It is believed that the accession of Khu-n-aten took place in the thirty-first year of his father’s reign, in the month Pakhons, or February, and that his marriage occurred in the month Epiphi, or May, four years later. In his sixth year he abandoned the god Amon, or Amen, and adopted the Aten worship. In his sixth year also, after the birth of his second daughter, came the change of name and facial type at Thebes, Maat only of the old divinities seems to have been retained. The pictures of this period show rays of sunbeams terminating in tiny hands which support the bodies, crowns, etc., of the royal pair.
From first to last the queen is closely associated with her husband, constantly pictured with him, a true companion and helpmate, a faithful guardian of his children, and a devoted daughter to his mother, possibly her aunt, whose name, in part, she seems to have taken. As Kidijah upheld and supported Mahomet in the promulgation of his newly received revelation, so did Nefertiti accept and lend her wifely aid to the faith of her husband and his mother.
A prayer or address to the rising sun is attributed to her and shows the religious fervor with which she was penetrated.
“Thou disk of the sun, thou living god! there is none other beside thee! Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, creator of all beings. Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heavens to dispense life to all whom thou hast created; to man, to four-footed beasts, birds and all manner of creeping things on the earth, when they live. Thus they behold thee and they go to sleep when thou settest.
“Grant to thy son who loves thee life in truth to the Lord of the land that he may live united with thee in eternity.
“Behold his wife the queen Nefert-i-Thi, may she live forevermore and eternally by his side, well pleasing to thee she admires what thou hast created day by day. He (the king) rejoices at the sight of thy benefits. Grant him a long existence as king of the land.”
At Heliopolis the sun-god Ra had been specially worshipped. He was pictured hawk-headed, surmounted by disk and uraeus, hence with priests at Heliopolis the king may have been in greater sympathy than with those at other points, where the various gods were worshipped. It is possible, too, that they were less antagonistic to him than the others, or may even have supported him. Be that as it may, at Heliopolis Khu-n-aten built a temple. The shrine received gifts from Pharaoh after Pharaoh and was very wealthy. It also had at one time an immense library. “The city,” says Strabo, who came to it shortly after the Christian Era, “is situated upon a large mound. It contains the Temple of the Sun,” probably a later one than that of Amenophis IV, “and the Ox Mnevis, which is kept in a sanctuary, and is regarded by the inhabitants as a god.” Says Pollard, “The temple had three courts, each one probably adorned with obelisks, which were so numerous that one was called ‘The City of Obelisks.’ Pharaohs of different dynasties erected a pair of obelisks in the temple of the Sun as an offering and a memorial. After the third court came the Naos, with its outer chamber or holy place and its inner or holy of holies, in which was the shrine with the symbol of the deity. Strabo tells us that the ox Mnevis was kept in the sanctuary.”
Six daughters, one after another, enlarged the family circle of the palace “a garland of princesses,” as they have been poetically called. They constantly appear in the pictures with their parents and even attended their father in his expeditions in his chariot. Their names are given as Mi-aten or Mut-aten, Mak-aten, Anknes-aten, Nofru-aten, or Nofrura, Ta-shera, Satem-en-ra and Bek-aten, some doubt seems to exist as to whether the last was daughter or grand-daughter of Queen Tyi. A standing figure of this princess, at which the artists are still seen chiselling from life, under the eye of the queen’s overseer, Putha, by name, is among the various wall paintings. Perhaps she was an especial darling, this youngest child, or she may have had a particularly beautiful face and form; but the temple walls were said to have been nearly covered with the pictures of the king, queen and princess. Aten-en-aten or Khu-n-aten’s feelings towards his family were tinged with all a lover’s enthusiasm. His words have a poetic cast.
“The beams of the sun’s disk shone over him with a pure light so as to make young his body daily.
“Therefore King Khu-n-aten swore an oath to his father thus: Sweet love fills my heart for the queen, for her young children. Grant a great age to the queen Nofrit-Thi in long years; may she keep the hand of Pharaoh. Grant a great age to the royal daughter Meri-aten and to the royal daughter Mak-aten and to their children, may they keep the hand of the queen their mother eternally and forever.