2014년 11월 30일 일요일

시편 원전이 아톤의 찬가

시편 원전이 아톤의 찬가


The Amarna Revolution
Introduction: Although ancient Egypt was a relatively stable kingdom, this does not imply that change never occurred. The development of religious thought in Egypt reached one of its climaxes during the reign of Amenhotep IV (1353-1336 B.C.). He engineered a palace revolution of sorts aimed at overthrowing the powerful priesthood devoted to the god Amun-Re and at closing the gap between the living king and the su preme divine power. This was an effort to reestablish the high status of kingship enjoyed by monarchs of the Fourth Dynasty, those pharaohs who had constructed the great pyramids. After changing his name to Akhenaten, "worshipper of Aten," Amenhotep broke with the Egyptian polytheism exemplified in more traditional religious texts. He not only established Aten as the supreme deity, but also proclaimed that Aten could be worshipped only through the divine person of the pharaoh himself. The "Hymn to Aten" was written to glorify the new god and was inscribed in one of the rock tombs at Tel el-Amarna, the new capital of the Egyptian kingdom built by order of Akhenaten. Some scholars suggest that the pharaoh was the world's first monotheist. Yet, because Akhenaten claimed to be Aten's son and the divine intermediary between the god and ordinary mortals, it would perhaps be more accurate to suggest that he developed a henotheistic religious cult. Absorbed in his spiritual quest, Akhenaten had little interest in public affairs; the pharaoh and his family lived in seclusion at his newly constructed capital city at Amarna, surrounded by a few converts to the new cult. Eventually deposed by a powerful contingent of priests and bureaucrats, Akhenaten was probably insane when he died in isolation. (from Marc Anthony Meyer, Landmarks of World Civilizations (Guilford, Conn., 1994), 51)

Additional introduction: The eighteenth dynasty was not without its own troubles, however. Amenhotep IV (c. 1364-1347 B.C.E.) initiated a religious revolution when he introduced the worship of Aton, god of the sun disk, as the sole god  in a society that had always been polytheistic and consequently tolerant of many gods. Amenhotep pursued the worship of Aton with great enthusiasm, changing his own name to Akhenaten ("It is well with Aton"). He closed the temples of other gods and especially endeavored to lessen the power of Amon-Re and his priesthood at Thebes, which had grown rich and powerful as a result of the imperial expansion of the eighteenth dynasty. Akhenaten strove to reduce the influence of this priesthood by replacing Thebes as the capital of Egypt with Akhetaton ("dedicated to Aton"), a new city located near modern Tell-el-Amarna, two hundred miles north of Thebes.

Akhenaten's attempt at religious revolution proved to be a failure. It was too much to ask Egyptians to give up their traditional ways and beliefs, especially since they saw the destruction of the old gods as subversive of the very cosmic order upon which Egypt's survival and continuing prosperity depended. Moreover, the priests at Thebes were unalterably opposed to the changes, which had diminished their influence and power. At the same time, Akhenaten's preoccupation with his religious revolution caused him to ignore foreign affairs and led to the loss of both Syria and Palestine. Akhenaten's changes were soon undone after his death by his successors who returned the government to Thebes and restored the old gods. The Aton experiment had failed to take hold, and the eighteenth dynasty itself came to an end in 1333. (from William J. Duiker, Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History (Minneapolis, 1994), 24)

"Hymn to the Aten," by Akhenaten

(this is the primary source; see introduction)


Splendid you rise in heaven's lightland, O living Aten, creator of life! When you have dawned in eastern highland, You fill every land with your beauty. You are beauteous, great, radiant, High over every land; Your rays embrace the lands, To the limit of all that you made. Being Re, you reach their limits, You bend them for the son whom you love; Though you are far, your rays are on earth, Though one sees you, your strides are unseen.
When you set in western highland, Earth is in darkness as if in death; One sleeps in chambers, heads covered, One eye does not see another. Were they robbed of their goods, That are under their heads, People would not remark it. Every lion comes from its den, All the serpents bite Darkness hovers, earth is silent, As their maker rests in lightland.

Earth brightens when you dawn in lightland, When you shine as Aten of daytime; As you dispel the dark, As you cast your rays, The Two Lands are in festivity. Awake they stand on their feet, You have roused them; Bodies cleansed, clothed, Their arms adore your appearance. The entire land sets out to work, All beasts browse on their herbs; Trees, herbs are sprouting, Birds fly from their nests, Their wings greeting your ka. All flocks frisk on their feet, All that fly up and alight, They live when you dawn for them. Ships fare north, fare south as well, Roads lie open when you rise; The fish in the river dart before you, Your rays are in the midst of the sea.

Who makes seed grow in women, Who creates people from sperm; Who feeds the son in his mother's womb, Who soothes him to still his tears. Nurse in the womb, Giver of breath, To nourish all that he made. When he comes from the womb to breathe, On the day of his birth, You open wide his mouth, You supply his needs. When the chick in the egg speaks in the shell, You give him breath within to sustain him; When you have made him complete, To break out from the egg, He comes out from the egg, To announce his completion, Walking on his legs he comes from it.

How many are your deeds, Though hidden from sight, O Sole God beside whom there is none! You made the earth as you wished, you alone, All peoples, herds, and flocks; All upon earth that walk on legs, All on high that fly on wings, The lands of Khor and Kush, The land of Egypt. You set every man in his place, You supply their needs; Everyone has his food, His lifetime is counted. Their tongues differ in speech, Their characters likewise Their skins are distinct, For you distinguished the peoples.

You made the Nile in the underworld. You bring him when you will, To nourish the people, For you made them for yourself. Lord of all who toils for them, Lord of all lands who shines for them, Aten of daytime, great in glory! All distant lands, you make them live, You made a heavenly Nile descend for them; He makes waves on the mountains like the sea, To drench their fields and their towns. How excellent are your ways, O Lord of eternity! A Nile from heaven for foreign peoples, And all lands' creatures that walk on legs, For Egypt the Nile who comes from the underworld.

Your rays nurse all fields, When you shine they live, they grow for you; You made the seasons to foster all that you made, winter to cool them, heat that they taste you. You made the far sky to shine therein, To behold all that you made; You alone, shining in your form of living Aten, Risen, radiant, distant, near. You made millions of forms from yourself alone, Towns, villages, fields, the river's course; All eyes observe you upon them, For you are the Aten of daytime on high.

You are in my heart, There is no other who knows you, Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re, Akhenaten, Whom you have taught your ways and your might. Those on earth come from your hand as you made them, When you have dawned they live, When you set they diei You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you. All eyes are on your beauty until you set, All labor ceases when you rest in the west; When you rise you stir everyone for the King, Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth. You rouse them for your son who came from your body, The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re, The Son of Re who lives by Maat, the Lord of crowns, Akhenaten, great in his lifetime; And the great Queen whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands, Nefernefruaten Nefertiti, living and youthful forever.

Excerpts of the hymn-poem to Aten[edit]
From the middle of the text:

How manifold it is, pakker!
They are hidden from the face (of man).
O sole god, like whom there is no other!
Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.
The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,
Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities:
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.
Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people (of Egypt)
According as thou madest them for thyself,
The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
The Aton of the day, great of majesty.[5]
From the last part of the text, translated by Miriam Lichtheim:

You are in my heart,
There is no other who knows you,
Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re [Akhenaten],
Whom you have taught your ways and your might.
earth come from your hand as you made them.
When you have dawned they live.
When you set they die;
You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you.
All eyes are on beauty until you set.
All labor ceases when you rest in the west;
When you rise you stir [everyone] for the King,
Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth.
You rouse them for your son who came from your body.
The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,
Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re,
The Son of Re who lives by Maat. the Lord of crowns,
Akhenatrn, great in his lifetime;
(And) the great Queen whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands,
Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever.[6]
Analysis[edit]
Analyses of the poem are divided between those considering it as a work of literature, and those considering its political and socio-religious intentions.

James Henry Breasted considered Akhenaten to be the first monotheist and scientist in history. In 1899, Flinders Petrie wrote:

If this were a new religion, invented to satisfy our modern scientific conceptions, we could not find a flaw in the correctness of this view of the energy of the solar system. How much Akhenaten understood, we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, the sole Lord of the universe.[7]
Miriam Lichtheim describes the hymn as "a beautiful statement of the doctrine of the One God.".[8]

In 1913 Henry Hall contended that the pharaoh was the “first example of the scientific mind.”[9]

Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat discusses the terminology used to describe these texts, describing them as formal poems or royal eulogies. He views the word 'hymn' as suggesting "outpourings of emotion" while he sees them as "eulogies, formal and rhetorical statements of praise" honoring Aten and the royal couple. He credits James Henry Breasted with the popularisation of them as hymns saying that Breasted (erroneously) saw them as "a gospel of the beauty and beneficence of the natural order, a recognition of the message of nature to the soul of man"(quote from Breasted).[10]

Monsterrat argues that all the versions of the hymns focus on the king and suggests that the real innovation is to redefine the relationship of god and king in a way that benefited Akhenaten, quoting the statement of Egyptologist John Baines that "Amarna religion was a religion of god and king, or even of king first and then god."[11][12]

In his book "Reflections on the Psalms", C.S. Lewis compared the Hymn to the Psalms of the Judaeo-Christian canon, as did Breasted (who broke them up into stanzas to resemble Western poems).[13] Miriam Lichtheim commented about an alleged resemblance with Psalm 104 saying that "The resemblances are, however, more likely to be the result of the generic similarity between Egyptian hymns and biblical psalms. A specific literary interdependence is not probable."[14]

댓글 없음: