Twice great is the lord of his city, above a million arms: as for other rulers of men, they are but common folk.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a dyke, damming the stream in its water flood.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a cool lodge, letting every man repose unto full daylight.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a bulwark, with walls built of the sharp stones of Kesem.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a place of refuge, excluding the marauder.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were an asylum, shielding the terrified from his foe.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a shade, the cool vegetation of the flood-time in the season of harvest.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a corner warm and dry in time of winter.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were a rock barring the blast in time of tempest.
Twice great is the lord of his city: he is as it were Sekhemt to foes who tread upon his boundary.
IV
He hath come to us, that he may take the land of the South Country: the Double Crown[212] hath been placed upon his head.
He hath come, he hath united the two lands: he hath joined the Reed to the Hornet.[213]
He hath come, he hath ruled the people of the Black Land: he hath placed the Red Land in his power.[214]
He hath come, he hath protected the two lands: he hath tranquillized the two regions.
He hath come, he hath made the people of Egypt to live: he hath destroyed its afflictions.
He hath come, he hath made the Pat to live: he hath opened the throat of the Rekhyt.[215]
He hath come, he hath trampled on the nations: he hath smitten the Anu who knew not his terror.
He hath come, he hath secured his frontier: he hath delivered him who was stolen away.
He hath come: ... he granteth reward-in-old-age by what his mighty arm bringeth to us.
He hath come, we nurture our children: we bury our aged ones[216] by his good favor.
Translation of F. Ll. Griffith.
HYMN TO THE ATEN[217]
The following hymn addressed by King Akhenaten (B.C. 1450) to his one god, the visible Sun itself, was perhaps originally written in ten-line stanzas like the 'Hymn to Usertesen III.,' but the known texts of it are all too mutilated and uncertain for us to attempt any thorough restoration of the composition at present. A good edition of the hymn has been published by Professor Breasted of Chicago, and his text is here followed.
King Akhenaten was one of the most original minds known to us in Egyptian history. His bringing up was probably far more favorable to awakening powers of thought than was usually the case with the Pharaohs. Through his mother, Queen Tiy, he had been in close contact with the religions of Mesopotamia, perhaps even with Israelite monotheism; suddenly he cast off the traditions of his own country and all its multitudinous deities of heaven, earth, and the underworld, and devoted himself to the worship of one god, visible and exalted, before whom all else seemed either petty, gross, or unreal. His motto, as Professor Petrie has remarked, was "living in truth"; and according to his lights he lived up to it. Fervently he adored his god; and we may well believe that the words of this hymn are those which flowed from his own heart as he contemplated the mighty and beneficent power of the Sun.
This heretical doctrine roused the passions of the orthodox, who, triumphing over Akhenaten's reform, condemned his monuments to systematic destruction.