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Aten (also Aton, Egyptian ''jtn'') is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra. The deified Aten is the focus of the monolatristic, henotheistic, monistic or monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship and recognition of Aten. In his poem "Great Hymn to the Aten", Akhenaten praises Aten as the creator, giver of life, and nurturing spirit of the world. Aten does not have a Creation Myth or family, but is mentioned in the Book of the Dead. The worship of Aten was eradicated by Horemheb. ==Overview== The Aten, the sun-disk, is first referred to as a deity in The Story of Sinuhe from the 12th dynasty,〔Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.'' Thames & Hudson. pp. 236–240〕 in which the deceased king is described as rising as god to the heavens and uniting ''with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker.''〔M. Lichtheim, ''Ancient Egyptian Literature,'' Vol.1, 1980, p.223〕 By analogy, the term "silver aten" was sometimes used to refer to the moon.〔Fleming, Fergus, and Alan Lothian (1997). ''The Way to Eternity: Egyptian Myth.'' Duncan Baird Publishers. p. 52〕 The solar Aten was extensively worshipped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III, when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. In the reign of Amenhotep III's successor, Amenhotep IV, the Aten became the central god of Egyptian state religion, and Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his close link with the new supreme deity.〔 The full title of Akhenaten's god was "Ra-Horakhty who rejoices in the horizon, in his Name as the Light which is in the sun disc." (This is the title of the god as it appears on the numerous stelae which were placed to mark the boundaries of Akhenaten's new capital at Akhetaten, modern Amarna.) This lengthy name was often shortened to ''Ra-Horus-Aten'' or just ''Aten'' in many texts, but the god of Akhenaten raised to supremacy is considered a synthesis of very ancient gods viewed in a new and different way. The god is also considered to be both masculine and feminine simultaneously. All creation was thought to emanate from the god and to exist within the god. In particular, the god was not depicted in anthropomorphic (human) form, but as rays of light extending from the sun's disk. Furthermore, the god's name came to be written within a cartouche, along with the titles normally given to a Pharaoh, another break with ancient tradition. Ra-Horus, more usually referred to as ''Ra-Horakhty'' (''Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons''), is a synthesis of two other gods, both of which are attested from very early on. During the Amarna period, this synthesis was seen as the invisible source of energy of the sun god, of which the visible manifestation was the Aten, the solar disk. Thus Ra-Horus-Aten was a development of old ideas which came gradually. The real change, as some see it, was the apparent abandonment of all other gods, especially Amun, and the debatable introduction of monotheism by Akhenaten.〔Jan Assmann, ''Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies'', Stanford University Press 2005, p.59〕 The syncretism is readily apparent in the Great Hymn to the Aten in which Re-Herakhty, Shu and Aten are merged into the creator god.〔M. Lichtheim, ''Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. 2, 1980, p. 96〕 Others see Akhenaten as a practitioner of an Aten monolatry,〔Dominic Montserrat, ''Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt,'' Routledge 2000, ISBN 0-415-18549-1, pp. 36ff.〕 as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aten」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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