaton Losing the World Child" by Tangerine Dream, appearing first on the album One Times One (2007).
• "Cursing Akhenaten" by the metalcore band After The Burial on the album Rareform (2008).
• Roy Campbell, Jr., The Akhenaten Suite - A Modern Jazz Epic
• Akhenaten is featured on the album cover of Those Whom the Gods Detest by the band Nile (2009).
• "Night Enchanted" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the 2009 album Night Castle.
• Akhnaten, Dweller in Truth is a work for Piano, Cello and Orchestra by Mohammed Fairouz (2011).
• Akhenaton Symphony by Otacílio Melgaço (2014).

Film

• The Egyptian, motion picture (1954, directed by Michael Curtiz, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation), based on the novel by Mika Waltari.
• Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile, motion picture (1961, directed by Fernando Cherchio, starring Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price). Akhenaten, played by Amedeo Nazzari, is called "Amonophis" in the film.
• La Reine Soleil (2007 animated film by Philippe Leclerc), features Akhenaten, Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamun), Akhesa (Ankhesenepaten, later Ankhesenamun), Nefertiti, and Horemheb in a complex struggle pitting the priests of Amun against Akhenaten's intolerant monotheism.
• Donald Redford's excavation of one Akhenaten's temples was the subject of a one-hour 1980 National Film Board of Canada documentary, The Lost Pharaoh: The Search for Akhenaten.
• Ancient Aliens Season 1 Episode 2 "The Visitors". The episode proposes that Akhenaten past may not be what we know.

Other

• Edgar P. Jacobs: comic book, Blake et Mortimer: Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide vol. 1+2 (1950), adventure story in which the mystery of Akhenaten provides much of the background.
• Joshua Norton: Die! Akhnaten Die! series of sequential woodcut prints and book recreates the story of Akhenaten as a Wild West tale.
• The Secret World, main antagonist of the Egypt storyline mission (Black Sun, Red Sand).