DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0061
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM AND EMPIRE 33
Whither they have gone.
Encourage thy heart to forget it,
And let the heart dwell upon that which is profitable for thee.
Follow thy desire while thou livest,
Celebrate the glad day!
Rest not therein!
For lo, none taketh his goods with him,
Yea, no man returneth again, that is gone thither.1
At the same time we discern a new note in reference to the future
life; for to the earlier faith in the possibility of a hereafter was
added a conception of a day of judgment when the final weighing
of the deeds of this life would condition the next. Hence, on the
tombs we find inscriptions of this kind: “I gave bread to the
hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, and a
ferryboat to the boatless.” ‘‘I was father to the orphan, husband
to the widow, and a shelter to the shelterless.” Magic formulas
were written on papyrus and buried with the dead to assist him
on the judgment day as he stood before Osiris for the weighing
of his deeds. This practice, however, led to great corruption on
the part of the priests, from whom it was possible to purchase
formulas by which evil deeds would not testify against a man.
It was an age also of the development of folk tales, when stories
of adventures and of animals took shape, forming the basis
of the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, and Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit.
This broadening horizon of thought and the growth of the
idea of world empire fired the imagination of a young king
(1375-1358 b.c.), who, applying the principle of political power
to the realm of religion, conceived the idea of one god and
creator, whom he called Aton, an old name of the sun-god Re.
He then broke both politically and religiously with the powerful
though corrupt regime at Thebes, took for himself the name
Ikhnaton, which means ‘ ‘ spirit of Aton, ’ ’ and set up a new capitol
at a place that he called Akhetaton (now known as Amarna)
meaning “horizon of Aton.” Something of the spirit of the new
faith we feel in the hymns that Ikhnaton wrote:
The Splendor of Aton
Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty;
For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made.
1 Breasted, History of Egypt, p. 206.
Whither they have gone.
Encourage thy heart to forget it,
And let the heart dwell upon that which is profitable for thee.
Follow thy desire while thou livest,
Celebrate the glad day!
Rest not therein!
For lo, none taketh his goods with him,
Yea, no man returneth again, that is gone thither.1
At the same time we discern a new note in reference to the future
life; for to the earlier faith in the possibility of a hereafter was
added a conception of a day of judgment when the final weighing
of the deeds of this life would condition the next. Hence, on the
tombs we find inscriptions of this kind: “I gave bread to the
hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, and a
ferryboat to the boatless.” ‘‘I was father to the orphan, husband
to the widow, and a shelter to the shelterless.” Magic formulas
were written on papyrus and buried with the dead to assist him
on the judgment day as he stood before Osiris for the weighing
of his deeds. This practice, however, led to great corruption on
the part of the priests, from whom it was possible to purchase
formulas by which evil deeds would not testify against a man.
It was an age also of the development of folk tales, when stories
of adventures and of animals took shape, forming the basis
of the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, and Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit.
This broadening horizon of thought and the growth of the
idea of world empire fired the imagination of a young king
(1375-1358 b.c.), who, applying the principle of political power
to the realm of religion, conceived the idea of one god and
creator, whom he called Aton, an old name of the sun-god Re.
He then broke both politically and religiously with the powerful
though corrupt regime at Thebes, took for himself the name
Ikhnaton, which means ‘ ‘ spirit of Aton, ’ ’ and set up a new capitol
at a place that he called Akhetaton (now known as Amarna)
meaning “horizon of Aton.” Something of the spirit of the new
faith we feel in the hymns that Ikhnaton wrote:
The Splendor of Aton
Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty;
For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made.
1 Breasted, History of Egypt, p. 206.