This letter is of such interest that a fuller account of it must here be given. It was addressed to the king, who is still called Amonhotep, by a royal steward named Apiy, who lived at Memphis. Two copies of the letter were found at Gurob,[33] both dated in the fifth year of the king’s reign, the third month of winter, and the nineteenth day. The letter begins with the full titles of the Pharaoh, including the phrase “living in truth,” which from this time onwards was always added to his name. Then follows the invocation: “May Ptah of the beautiful countenance work for thee, who created thy beauties, thy true father who raised (?) thee from his house to rule the orbit of the Aton.” Next comes the real business of the letter: “A communication is this to the Master, [to whom be] life, prosperity, and health, to give information that the temple of thy father Ptah ... is sound and prosperous; the house of Pharaoh ... is flourishing; the establishments of Pharaoh ... are flourishing; the residence of Pharaoh ... is flourishing and healthy; the offerings of all the gods and goddesses who are upon the soil (?) of Memphis are ... complete; complete [are they] there is nothing delayed from them.” Again the titles of the king are given, and the letter ends with the date.
Thus in the fifth year of the king’s reign, when he was about sixteen years of age, the various gods of Egypt were still acknowledged; and, though the art had been changed and the worship of Ra-Horakhti under the name of Aton had made great strides towards supremacy, there is as yet no sign of the lofty monotheism which the Pharaoh was soon to propound.
In the portions of the tomb of Horemheb which date from this period, Ra-Horakhti is invoked in the following words: “Ra-Horakhti, great god, Lord of heaven, Lord of earth, who cometh forth from his horizon and illuminateth the Two Lands [of Egypt], the sun of darkness as the great one, as Ra;” and again: “Ra, Lord of Truth, great god, sovereign of Heliopolis, ... Horakhti, only god, king of the gods, who rises in the west and sendeth forth his beauty.” From other sources, which we have seen, the god is called “Ra-Horakhti rejoicing in the horizon in his name Heat-which-is-in-Aton.”
Here we have simply the old religion of Heliopolis, to which has been grafted something of the doctrines of the Syrian Adonis or Aton. At Heliopolis there was a sacred bull, known as Mnevis, which was regarded as the living personification of Ra-Horakhti, and which was treated with divine honours, like the more famous Apis bull of Memphis. Even this superstition was accepted by the king at this time, and continued to be acknowledged by him for yet another year or two.[34] The “Heat-which-is-in-Aton” offered food for much speculation, and, by directing the attention to an intangible quality of the sun, opened up the widest fields for religious thought. But, with this exception, there was nothing as yet in the new religion to command one’s admiration.
[III.]
AKHNATON FOUNDS A NEW CITY.
“A brave soul, undauntedly facing the momentum of immemorial tradition ... that he might disseminate ideas far beyond and above the capacity of his age to understand.”—Breasted: ‘History of Egypt.’