Note on the spelling: the Pharaoh is usually written with an e ‘Akhenaten’; Philip Glass entitled his opera ‘Akhnaten’; this resource includes both spellings.

Akhenaten was an Egyptian Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The dates of his life are estimated as 1351-1334 BC. When his father Amenhotep III died, he inherited the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and ruled for 17 years with his principal wife, Nefertiti.

He is often referred to as the ‘heretic’ or ‘rebel’ pharaoh because of the great religious reforms he attempted to introduce during his reign.  He declared a new religion based upon worship of a single god, the sun god, Aten, which he imposed on his people, suppressing the worship of other deities.  His new god was universal and supreme. By terming himself ‘son of Aten’, Akhenaten associated himself with this all powerful God. His radical ideas were not well received by the people of Egypt and after his death, his temples were destroyed and his name was erased from monuments in an attempt to obliterate all trace of him. This was significant as Egyptian beliefs concerning the afterlife placed an emphasis on speaking the name of the deceased; rebirth in the afterlife was not possible if a person’s name was not honoured.

Late 19^th and early 20^th century archaeological excavations in the Valley of the Kings triggered a resurgence of interest in his story – though the full story of his life and reign remains unknown. Akhenaten’s new religion saw the sun god Aten replace the entire pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Before Akhenaten, Aten merely represented the light that emanated from the sun disc; typically represented by hands radiating from the sun and giving out the ankh sign. Akhenaten and Nefertiti became the high priests and sole mediators of Aten. This resulted in the royal couple having absolute power, undermining the power of the temple priests.

Akhenaten’s legacy

Though attempts were made to obliterate Akhenaten from the history of ancient Egypt, he has inspired artists, writers, composers and groups of people who identify with him for a variety of reasons. There has been much speculation about his motivations and his reign, which have fed creative re-imaginings of this infamous pharaoh and his court. He has been considered a nature poet, an iconoclast, fundamentalist, artist and messianic philosopher. From a modern perspective, he is regarded as the first monotheist.

The British Museum collection includes stelae from the Amarna period, and two busts of Akhenaten’s father, the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, that flank the entrance to the Egyptian sculpture gallery. The gallery contains a number of statues of other pharaohs and ancient Egyptian deities, monumental pieces of stone architecture and the Rosetta Stone with its three inscribed scripts which led to the decipherment of hieroglyphs – Egypt’s ancient form of pictographic writing.