egyptian · hymn

Great Hymn to the Aten

c. 1346 BCE · New Kingdom (Amarna Period) · Amarna (Akhetaten)

A. Hymn to Aten by the King

[He saith]:—

Thou risest gloriously, O thou Living Aten, Lord of Eternity! Thou art sparkling (or coruscating), beautiful, [and] mighty. Thy love is mighty and great... thy light, of diverse colours, leadeth captive (or, bewitcheth) all faces. Thy skin shineth brightly to make all hearts to live. Thou fillest the Two Lands with thy love, O thou god, who did[st] build [thy]self. Maker of every land, Creator of whatsoever there is upon it, [viz.] men and women, cattle, beasts of every kind, and trees of every kind that grow on the land.

They live when thou shinest upon them. Thou art the mother [and] father of what thou hast made; their eyes, when thou risest, turn their gaze upon thee. Thy rays at dawn light up the whole earth. Every heart beateth high at the sight of thee, [for] thou risest as their Lord.

Thou settest in the western horizon of heaven, they lie down in the same way as those who are dead. Their heads are wrapped up in cloth, their nostrils are blocked, until thy rising taketh place at dawn in the eastern horizon of heaven. Their hands then are lifted up in adoration of thy Ka (or person); thou vivifiest hearts with thy beauties (or, beneficent acts), which are life. Thou sendest forth thy beams, [and] every land is in festival. Singing men, singing women, [and] chorus men make joyful noises in the Hall of the House of the Benben Obelisk, [and] in every temple in [the city of] Aakhut-Aten, the Seat of Truth, wherewith thy heart is satisfied. Within it are dedicated offerings of rich food (?).

Thy son is sanctified (or, ceremonially pure) to perform the things which thou willest, O thou Aten, when he showeth himself in the appointed processions.

Every creature that thou hast made skippeth towards thee, thy honoured son [rejoiceth], his heart is glad, O thou Living Aten, who [appearest] in heaven every day. He hath brought forth his honoured son, UA-EN-RA, like his own form, never ceasing so to do. The son of Ra supporteth his beauties (or beneficent acts).

NEFER-KHEPERU-RA UA-EN-KA [saith]:—

I am thy son, satisfying thee, exalting thy name. Thy strength [and] thy power are established in my heart. Thou art the Living Disk, eternity is thine emanation (or, attribute). Thou hast made the heavens to be remote so that thou mightest shine therein and gaze upon everything that thou hast made. Thou thyself art Alone, but there are millions of [powers of] life in thee to make them (viz., thy creatures) live. Breath of life is it to [their] nostrils to see thy beams. Buds burst into flower (?), [and] the plants which grow on the waste lands send up shoots at thy rising; they drink themselves drunk before thy face. All the beasts frisk about on their feet; all the feathered fowl rise up from their nests and flap their wings with joy, and circle round in praise of the Living Aten.

B. Hymn to Aten by Ai, Overseer of the Horse of Aakhunaten

1A Hymn of praise of Her-àakhuti, the living one, exalted in the Eastern Horizon in his name of Shu who is in the Aten, who liveth for ever and ever, the living and great Aten, he who is in the Set-Festival, the lord of the Circle, the Lord of the Disk, the Lord of heaven, the Lord of earth, the lord of the House of the Aten in Aakhut-Aten, [of] the King of the South and the North, who liveth in Truth, lord of the Two Lands (i.e., Egypt), NEFER-KHEPERU-RA UA-EN-KA, the son of Ra, who liveth in Truth, Lord of Crowns, AAKHUN-ATEN, great in the period of his life, [and of] the great royal woman (or wife) whom he loveth, Lady of the Two Lands, NEFER-NEFERU-ATEN NEFERTITI, who liveth in health and youth for ever and ever.
2He (i.e., Ai, a Fan-bearer and the Master of the King's Horse) saith:—

Thy rising [is] beautiful in the horizon of heaven, O Aten, ordainer of life. Thou dost shoot up in the horizon of the East, thou fillest every land with thy beneficence. Thou art beautiful and great and sparkling, and exalted above every land. Thy arrows (i.e., rays) envelop (i.e., penetrate) everywhere all the lands which thou hast made. Thou art as Ka. Thou bringest [them] according to their number, thou subduest them for thy beloved son. Thou thyself art afar off, but thy beams are upon the earth; thou art in their faces, they [admire] thy goings.

3Thou settest in the horizon of the west, the earth is in darkness, in the form of death. Men lie down in a booth wrapped up in cloths, one eye cannot see its fellow. If all their possessions, which are under their heads, be carried away they perceive it not.
4Every lion emergeth from his lair, all the creeping things bite, darkness [is] a warm retreat (?). The land is in silence. He who made them hath set in his horizon.

The earth becometh light, thou shootest up in the horizon, shining in the Aten in the day, thou scatterest the darkness. Thou sendest out thine arrows (i.e., rays),

5the Two Lands make festival, [men] wake up, stand upon their feet, it is thou who raisest them up. [They] wash their members, they take [their apparel] and array themselves therein, their hands are [stretched out] in praise at thy rising, throughout the land they do their works.

Beasts and cattle of all kinds settle down upon the pastures, shrubs and vegetables flourish, the feathered fowl fly about over their marshes, their feathers praising thy Ka (person). All the cattle rise up on their legs, creatures that fly and insects of all kinds

6spring into life, when thou risest up on them. The boats drop down and sail up the river, likewise every road openeth (or showeth itself) at thy rising, the fish in the river swim towards thy face, thy beams are in the depths of the Great Green (i.e., the Mediterranean and Red Seas).

Thou makest offspring to take form in women, creating seed in men. Thou makest the son to live in the womb of his mother, making him to be quiet that he crieth not; thou art a nurse in the womb, giving breath to vivify that which he hath made. [When] he droppeth from the womb... on the day of his birth [he] openeth his mouth in the [ordinary] manner, thou providest his sustenance.

7The young bird in the egg speaketh in the shell, thou givest breath to him inside it to make him to live. Thou makest for him his mature form so that he can crack the shell [being] inside the egg. He cometh forth from the egg, he chirpeth with all his might, when he hath come forth from it (the egg), he walketh on his two feet.

O how many are the things which thou hast made! They are hidden from the face, O thou

8One God, like whom there is no other. Thou didst create the earth by thy heart (or will), thou alone existing, men and women, cattle, beasts of every kind that are upon the earth, and that move upon feet (or legs), all the creatures that are in the sky and that fly with their wings, [and] the deserts of Syria and Kesh (Nubia), and the Land of Egypt.

Thou settest every person in his place. Thou providest their daily food, every man having the portion allotted to him, [thou] dost compute the duration of his life. Their tongues are different in speech, their characteristics (or forms), and

9likewise their skins [in colour], giving distinguishing marks to the dwellers in foreign lands.

Thou makest Hapt (the Nile) in the Tuat (Underworld), thou bringest it when thou wishest to make mortals to live, inasmuch as thou hast made them for thyself, their Lord who dost support them to the uttermost, O thou Lord of every land, thou shinest upon them, O ATEN of the day, thou great one of majesty.

Thou makest the life of all remote lands. Thou settest a Nile in heaven, which cometh down to them.

10It maketh a flood on the mountains like the Great Green Sea, it maketh to be watered their fields in their villages. How beneficent are thy plans, O Lord of Eternity! A Nile in heaven art thou for the dwellers in the foreign lands (or deserts), and for all the beasts of the desert that go upon feet (or legs). Hapt (the Nile) cometh from the Tuat for the land of Egypt. Thy beams nourish every field; thou risest up [and] they live, they germinate for thee.

Thou makest the Seasons to develop everything that thou hast made:

11The season of Pert (i.e., Nov. 16–March 16) so that they may refresh themselves, and the season Heh (i.e., March 16–Nov. 16) in order to taste thee. Thou hast made the heaven which is remote that thou mayest shine therein and look upon everything that thou hast made. Thy being is one, thou shinest (or, shootest up) among thy creatures as the LIVING ATEN, rising, shining, departing afar off, returning. Thou hast made millions of creations (or, evolutions) from thy one self (viz.) towns and cities, villages, fields, roads and river. Every eye (i.e., all men) beholdeth thee confronting it. Thou art the Aten of the day at its zenith.
12At thy departure thine eye... thou didst create their faces so that thou mightest not see... ONE thou didst make,... Thou art in my heart. There is no other who knoweth thee except thy son Nefer-kheperu-Ra Ua-en-Ka. Thou hast made him wise to understand thy plans [and] thy power. The earth came into being by thy hand, even as thou hast created them (i.e., men). Thou risest, they live; thou settest, they die. As for thee, there is duration of life in thy members, life is in thee. [All] eyes [gaze upon]
13thy beauties until thou settest, [when] all labours are relinquished. Thou settest in the West, thou risest, making to flourish for the King. Every man who [standeth on his] foot, since thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, thou hast raised up for thy son who came forth from thy body, the King of the South and the North, Living in Truth, Lord of Crowns, Aakhun-Aten, great in the duration of his life [and for] the Royal Wife, great of majesty, Lady of the Two Lands, Nefer-neferu-Aten Nefertiti, living [and] young for ever and ever.

notes

The Great Hymn to the Aten is one of the most celebrated religious poems to survive from ancient Egypt, composed during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten (c. 1353–1336 BCE), who initiated the Amarna Period — a radical religious revolution that swept away Egypt's traditional polytheism and installed the Aten, the sun disk itself, as the sole god. This volume presents two hymns found together in the Rock Tombs of El-Amarna (modern Tell el-Amarna), the site of Akhetaten, the capital city Akhenaten built in the desert to honour his god. Hymn A is attributed to the king himself (Akhenaten, throne name Nefer-kheperu-Ra Ua-en-Ka). Hymn B is attributed to Ai (or Ay), Akhenaten's Master of the Horse and Fan-bearer, who later became pharaoh after the death of Tutankhamun. The two hymns complement each other: the King's hymn is a personal declaration of devotion and sonship ("I am thy son, satisfying thee, exalting thy name"), while Ai's longer hymn is a structured theological poem in thirteen numbered sections — moving through the daily cycle of the sun, from the terror of night (lions, creeping things, men sleeping as though dead) through the glorious dawn, the fertility of the earth, the mystery of creation in the womb and in the egg, the diversity of peoples and languages, and the provision of two Niles — one underground for Egypt, one in the heavens for foreign lands. It closes with a dedication to Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti. Section [12] of Hymn B contains visible gaps ("At thy departure thine eye... thou didst create their faces so that thou mightest not see... ONE thou didst make,...") which reflect actual lacunae in the original inscription — the stone surface was damaged or the text was deliberately erased during the Amarna counter-revolution after Akhenaten's death, when his successors (including Ai/Ay) systematically dismantled Aten worship and restored the traditional gods. The closeness of Hymn B to Psalm 104 in the Hebrew Bible ("O LORD my God, thou art very great... He sendeth the springs into the valleys... The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down... O LORD, how manifold are thy works!") has been noted by scholars since the nineteenth century. Whether the parallel reflects direct borrowing or a shared poetic tradition for praising a solar creator remains debated. The Great Hymn to the Aten was discovered in 1824 by John Gardner Wilkinson and first published in full by Norman de Garis Davies in The Rock Tombs of El Amarna (1908). Budge's 1923 translation in "Tutankhamen: Amenism, Atenism and Egyptian Monotheism" presents both hymns side by side, with the original hieroglyphic text printed facing the English translation — the hieroglyphic plates are why scanned copies of the book contain large blocks of apparent non-text material between the English paragraphs. Translation by E.A. Wallis Budge (1923). Public domain.

currently held: Egyptian Museum, Cairo; in situ at Amarna

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