1. THE HYMNS OF THE ATON WORSHIPPERS.
In the tombs of rich persons who had lived and died previous to the time of Akhnaton, a large portion of the walls had been covered with religious inscriptions; and when at first the nobles of the City of the Horizon of Aton were planning their sepulchres they must have been at a loss to know what to substitute for these forbidden formulæ. Soon, however, it became the custom to write there short extracts from the hymns which were sung in the temples of the Aton. In a few cases these inscriptions supply us with a definite psalm which, although short, seems to be complete. In one tomb—that of Ay—however, there is a copy of a much more elaborate hymn; and it would thus seem that there were two main psalms in use in the temples, a longer and a shorter version of the same composition.
It was not unusual for the Egyptians to compose hymns in honour of their gods, and a few such have been preserved to us upon the walls of the old temples. Like the Hebrew psalms of later date, they are not always of a very high moral tone. They are often but chants of victory, dealing in battles, in thunders, and in tempests, and glorying in the wrath of heaven. The longer hymn to the Aton, which is here given in full, is quite unlike any of these compositions, and both in purity of tone and in beauty of style it must rank high amongst the poems of antiquity.
[52]“Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When Thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
Thou fillest every land with Thy beauty;
For Thou are beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all Thou hast made.
Thou art Ra, and Thou hast carried them all away captive;