Un singur DUMNEZEU

3,300 years ago, twenty pharaohs paid men to kill a dead man. Not his body - his name. Akhenaten tried, for the first time in history, to invent a single God. He closed 400 temples, nationalized 15 to 25 percent of Egypt's economy, and built a new city in the middle of the desert. For seventeen years, he almost succeeded. Then Egypt erased him. The name, the monuments, the city, the dynasty - everything. For an Egyptian, that meant death a second time: disappearance from the afterlife. But the idea could not be erased. The Great Hymn of the Aten and Psalm 104 are similar in a way that has kept scholars at odds for a century. In this episode we talk about: → why the priesthood of Amun was, practically, the largest corporation in the ancient world → the difference between monotheism, henotheism and monolatry (and why it matters) → what happened to the Egyptian peasant who had nowhere to bury his grandfather → the parallel between Cyrus (ep. 1) and Akhenaten: two kings, same mechanics, opposite results → Nefertiti, the bust found in 1912 and the three theories about her disappearance → Freud's theory about Moses - and why most historians don't accept it + another interesting theory → Chronology Part two of the trilogy. Episode 1 - THE DEVIL: How He Was Invented Episode 2 - One GOD Episode 3 - (in preparation) CHAPTERS: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:27 - Who ruled Egypt? 00:02:46 - Things to remember 00:03:44 - Akhenaten 00:04:10 - Who was Aten? 00:04:28 - Akhenaten's Reforms 00:05:27 - Theology 00:06:01 - Hymn of the Aten and the Psalms 00:07:33 - Nationalization 00:08:44 - Impact 00:11:46 - Akhenaten vs Cyrus 00:12:50 - Nefertiti 00:14:44 - Tutankhamun 00:15:53 ​​- Revenge of the Priests 00:16:46 - Moses 00:19:00 - Chronology 00:23:33 - Academic Sources BOOK RECOMMENDATION (which introduced me to this topic) Culture: Martin Puchner SOURCES BOOKS Donald B. Redford, "Akhenaten: The Heretic King" (Princeton, 1984) Erik Hornung, "Akhenaten and the Religion of Light" (Cornell, 1999) Erik Hornung, "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many" Jan Assmann, "Moses the Egyptian" (Harvard, 1997) Jan Assmann, "The Price of Monotheism" James K. Hoffmeier, "Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism" (Oxford, 2015) Barry Kemp, "The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People" (2012) Aidan Dodson, "Amarna Sunset" / "Amarna Sunrise" Marc Gabolde, studies on the Amarna and Neferneferuaten succession Joyce Tyldesley, "Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen" Thomas Romer, "The Invention of God" (2015) Mark S. Smith, "The Early History of God" Sigmund Freud, "Moses and Monotheism" (1939) PRIMARY SOURCES The Great Hymn to Aten, translated by Miriam Lichtheim, "Ancient Egyptian Literature", vol. II William Murnane, "Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt" (1995) Tutankhamun's Restoration Stele Harris Papyrus I (British Museum), temple wealth figures The Amarna Letters, in William Moran, "The Amarna Letters" (1992) Norman de Garis Davies, "The Rock Tombs of El-Amarna" (1903-1908) Ludwig Borchardt, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft reports (1912-1913) ONLINE UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology: escholarship.org/uc/nelc_uee The Amarna Project: amarnaproject.com Met Museum, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: metmuseum.org/toah NOTE Economic figures are estimates extrapolated from later Egyptian documents (notably the Harris Papyrus I, written under Ramesses III), not direct measurements from the Amarna period. The parallel between the Great Hymn to the Aten and Psalm 104 remains disputed. Assmann argues for a cultural transmission; Hoffmeier and other scholars dispute it. Both positions are represented in the episode. Freud's theory of Moses is presented as a historical object of study, not as a position accepted by current Egyptology. BUT VERY INTERESTING!