Akhenaten, the World's First SJW?
May. 17th, 2022 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusAtenism, perhaps the world's first "Prohpetic Religion" known to use through the historical record, though extremely short-lived, was an early taste of what would come centuries later in much heftier doses. What was the ultimate motivation behind Pharaoh Akhenaten's push to completely change the religion of his country?
My read on the whole "Amarna Debacle" situation that took place during Egypt's New Kingdom period is that Akhenaten may have had his heart in the right place, though in the sense that the road to hell is paved in good intentions. The established Theban priesthood by his time was basically the major power center in all of Egypt, and most likely a very self-serving institution, and one that siphoned an immense amount of resources from the other sectors of society. So maybe Akhenaten indeed wanted to rectify what he saw as a grave social injustice by knocking the establishment priesthood down a few pegs. But of course, like so many well-intentioned, social reformers, he didn't bother asking the Gods if his intentions were in alignment with Maat (Divine Order), and just went ahead and put his own opinions first and foremost. In other words, he was full of hubris; there's some Greek stories which tell us quite clear how Hubris quickly attracts the attention of Nemesis. Now just looks at what sort of misfortunes quickly befell the Amarna deviation, not long after its establishment. Thumb your nose at the Gods and quickly expect a brief taste of hell-on-earth.
The Theban priests of Amun may have been corrupt and self-serving to some degree, but they were undoubtedly much better experts on reading intentions of the Gods than some upstart king who had enough chutzpah to think he could rearrange society on a whim and then everything would be peachy from then on.
Of course, this whole "let's totally rearrange my country's religion!" business didn't stop with Akhenaten. In fact, during the late Iron Age, it became all the rage. Though the kings who were successful at pulling this off tended to be a lot more subtle and politically-astute at this game. Darius I, Ashoka, Constantine, ect. are good examples to study on this.
My read on the whole "Amarna Debacle" situation that took place during Egypt's New Kingdom period is that Akhenaten may have had his heart in the right place, though in the sense that the road to hell is paved in good intentions. The established Theban priesthood by his time was basically the major power center in all of Egypt, and most likely a very self-serving institution, and one that siphoned an immense amount of resources from the other sectors of society. So maybe Akhenaten indeed wanted to rectify what he saw as a grave social injustice by knocking the establishment priesthood down a few pegs. But of course, like so many well-intentioned, social reformers, he didn't bother asking the Gods if his intentions were in alignment with Maat (Divine Order), and just went ahead and put his own opinions first and foremost. In other words, he was full of hubris; there's some Greek stories which tell us quite clear how Hubris quickly attracts the attention of Nemesis. Now just looks at what sort of misfortunes quickly befell the Amarna deviation, not long after its establishment. Thumb your nose at the Gods and quickly expect a brief taste of hell-on-earth.
The Theban priests of Amun may have been corrupt and self-serving to some degree, but they were undoubtedly much better experts on reading intentions of the Gods than some upstart king who had enough chutzpah to think he could rearrange society on a whim and then everything would be peachy from then on.
Of course, this whole "let's totally rearrange my country's religion!" business didn't stop with Akhenaten. In fact, during the late Iron Age, it became all the rage. Though the kings who were successful at pulling this off tended to be a lot more subtle and politically-astute at this game. Darius I, Ashoka, Constantine, ect. are good examples to study on this.
