Breaking Ma’at: Akhenaten and the battle for Egyptian tradition and identity

To ancient Egyptians, the notion of ‘identity’ was simply being among the people (remet or remetj) who lived and thrived on Kemet (the land of Egypt). A citizen was expected to adhere to Egyptian customs, cultural norms, and belief systems. To go against such an idea was to break cosmic order (ma’at), which in Egyptian eyes could result in threatening the delicate balance of the universe. Throughout the 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, pharaohs lived and ruled through the support of cosmic order and balance. Yet, as always, there are exceptions to the rule, particularly the ‘heretic king’ Akhenaten. On Akhenaten’s accession to power, he altered virtually every Egyptian social norm, and did so according to his self-perceived identity. Akhenaten put his own individuality at the forefront of an entire culture, breaking ma’at and effectively starting a battle between identity and tradition.

Becoming Akhenaten

In c.1352 BC, Amenhotep IV came to the throne. The younger son and rightful heir of Amenhotep III, he took over on the death of his father and continued his father’s policies as all pharaohs had done for so many centuries before. Yet, by the fifth year of his reign, he was no longer Amenhotep IV. He had changed his name to Akhenaten, shut down the borders of Egypt to outside contact, closed the temples of Amun in Thebes, established a new capital (Akhet-aten, modern Amarna) in an unpopulated region in the middle of Egypt, and promoted his god, Aten, to the forefront of the religion in a monotheistic fashion, eventually banning the worship of traditional gods like Amun, Osiris, Horus, and others. In other words, Akhenaten systematically dismantled every concept of ma’at known to the ancient Egyptians, thus becoming what historians have since called him – the ‘heretic king’.

Why Akhenaten did this is uncertain. Theories range from an attempt to destroy the growing influence of Amun’s priests, to being a prophet of monotheism who mentored Moses and the rise of Judaism. With regards to the first theory, priests at the Temple of Amun had certainly grown in power, their wealth rivalling that of the pharaoh. As such, Akhenaten could have perceived them as a threat to his authority and seized the temples as a power play. However, that would only explain his shutting down the temples and expelling the priests, not banning the entire worship of all Egyptian gods. The names of Egyptian gods were often scratched out in inscriptions on temple walls, and worship was focused only on Aten.