Contents — 8 sections
I. Universal Splendour and Power of Aton
"Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky, O living Aton, Beginning of life I When thou risest in the eastern horizon, Thou fillest every land with thy beauty. Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high above every land. Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all that thou hast made. Thou art Re, and thou carriest them all away captive; ' Thou bindest them by thy love. Though thou art far away, thy rays are upon earth; Though thou art on high, thy [footprints are the day].
II. Night
"When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky. The earth is in darkness like the dead; They sleep in their chambers. Their heads are wrapped up. Their nostrils are stopped. And none seeth the other. While all their things are stolen
*The best text is that of Davies, Amamaj VI, pi. xxix. Full commentary will be found in my De hymnis in solem svb rege Amenophide IV. conceptia, Berlin, 1894, though unfortunately based on the older text of Bouriant. Some changes in the above translation, as compared with that in the author's History , are due to a few new readings in Davies's text, as well as to further study of the document also. The division into strophes is not in the original, but is indicated here for the sake of clearness. The titles of the strophes I have inserted to aid the modem reader.
^ There is a pim here on the word Re, which is the same as the word used for "all."
THE IMPERIAL AOE AND MONOTHEISM 325
Which are under their heads.
And they know it not.
Every lion cometh forth from his den,
All serpents, they sting.
Darkness . . .
The world is in silence,
He that made them resteth in his horizon.
Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon.
When thou shinest as Aton by day
Thou drivest away the darkness.
When thou sendest forth thy rays.
The Two Lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity.
Awake and standing upon their feet
When thou hast raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing.
Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning.
(Then) in all the world they do their work.
III. Day, and the Animals and Plants
"All cattle rest upon their pasturage, The trees and the plants flourish. The birds flutter in their marshes. Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee. All the sheep dance upon their feet. All winged things fly. They live when thou hast shone upon them.
IV. Day, and the Waters
"The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike. Every highway is open because thou dawnest. The fish in the river leap up before thee. Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.
V. Creation of Man
"Creator of the germ in woman, Maker of seed in man, Giving life to the son in the body of his mother.
326 RELIGION AND THOUGHT IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Soothing him that he may not weep,
Nurse (even) in the womb.
Giver of breath to animate every one that he makethi
When he cometh forth from the body . . . on the day of his birth.
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
' CREATION OF ANHiAIA
"When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell, Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive. When thou hast '^ brought him together \ To (the point of) bursting it in the egg. He cometh forth from the egg To chirp [with all his might\ He goeth about upon his two feet When he hath come forth therefrom.
VI. The Whole Creation
"How manifold are thy works! They are hidden from before (us), O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth.^ Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart * While thou wast alone: Men, all cattle large and small. All that are upon the earth. That go about upon their feet; [All] that are on high. That fly with their wings. The foreign countries^ Syria and Kush, The land of Egypt;
^ The shorter hymns follow the phrase "sole God," with the addition, '^ beside whom there is no other" (see Davies, Amama, I, XXXVI, 1. 1, and HI, XXIX, 1. 1).
This use of the word sp for "quality" or "power" will be found also in the hymn of Suti and Hor translated above (Brit. Mus. Stela 826, 1. 3); Great Hymn to Amon (1, 5), and similarly on the late statue of Hor (Louvre 88, Brugsch, Thes. VI, 1251, 1. 1).
*The word "heart" may mean either "pleasure" or "understanding" here.
Thou settest every man into his place.
Thou suppliest their necessities.
Every one has his possessions.
And his days are reckoned.
The tongues are divers in speech.
Their forms Ukewise and their skins are distinguished.
(For) thou makest different the strangers.
WATERIN THE EARTH IN EGYPT AND ABKOAD
"Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World, Thou bringest it as thou desirest. To preserve alive the people.^ For thou hast made them for thyself. The lord of them all, resting among them; Thou lord of every land, who risest for them. Thou Sun of day, great in majesty. All the distant countries. Thou makest (also) their life. Thou hast set a Nile in the sky; When it falleth for them. It maketh waves upon the mountains, Like the great green sea. Watering their fields in their towns.
"How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity! There is a Nile in the sky for the strangers And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet. (But) the Nile, it cometh from the Nether World for Egypt.
VII. The Seasons
'Thy rays nourish* every garden;
When thou risest they live.
They grow by thee.
Thou makest the seasons
In order to create all thy work:
Winter to bring them coolness.
And heat that ^they may taste^ thee.
^ The word is one used only of the people of Egypt.
' The word used implies the nourishment of a mother at the breast.
328 RBLIOION AND THOUGHT IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein,
In order to behold all that thou hast made,
Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton,
Dawning, Ottering, going afar and returning.
Thou makest millions of forms
Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers.
All eyes see thee before them.
For thou art Aton of the day over the earth.
VIII. Revelation to the King
"Thou art in my heart. There is no other that knoweth thee Save thy son Ikhnaton. Thou hast made him wise In thy designs and in thy might. The world is in thy hand. Even as thou hast made them. When thou hast risen they live. When thou settest they die; For thou art length of life of thyself. Men live through thee, While (their) eyes are upon thy beauty Until thou settest. All labor is put away When thou settest in the west.
Thou'didst establish the world,
And raise them up for thy son.
Who came forth from thy limbs.
The king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands,
Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems,
Ikhnaton, whose life is long;
(And for) the chief royal wife, his beloved.
Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nof retete.
Living and flourishing for ever and ever."