Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz is historical fiction set in ancient Egypt. It is about a real life pharaoh, Amenhotep IV, who ignored hundreds of years of tradition by renouncing the many deities of his time and calling for the worship of his One True God, the Aten. He changed his name to Akhenaten and was known ever after as the heretic pharaoh.
The novel is a series of interviews of Akhenaten’s contemporaries: the High Priest of Amun; Ay, Akhenaten’s father-in-law and tutor; Bek, the sculptor; Tadukhipa, the youngest and most beautiful member of Akhenaten’s harem; and Nefertiti, his wife; among others. Many characters in the book speak of him with hatred for the confusion and sadness he brought to his country. They say he was weak or crazy. Some characters speak lovingly of him and tell of their own conversions to his religion. They see him as a prophet and poet. Who is to be believed? His wife, Nefertiti, is given the last word, and she is the one to repeatedly use the phrase, “He dwelled in the truth.”
If I had been alive in Egypt in Akhenaten’s time, I probably would have been scared and mad. How terrible it must be not to have religious freedom; it is something that I take for granted. Surprisingly, when I read this novel, I sympathize with Akhenaten, though. I choose to believe the words of those who describe him as the philosopher and pacifist who woke early every day to watch the rising of his beloved sun disk. I trust that the character’s only intention was to share love and peace with his people, that he didn’t mean to deny them of anything, and it is not difficult for the pagan in me to appreciate Akhenaten’s worship of the sun as the source of all life and symbol of our connectedness.
Ancient Egypt always sets me dreaming. I love the cool palaces and lotus ponds, the white linen kilts and the heavy gold jewelry, although there is little of this kind of description in this book. It is spare and simple. It is just fourteen voices representing different opinions of a person as tangible as smoke. Somewhere between the two most extreme portraits of this mysterious pharaoh might lay a part of the truth of a person who once breathed.
One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
6 comments:
The story of Akhenaten has been repeated numerous times by numerous people throughout history in the attempt to find the answer to life's questions, or to impose domination.
We are definitely lucky to live in a place and time that does not force us to believe in a certain deity. Even in this country, supposedly founded on religious freedom, there have been, and still are, the Akhenaten-types who believe their way is the only right way and everyone must comply. Whatever the motive for such autocratic theism, I'm with you Christine - it would make me "scared and mad".
When I think of polytheistic religions, I don't tend to associate them with restricting religious freedom. I guess I tend to think that, because of the number of gods, people had more choice. I realize this really isn't true, but isn't it interesting that this limiting of religious freedom in Egypt occurred with the introduction of a monotheistic religion.
On a lighter note, I learned a little piece of Egyptian trivia in my humanities class tonight--the only two rivers in the world that flow North are the Nile River and the Kishwaukee River. I don't know if this information is totally accurate; there might be another small river like the Kish that also runs North (I'm not sure just how great a source my teacher is), but I thought it was interesting.
DRD
DRD,
In the novel, Akhenaten destroys the temples of the other gods and takes away the endowments that support their priests and expenses (heating/cooling bills, cable, etc.) thus taking away the outward ways in which people could worship their old gods. He distributed the money from the endowments to the poor and never used violence or force to promote the worship of his god. So yes, he was a religious tyrant, but uh, he was a peaceful one? Who wrote poetry. And loved his wife and didn't visit his harem. And was totally chilled out. I can't help it. I dig Akhenaten. And have any of you seen the art of the Amarna period? Way cool. Different than ancient Egyptian art of any other era.
And can we get some verification on the river thing? Sophia? Don? Cook?
Here's a site that lists northwards flowing rivers. The Kish isn't on it - probably too small
http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/riversno.htm
Insomniac! Of course. Thank you for your help.
I can't believe he took away their cable--tyrant! I love his groovy face (thanks Field Museum). Is there a word like Egyptiaphile? If not, I hereby invent it now. Under definition it says, "see Christine".
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